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Gotta Say It

I've been dreading this, in fact avoiding it, like having a wisdom tooth pulled. In nine years of writing this column for various publications, I have never once struggled to get six hundred words corraled until I sat down to write this one. I'm sure, though I always attempt to stay focused on minutia and mostly out of the hot seat of controversy, that my reticence is largely due to the nature of what I need to write. In the glaring absence of reasonable, intelligent questioning from the mainstream media on this issue a warning bell is ringing for me, so I feel that I would be less than responsible not to warn you as well.
        

Y2k. There, I said it. Whew. I feel better now. Okay, now that I've opened the door, I have a few rhetorical questions. Why is this issue so controversial in the first place? Why does it disturb people to think someone else might be storing supplies against an unknown disaster when supplies are more than plentiful right now? For one thing, where is it written that we need a show of hands to make simple decisions about taking charge of our own futures? Last time I looked this is still America, land of the free, isn't it? Why should we blindly accept ambiguous compliance reports from government agencies that have historically hidden things from us because we are deemed to be too incompetent to handle the truth? Lastly, why do people continue to examine a global problem with myopic local vision?

I've heard arguments that range from, "the government has to fix it", and "my company is compliant - so everyone will be" to "I don't even have a computer" and "Americans are too intelligent to let this happen". Uh huh, and pigs can fly can't they? I have also heard the argument that God will take care of us and preparing is a show of lack of faith. Well, a quick scan of the Bible reveals numerous catastrophic events preceded by God warning His people to be prepared. It takes a certain show of faith to heed God's warnings, does it not? Most especially when others don't wish to hear the warnings and make fun of those who do. Noah comes to mind and Joseph who stored wheat for the eventual famine.
        

Okay, let's look at this another way. Let's say no one is lying or manipulating deadline reports. Let's say everything that is run by computers and is important in American life as we know it will work just fine come January 2000. Great, I sure hope so. What about this, then, do you or someone you know work for or own a company that uses imported materials, goods or parts? If these goods became completely unavailable by mid-year 2000, could you stay in business? If thousands of American companies were to stop operations and employees were let go, can you spell recession? How about depression? Do you think it can't happen again? Do you know how dependent our economy is on credit? If people can't work, and can't pay their bills, they can't have anymore credit. What happens to the people who work for banks and credit card companies who would lose enormous amounts of money? I hate the term "domino effect" but it does create the right visual. One thing brings down another. Do you know someone who lived through the Great Depression and WWII? Have you ever heard of them talk about rationing stamps and shortages? Do you know that the compliancy projections for Europe and Asia are not nearly as optimistic as here in the US? And all of this doesn't even consider war. Do you really think that conflict on our soil can't ever happen, either?

Do you suppose that the party-loving, carefree, Charleston dancing flappers of the late twenties would have laughed hysterically had they been warned of impending economic disaster? Were they not standing on the crest of the Plateau of Permanent Prosperity? We are more fortunate than they were, of course, we have the reality of the history to learn from and a plethora of information available - no thanks to the mainstream media - to make educated guesses. Those hapless Americans were more or less blindsided. At the same time, we are less fortunate than they were, because they were not already completely, hopelessly, dependent on automated, high tech, forgotten-how-to-do-it-manually life styles. They still knew how to do things by hand and it wasn't a large leap for the Americans of the thirties to have to learn to do without. When we refer to doing without, nowadays, that means we have to get up and change the channel because the battery is dead on the TV remote and we're not up for going to the 24-hour super store to buy one.

You've probably heard the argument, "you buy insurance, don't you?" so I won't taunt you with that one. But, here's an unpleasant image, when was the last time you couldn't put a meal on the table for your family? Which is better then, prepare and nothing happens - or don't prepare and something does happen? One last question - if you had a choice between eating your own can goods in your own home or watching your family eat runny stew in a government run shelter - which would you pick? Why not ask the citizens of Ontario and Michigan who suffered the ice storms and weeks of power loss last winter, what it is like to crowd into inadequate shelters. Of course, you can look at it like this: those who made prudent preparations, while there was abundance, will be contributing to ease the problem by getting out of the way to make room in the shelters for those who didn't. Have I made you uncomfortable? Are you ready to send me a flaming email? Good - examining the possibilities have made you start thinking for yourself. I'm proud.