This letter is a response to a recent posting by a Y2K organizer that we recommend 3-7 days food storage to the public.

**********************************************************************

I received your recommendation for 3-7 days of food storage on the Sonoma County Y2K mailing list.

FEMA and the Red Cross both are using this time period, so any news service that wants a credible source and reasonable recommendations can refer to them.

Is 3-7 days what you would recommend for your family and friends?

Right now there is a lot of crisis fatigue around. We all would like to hear good news on Y2K, and thats what a lot of stuff in the media appears to be. There is also a lot of lying, a lot of manuevering to avoid legal liability, and a lot of cluelessness on the part of business and government leaders who do not get the bad news from subordinates who do not want to look bad.

You have often stated that your aim is to build new and better community systems out of the changes Y2K will bring. However, it is not possible to build a foundation on incorrect information or positive desires alone. We can know now that we are going to have real and severe problems by doing a little research. People need to have tools to get through times of crisis, and other tools to rebuild.

Food, water and medical supplies are extremely useful tools for going through rough times. Skills and vision are just as important. Would you recommend just 3-7 days worth of skills or vision?

One of the most fascinating aspects of this whole phenomenon is that there are some people who just get it, while so many dont. At some mysterious point people pass through a threshhold of understanding that life is never going to be the same, a kind of initiation into a different consciousness. We all wish we could figure out what helps people get it. Unfortunately, there are huge amounts of denial everywhere. Im glad that you care about all those who dont get it and may well be hurt, and respect your efforts to reach them. However, my hunch is that most will not get it just a little. The most effective methods that I have found are the patient, continual input of info and example, leavened with good humor, playfulness, and good sense. It can be frustratingly slow.

I know that you are trying to increase the general level of preparedness, like raising the water table. Unfortunately, Y2K awareness needs the depth and preparation of a well. Your recommendations will probably make some people angry or upset because once a person has the experience of seeing how radically and interconnectedly wrong Y2K is likely to make things go, 3-7 days of food may seem like a bad joke.

If those who are called to lead in this event try to make it acceptable to the masses, the message will get too watered down to powerfully act in peoples consciousness.

Please reconsider your recommendations.

Thank you,

Donna Jones

-- Donna Jones (seraphima@aol.com), March 09, 1999

Answers

Hello all -

Hello, Ms. Jones -

<< This letter is a response to a recent posting by a Y2K organizer that we recommend 3-7 days food storage to the public. >>

This letter is a response to that response

<< Is 3-7 days what you would recommend for your family and friends? >>

If you asked me, I'd probably tell you that this is completely inadequate and that three-to-seven days time frame denotes how much people still don't understand what this is all about.

<< Right now there is a lot of crisis fatigue around. We all would like to hear good news on Y2K, and thats what a lot of stuff in the media appears to be. There is also a lot of lying, a lot of manuevering to avoid legal liability, and a lot of cluelessness on the part of business and government leaders who do not get the bad news from subordinates who do not want to look bad. >>

General ignorance of the issue is rampant not only here, in this country - but abroad as well. But that is a different story. Or - is it? The fact is that, in my opinion, present 'powers that be' either have something unprecedented up their sleeve that we don't yet know about - or simply too scared to admit that they don't have a solution and we might be living the last year of western civilization as such. I heard on the news form none other than Dr. Yardeni that there is talk in the Government about mobilization in May. I also heard on TV about complete disollution of the world's financial trading systems - the way we know them - expressed by an expert in informatics. Consideration that just these two facts bring to the table - transcend the basic food necessities and require immediate attention from ALL government levels - and from ALL affected governments. This is not happening yet and we are pretending that what we are doing somehow attones for the multitude of fears we headed into with every moment of inaction gone.

<< You have often stated that your aim is to build new and better community systems out of the changes Y2K will bring. However, it is not possible to build a foundation on incorrect information or positive desires alone. We can know now that we are going to have real and severe problems by doing a little research. People need to have tools to get through times of crisis, and other tools to rebuild.

