The more I read, the more I realize that being an island in preparation is not in the best interest of my family or my neighborhood. I'm looking for some information to put together, make a bunch of copies and start passing them around town. (pop 10,000) My hope is to generate interest and a desire to work together as a community to make sure that as many people as possible are prepared.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what information would attract peoples attention without scaring them? I need info that is clear, consise, easy to understand and not make people feel overwhelmed.

Thanks in advance

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), March 19, 1999

Answers

Pamela,

I'm doing the same thing. Since I'm trying to be fairly brief (but I'm making a report with refs to hand out at speeches/meetings, not a flyer), what I'm mostly doing is quoting excerpts from various agencies, gov't, etc. ranging from the report from the Governor of the State of Texas, to the Senate subcommittee on Y2K draft report, to the Red Cross and FEMA, to some of the (in?)famous quotes by individuals in certain organizations (cia, irs, et al.) and who are experts, to things from other countries like Canada and the UK.

Then I'm mentioning in bullet point things that have happened in meetings, conversation or whatever, such as national guard stuff, canadian and UK stuff, Maine legislator Gerry gets in there too now, so people can see that serious action is being both considered and taken.

I plan to include quotes from major areas (RC, FEMA) on how it is up to the * community* and individuals to prepare for this. Then I'm going to mention how in this country, every year, in more than one place there is a power outtage sometimes for up to two weeks in the dead of winter. And that is a problem but not major enough to be headlines in other places. And yet, the feds want to convince us that there will only be 3 days of problems -- for which there are the various concerns, comments, plans, etc. It doesn't make sense, that three days of problems would cause such planning, but I want the reader to see that, rather than me pointing it out.

Just some ideas. Can't get all that on a flyer of course, but a few good quotes from names people will recognize would help.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), March 19, 1999.

Try Roleigh Martin's for the basics. You can modify it to suit your needs and the specifics of your community. It is always more effective to make it "personal" by identifying yourself with a handwritten note on the corner for people you know... or customize it for your neighborhood (ie.: ..." As you know, the power outages we experienced last winter due to the blizzard caused many problems for our community, such as...")

Good luck! Worthwhile effort.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), March 19, 1999.

Let's try that WITH the link this time):

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin/brochure.html

Try Roleigh Martin's for the basics. You can modify it to suit your needs and the specifics of your community. It is always more effective to make it "personal" by identifying yourself with a handwritten note on the corner for people you know... or customize it for your neighborhood (ie.: ..." As you know, the power outages we experienced last winter due to the blizzard caused many problems for our community, such as...")

Good luck! Worthwhile effort.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), March 19, 1999.

Pamela, I was going to give you the Roleigh Martine URL, but that's been done above.

In my opinion, the Martin handout may be a little too hard-hitting for an initial handout. You might want to consider using the Red Cross handout first as an ice breaker, and then later following up with the Martin information.

Red Cross: at www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/y2k.html

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 19, 1999.

So, it's going to be one of THOSE days....

Roleigh Martin's Y2K letter to neighbors is at THIS link:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin/brochure.htm

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), March 19, 1999.

Here's a low-key article about preparing from ABC News.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/WorldNewsTonight/wnt990302_y2k_story.h tml

-- (helpful@links.com), March 19, 1999.

My friend, Faith-Weaver has a website for a county preparedness program. At her site she has community information that is printable. She is also preparing other neighborhood information. I just hung up the phone with her, and she is going to feed me information to post while she is without internet connection. (hopefully a temporary condition). Old timers at Yourdon's know Faith. She is very active in her county, and is just putting together a Power Point Presentation...

I would recommend checking out her web site:

http://www.ccia.com/~sminarik/prepare2000.htm/5.htm

Preparednes s information from Faith-Weaver

I was very motivated last summer, and met stone walls from the city government. It took the wind out of my sails for a time...it is time now to start mobilizing the neighborhood I've lived in for 14 years...I'll be using Faith's wonderfully organized information.

Got neighborhoods?

