Randy Weaver. Bo Gritz. Joe Farah. Exhibitors include the Militia of Montana. Of course, there are other exhibitors and speakers (James Stevens of "Making the Best of Basics," Susan Robinson of "Whatcha Gonna Do If the Grid Goes Down," etc.), but gee, what do you suppose the local press will focus on? This is not helpful.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), February 17, 1999

Answers

Just my two cents, living 60 miles N of Sac and exposed to the "news" from there - probably not a great difference in coverage we have been getting, it will just be with a local slant.

When one Get's It, the messenger is not the message. There is no such thing as bad publicity. To "get it", one only needs minimal input. Curiosity, intelligence, and a non-atrophied sense of survival will do the rest.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), February 17, 1999.

Pam: Are you speaking of the militia being the "bad news bears." I'm depending and looking forward to the militia being in my neck of the woods WTSHTF. They will be here assisting the local law enforcement and taking care of the low lifes that want to take advantage of the situation. Mitchell: Do you live near Yuba City or Marysville? We live north of Sacto too.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 17, 1999.

Oroville foothills

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), February 17, 1999.

Mitchell: Kelly Ridge, Bangor, Cherokee, Yankee Hill?

-- bardou (bardou@baloeny.com), February 17, 1999.

Mitchell: Forgot one, Berry Creek?

-- bardou (bardou@balony.com), February 17, 1999.

Hi, Bardou --

My point is that the average Sacramento family is not going to think that y2k is relevant to their lives if the people here to tell them about it are Randy Weaver and Bo Gritz. There have been a lot of discussions on this forum about how unfortunate it is that the media tends to stereotype the people who are concerned about y2k as being either anti-government militia types or fundamentalist Christians preparing for Armageddon. It looks to me as though the Sacramento expo will merely reinforce this stereotype and make most people think it's nothing they have to pay attention to.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), February 17, 1999.

er, Pam, considering that conservative Christians tend to be some of the first folks to GI (and no, not all in apocalyptic terms, either), outside of segregating us from the general population, you're going to have a hard time putting together a y2k expo that *doesn't* include folks from the Christian end of the survivalist movement, the patriot movement, the right to life movement, and every other such movement that intersects with some element(s) of conservative Christian beliefs.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 17, 1999.

Arlin, I don't believe I suggested any such thing. I just think that by having as the only generally recognized speakers on the program people who are considered by a large segment of the population to be pretty scary militia types who operate on the fringes of society creates an unnecessary distraction and raises an arguably insurmountable barrier to the understanding and acceptance of the y2k problem by John Q. Public. It may be a moot point anyhow -- this expo has received zero publicity. I just happened to find out about it in a new age newspaper that's distributed for free around town. They didn't mention Randy Weaver or Bo Gritz in the article, of course, and my guess is that they'll be mortified when they find out who's on the program. The ad that was run in that publication played up the alternative energy, homeopathic remedies, and organic gardening aspects of y2k preparation. No mention of weaponry. I guess it could be pretty interesting to see what happens when the new age meets the militia.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), February 18, 1999.

Wife was talking to the folks who were here in Cleveburgh this past week. it was interesting. this year was the third show they did in Columbus, and the media had to go back to the first one to talk about anything, as that's how far back they had to go to get negative stuff.

BTW the coverage here was OK, and fairly balanced.

Chuck, STILL going through the catalogs and rewriting order lists after a WEEK!!!

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 18, 1999.