Food, water and medical supplies are extremely useful tools for going through rough times. Skills and vision are just as important. Would you recommend just 3-7 days worth of skills or vision? >>

There's the block. What politicians and business leaders don't seem to understand yet - is that their time is either over completely - or is just a beginning on the first second of Year 2000. Based on what they do today to prepare their consituencies to this ordeal. They quote from all sorts of important books and indulge themselves in puny squabbles over nothing ( for nothing it is or will turn to nothing as soon as they lose the system ) - but they do everything possible to avoid talking about the issue openly and honestly.

I have recently had a discussion with an official from Bonneville Power Association - the main question - that about whether nuclear power stations are shutting down or not - have not been answered. He did everything he could to avoid the direct statement. Which tells me that my suspiciouns are valid. If that is so - then we could have less than four months with stable power. Not even that, since they have already started testing the system and Peach Bottom accident is just a pre-cursor of what is in storre for them.

<< One of the most fascinating aspects of this whole phenomenon is that there are some people who just get it, while so many dont. At some mysterious point people pass through a threshhold of understanding that life is never going to be the same, a kind of initiation into a different consciousness. We all wish we could figure out what helps people get it. Unfortunately, there are huge amounts of denial everywhere. Im glad that you care about all those who dont get it and may well be hurt, and respect your efforts to reach them. However, my hunch is that most will not get it just a little. The most effective methods that I have found are the patient, continual input of info and example, leavened with good humor, playfulness, and good sense. It can be frustratingly slow. >>

I couldn't agree with you more. However, - at a certain point, and especially considering that in my city, for example, we don't even have a Y2K task force - nor do we have an alternative source for water or power - humor gives in to a very legitimate concern, then - to fear, then - to panic. And the local government is sitting on its hands, again, - avoiding an open-mike dialogue. They 'don't get it', I suppose - or, of they do and don't do or say anything - they are the most spineless and gutsless group of public servants I have encountered in my total life experience. In which case - I won't be sorry to see them face public wrath.

<< I know that you are trying to increase the general level of preparedness, like raising the water table. Unfortunately, Y2K awareness needs the depth and preparation of a well. Your recommendations will probably make some people angry or upset because once a person has the experience of seeing how radically and interconnectedly wrong Y2K is likely to make things go, 3-7 days of food may seem like a bad joke. >>

It most certainly does already - to me at least, since in my view, - view which is not apparently shared by too many people - Y2K is a complete and forced restructuring of not only the comonly accepted now norms of community living - but the very ways by wich we see civilization as such. Whether we think in these terms or not - the change is going to be so drastic and so immediate, that we will have no choice - but to dig deep inside of ourselves - and find those shreds of courage and dignity we still have left in ourselves - and then try to go through this mess as human beings.

I don't see much discussion on these forums about how to deal with prisons, for example. You know - those prison control systems are likely to fail. I've seen one at St. Quentin - there's your prime candidate. San Mateo prison, Folsom, SF Facility - they doors can just fling open - spilling out all the anger and suffering on the streets of surrounding communities. What do communities do about it? Storing food and water. I hope that is all we'll need if, God forbid, this thing happens.

Throw on top of that a possible failure of all emergency systems - and you get the picture. For now - we still have time to put our heads together - and try to come up with a viable solution on the community levels - but for that the action needs to be urgent and it must be brought to bear upon local politicians in a very direct and uncompromising way. Four months, maybe less - maybe more - but right now we are talking _this year_ and, while Clinton still cracks jokes about this thing - somehow I am certain that he will be nowhere near any 'correction' facility on the Eve of Y2K, well protected by our taxes.

<< If those who are called to lead in this event try to make it acceptable to the masses, the message will get too watered down to powerfully act in peoples consciousness. >>

I would like to meet with anyone who sees this situation being as serious as I see it. I have some suggestions and action items. Need a reality check.

<< Please reconsider your recommendations. >>

I second that.