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

Pamela Your noble goal is to be commended. I too have been passing a one page flyer in my neighborhood and several people have asked if they might use my flyer and insert an additional web site (see the space in the flyer below) and maybe a P.S. at the end announcing a neighborhood get together. I tried to distill hundreds of hours of research into one page ( it cut cost of reproduction plus people don't like to read lengthy article). Naturally, no two people will write exactly the same piece or using the same quote. I have taught numerous Y2K seminar and I have been urging people to educate their neiborhood ASAP. Imagine if your own house is the only one which have lights (because you have generator)? You have my permission to use the following for distribution. All I ask is that you leave my web site address in there. This site is all Y2K. I have a second site which has Y2K & other topics. I also have a 2 page handout( Just email me if you prefer two pages). For skeptics, my article ( on web site)"22 questions for the Millenium Bug Skeptics" has been effective. Whatever you use, do something soon.

The Year 2000 Computer Impact On Our Society By Raymond Kwong, Y2K seminar speaker March, 1999

Dear neighbor: By now you have probably heard of the Year 2000(Y2K) computer problem and its potential impact on all of us. Please read this urgent message and make preparation ASAP. I have been warning tens of thousands about this ticking financial and social timebomb. It may not be the end of our civilization, but neither will it be a minor event. Sen. Christopher Dodd on the Senate committee that oversees Y2K said, "The question is no longer if there will be disruptions, but rather how serious the disruptions will be." Sen. Bennett just stated that "All sectors of the economy, many of which provide goods & services that are vital to our health & well-being, are at risk". One survey of Y2K experts (russkelly.com)shows an average ranking of at least a 6-7 on a scale of 10 (10 - most serious impact.)

Because of the programmers' lack of foresight, by Jan., 2000, most mainframe computers will think it's 1900. Yes, Y2K is fixable, but there are simply not enough programmers, money, & time to finish the task. Contrary to public statements, the 3 major legs of civilization: utilities, telecommunications, & banking all have problems. Beware of the positive spins by some PR firm. How can the utilitiy industry's trade group claim that there should be only "minimal impact of a nuisance kind" when only 44% of their remediation repair are completed? A survey of computer experts revealed that most of them believe outages, chaos may last 3 months or longer. Then we were told that Social Security is 100% compliant (It isn't fully tested), but the agency that sends out the checks got a F grade!

There has been hundreds of Y2K computer glitches so far, mostly unreported. It will get worse. There are many reasons why major disruptions in late 99 will be highly probable. Most people still got their head in the sand. Others are still in denial. Since most will not prepare until the last 2 months, it may contribute to a big bad panic. By educating people to prepare incrementally , we may in fact be minimizing the chance of one Big PANIC at year- end.

Let me inject a dose of reality into this. I am not an expert, but to my knowledge, there is not one utility, insurance, bank (with 10 million lines of codes) in America which is compliant. Have you thought through the domino-effect in our interdependent world? Many experts agree that there will be regional blackouts, what next? The water supply will become unsafe, the gas stations cannot pump gas. How will stores remain open? How will you get to work? How will the stock market do business? How will goods be delivered? You say,"Back in 1929, the poor people did not loot after the crash & bank failures?" Yes, but do people today hold the same values as people back then? One good Y2K site is http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/falls/2236 or

We must raise more community awareness. No one know for sure how bad it will get, but FEMA's advice on Y2K is"Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best". Afterall, we can eat this mistake.

P.S.

-- Raymond Kwong (kcorner67@hotmail.com), March 19, 1999.

Raymond Agree with your thoughts. I too won't want to be the only one on my block prepared. I don't live in a good neigborhood and can't move because I need to take care of my mother. Since I don't have time to write up anything, I will gladly use your flyer to distribute in my area. I will probably add a p.s. at the end inviting them to a meeting at the local library. Room use is free.

-- Nancy (nandag@earthlink.net), March 19, 1999.