<< Thank you, Donna Jones >>

Thank you for your letter. I, quite honestly, gave up on trying to find someone who _understands_ Y2K.

Respectfully, Gene Albinder.

-- Gene Albinder (genesa@best.com), March 09, 1999.

Hi,

First off, I'd like to call everyone's attention to the the Coalition 2000 web site at http://www.coalition2000.org. This site was set up by Steve Davis who's done a lot of tremendous y2k work, both as a technician working with Montgomery County, Maryland (near Washington, D.C. - a model y2k project), and as a rock-solid y2k prep activist.

Secondly, on that page you'll see a link that says, "Review Community Preparedness Guidelines. We have drafted a document intended to build consensus on what is prudent and appropriate community preparedness guidance - tell us what you think and make your vote here." (There's a little voting buttons form there to register your level of agreement.)

I think those Preparedness Guidlines are some of the best I've seen so far. Steve's done an excellent job (again). They're geared for local, municipal government, and are a jam-packed overview any local government would find useful, at least.

And a word or two about the 3 to 7 day thing as it relates to that guide, and Coalition 2000's position (as I understand it). There was an extensive discussion about it on their mailing list (that you may want to subscribe to - I'm sure the directions are at the site). The key word was/is "concensus." Most people on the list shared the views expressed thus far in this thread: that 3 days to 2 weeks just isn't enough. But it was eventually agreed that at this point - given the massive lack of organization/concensus of any kind - gaining the agreement of everyone - Red Cross, FEMA, John Koskinen's office, municipal governments, y2k groups, and individuals, everywhere - on the simple fact that concerted preparations are needed, was the most important issue. The idea being that while 3 days to a couple of weeks may not seem like much, a solid, broad concensus would at least put all municipale officials, emergency services people, organizations, individuals, "on official notice" that plans needed to be made, and put into action ASAP. "No more MAYBE."

As you'll notice at the site, Coalition 2000 has taken the position that those timeframes may have to be modified according to each communities perception of their needs, and that they will be reviewed at least a couple of times in the near future to see if they still seem realistic, or if they need to be upped. (And by the way, what's being recommended as a base there is communitywide prep for 3 days of infrastructure disruptions, and two weeks worth of supplies).

The problem with recommending longer term prep (when it comes to local governments charged with tending to the basic needs of "the masses"), is heavy (and understandable), "resistence": Personal, individual preparation is one thing; making plans to provide basic alternative services for thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, is a real logistical nightmare - not to mention a budgetary bag of snakes. In order to build that concensus, to get everyone to agree and "sign off" on something, the 3 to 7 or 10 day timeframe was/is necessary.

And while that may sound puny to anyone who takes this mess seriously, one of the things that occured to me is that an "officially galvanized" community preparing for 3 days to a couple of weeks of y2k trauma would find itself going through a relatively monumental process that could "easily lead people" to the old, "Well... As long as we're doing all this, how much more work would it be to see to it that we were at least half-ready for an extra couple of weeks?" The "while we're at it" thing.

It also occured to me that in those parts of the country where frigid temperatures are a January reality, 3 days without the infrastructure is no walk in the park. Houses (and people) cool off fast when the furnaces are off and it's below freezing. City/county officials, emergency services people, would have to do some very serious planning, even for just a 72 hour stretch.

But again: The main point (in the Coalition 2000 discussion, anyway), seemed to be that the "concensus factor" could prove to be a highly valuable, momentous thing in itself.

Steve also sent out the following today. You may be interested in catching this one:

"The Washington National Cathedral will host a free briefing, 'Meeting our Y2K Challenges Together,' on March 11. The event begins a 9 AM (ECT) and will begin with a Q&A session with John Koskinen, chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. At 10:15 Margaret Wheatley, organizational consultant, will be featured. I will be representing Coalition 2000 on a panel following Meg that will discuss "What Might We Face?". The morning session will be webcast live from http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/events/y2k.html, this webpage also offers information on the program. In order to participate, you must have the RealAudio player, available by free download."

-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), March 10, 1999.