We did this a lot last summer here, in discussions about neighborhood preparation and awareness. Those new here might want to spend a fruitful hour scouting out the archived threads. There are many good web sites about community building and preparation. Let me see if I can sort out one good bookmark. Here's a few:

Co-Intelli gence

http://www.co-intelligence.org/y2k_breakthrough.html

Dig a bit on that one...there is printable information there.

Noah's Ark

http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_Files/Hollys.html

Again, dig,..I haven't been there in a while but there is good information to be had.

The Cassandra Project

http://millennia-bcs.com/CASFRAME.HTM

Always a good source of printable preparedness information.

To paraphrase an old quote..."You are as safe as the preparedness of your neighbors."

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

Pamela,

Might try looking at the Cassandra web-sites Neighborhood Organizing section ...

http:// cassandraproject.org/neighbors.html

And at the Utne Reader web-site, their are some neighborhood links ...

http://www.utne.com/y2k/ index.html

There were some good suggestions for handouts, etc. on this thread ...

What are the most compelling reports?

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000YKR

And at ...

Y2K Cover Letter -- Need Additional Comments

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000YIN

Good luck!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 19, 1999.

Raymond

I like your article. It is not too technical and gives a good summary.

There is some facts to shock them yet not too much to turn them off. I plan to photocopy your flyer and put my email address at the end. I have been procrastinting in alerting my neighbors. Some may think I'm a nut if I put my full name to an article. My 16 year old son can help me pass them out door to door. Hopefully, there will be some response. I will let you know raymond my results.

And Nancy, thanks for that idea of meeting in the library. I got one 3 blocks away. I may not want neighbors to come to my home and find out what I store. As I screen them out, I may invite some over to show them how to prepare.

-- Bob (bobhon8@juno.com), March 19, 1999.

WORD TO THE WISE

A new term was coined on Detroit radio in recent weeks regarding people that have been told and really don't and won't prepare. ANCHORS as in mooring themselves to you and your goodies. My girlfriend and I have told many people about Y2K, some repeated for the past two years. Many have/will not prepare, but one thing we heard repeatedly is "we'll just come to your house" LOL. THEY WILL. If things get bad, people will do whatever to look out for number one. If it means making your their best buddy, so be it. I applaud your noble efforts though, but thisis where national/international leadership should fill the void to establish that prepardedness is cool, not wacko. I believe it's just about too late to hope for this anymore. Comments?

-- Paul Christy (paulchri@msn.com), March 19, 1999.

Paul, you need to make clear to those "we'll just come to your house folks", that they are not welcome unless they are bringing their weight in non-perishable foodstuffs. It's a hardline, but one you need to take. Tell them now.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

Additionally,...you may not be a codependent, taking care of others at the expense of yourself and your family. You need to tell them that (giggling) "your therapist will not allow you to be co-dependent"...."you must bring your own food".

Codependency is not an option unless it applies to dependent children and elderly and infirm adults.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

Donna,

We've told them as much to be sure, but really we'll be very lucky to have 20% prepare. Most people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them. It's the other guy. Like, companies saying we're OK, but we're worried about our suppliers. It's just the way people are.

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), March 19, 1999.

PJC, I live in the active "fault line area" of S. California. Here it is common knowledge that Y2K or not,..most people do not prepare for an earthquake. Mind you we have been warned and are waiting for "the big one" in S. Cal. for some time. The populace doesn't even do the minimun preparations.....3 days water and food,...batteries...flashlight, am radio....The mindset is not inspiring. I was raised as a kid of farmer's kids...we watched the skies for tornados...the plastic postmodern world is not mine. Oh...self-disclosure...I'm almost 47 years old...a musician...trying to live close to the natural slant of things.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

All the nobility, good intentions, great reasons, earthquakes won't get people to prepare, so get out of Dodge I say to the people. Not everyone canPJC I know, but for those that can, you can always come back if by some small chance that Y2K is a "bump-in-the-road" By the way, are you writing any Y2K songs for the ages.

-- (paulchri@msn.com), March 19, 1999.

thank you all for the excellent links and information. My initial thought was to use the Red Cross information because it is basic and doesn't appear to be alarmist, just wise.

The idea of using the library is great. I feel the same way about telling anyone and everyone that we are stocking up on toilet paper, gasoline, canned goods, water, etc. Your right; when people start to get hungry, they will be looking out for number one. But with our children, we treat this just as we treat all other family business; we do not discuss details.

I guess what I want to stress most importantly to people is that this is not a whacko idea. Storing food and water for a potential crisis is PRUDENT, not paranoid.

I also have a secondary reason for wanting the neighborhood all on the same page. I don't want FEMA or anyone else coming in and rounding up everyone because there is no clean water, etc. If our little town can pull together and pool our resources, then we can address the needs of the elderly and the infirm. My plan is to put away as much extra stuff as possible so I have enuff for my family and also to be able to contribute to those that *couldn't* store extra necessitites.

But, again...thanks to all of you for your advice and links and such. I'd like to put my little flyer together this weekend and start making copies. I'll post it next week for those of you who want to take a peek.

Best of luck to you all in your preparations and don't grow weary in telling people about Y2K. Remember, all you have to do is plant a seed.

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), March 19, 1999.

Are some of you living in a dream world? Think carefully about the consequences of pamphleteering your neighborhood... as GN sez, "They won't prepare, but they'll remember." Do you folks really think that merely telling them that they have to bring their own food is going to have the least effect? If you do, all I can say is that for GI's, you *really* DGI at all.

OK, let's say that out of the goodness of your heart, warm with altruistic motives, you feel compelled to sound the alarm on Y2K to all your neighbors. Most of them look at you like you're crazy, while a few listen, at least outwardly. You go back home, feeling all warm and fuzzy that at least you warned them. What you have actually done, however, is give yourself a death sentence if you choose to stay where you are come Y2K. Trust me, at the most, perhaps 10% of those you warned will prepare, while the rest will not. Why in hell should they? YOU just told them that you were stocking up...great! This way, they won't have to trudge down to the corner grocery store to do their looting when their food is gone, they'll just come to - that's right - your house! Exciting, isn't it? Now you get to share, whether you want to or not!

Community my ass. Even in the best of times, my neighbors are an unfriendly lot, and this is an upper-middle class neighborhood in a smallish (8000 pop.) town. Back this past summer, when I was still willing to spread the word on Y2K, I (anonymously) mailed (from another town) a flyer to all my neighbors for 3 blocks around, detailing the problem and steps they should take to prepare. It cost me a few bucks, but it was the talk of the place for the next week... but not "good" talk. My wife and I never let on, but all we overheard was derision, scorn, and worst of all, words to the effect that "...if we can find out who wrote that letter - we'll all go to his house if it gets too bad."

Dumb, dumber and just plain stupid if you let ANYONE know about your preparations unless you have already planned on having them stay at your place come January.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 19, 1999.

I don't care where you live...there is no way to get out of Dodge. You have to make Dodge livable. Dodge is everywhere...In 1850 there was still a way to get out of Dodge...not now. Get over it. Make a stand. Improve your neighborhood relations....it will make a difference. Don't be afraid.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 19, 1999.

Donna,

Please get out of the fog of the unknown. Refer to Spanks' previous post. It dovetails with mine. The masses are incurably ignorant..... Plato. The people posting here are not the masses.

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), March 19, 1999.

Hi there. I'm a graphic artist, as I've mentioned on a couple of threads (in between sarcastic remarks and profanity). I'd be happy to do some free design work for a good cause. FYI, printing places hate Microsoft Word. It is one of the most user UN-friendly pieces of Bill droppings that have yet surfaced. I cringe at the .doc extentsion. Evil, pure evil...

I can email you a zipped Quark file with postscript fonts. Ready to go. Your print shop should love you for it. My email is obviously fake, so mention interest, if any and I'll contact you.

D

-- d (d@usedtobedgi.old), March 20, 1999.

Damn it Sparks, you had to go and say that, didn't you. Shelia told me the same thing, and she's a sane programmer-mama type I trust. She actually talked me out of the Crusade To Save My Community last year, figuring it was like painting a target on my forehead, but now I'm getting that urge and planning again.

Thing is, you know, telling people to leave town is just not practical unless you're offering them a place out of town too. Leave one's job, home, feed the kids with what in the meantime? -- buy food and items to prepare with what funds in the meantime? -- find jobs in the middle of nowhere how? -- etc. It sounds great on paper. It works great for people who have savings and might actually make it work. But paycheck-to-paycheck folks, it just ain't possible, let alone practical, for.

I left Dodge as best I can -- I live nearly an hour outside the city in a town of 1100 people, at least some of which are farmers/ ranchers. I am more "out of dodge" than probably 90% of the people in this country, but I've still got neighbors -- in particular, I still have about 700 neighbors in the main part of town where I live, and 100 of those live in welfare apts. right across the street from me and they all know me and come to me with problems already, so you know... er... I'm kinda doomed. (If I find another place to rent real soon I will but so far, I don't see anything, and it's the tail end of any practical planting season for the garden and this big yard....)

In the end, what it comes down to is, I cannot run until me and my two year old daughter are living alone in some cave or something. I'm in the smallest town I've ever been in, in my life. There aren't enough caves to go around and I wouldn't know how to find them if there were.

(Total abstract: reminds me of something I wrote when I was 15 for an english class when the teacher had assigned "overpopulation" as the topic of our essay. I wrote, "Used to be that everybody lived in the middle of nowhere. But as time went on, everybody wanted to live somewhere. So they moved to the somewheres, and the somewheres got bigger and bigger until they ran into each other, and now you can't find a nowhere nowhere." Got an A, despite that it wasn't an essay. :-)) It kind of applies here I guess.

I don't disagree with you, really. I just don't feel like leaving my area is even an option for me. So I feel like the only option left is to try and get as many people as possible educated about it, because when the time comes, my food is gone anyway, even if someone has to shoot me for it -- and here in TX country, everybody even kids have guns. But if the churches and farmers are even mildly prepared, maybe it'll work -- at least --

Every person I can talk into at least mild preparation is one less person who is going to try and shoot me for my food later. It's defense. As offense. Ahead of time. (Sort of?)

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), March 20, 1999.

PJ, take a look a those welfare apartments and their inhabitants next door, then take a look at your daughter.

Your maternal instincts should be fairly screaming right about now.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 20, 1999.

sparks,

as the mother of four children ages 4 - 12, believe you me, my maternal instincts are on overload right about now. It's a miracle I sleep nights. But it does motivate me to do *what* I can and *when* I can.

But after reading all the posts, I'm gonna have to say I agree with the idea that I cannot let everyone and their mother know we are stocking up. But, somehow, either through a local church or community center, we are obligated to help out as best we can. So I think the plan is to offer assistance and information but in a more anonymous way. re: not inviting the community over for a coffee klatch!

Luckily, my beloved is a former police officer and will be carrying a reserve badge pretty quick here. Trust me, no one is taking my oatmeal and no government agency is taking my kids. We have heard that there is a possiblity that those who have skills the government needs **could** be commandeered and their families not be allowed to go with them. Ain't happenin here. (I know this sounds a bit paranoid, but again, better to prepare for the worst and hope and pray for the best)!!

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), March 20, 1999.

Pamela:

the idea is to do the leafleting at night, and to talk to people about this strange little leaflet you got. NOTHING about YOUR preps........

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (reinzoo@en.com), March 20, 1999.

Okay.... I think I'm back to square -- um, three -- I have changed my mind about this subject so many times I'm not sure what to think anymore at all.

I mean geez, there has got to be some solution. It seems like in my life thus far, every time I thought there was no good solution to something, it turned out I had tunnel vision, and when I finally got around to seeing a larger picture I saw one.

Before I considered any such idea as the induction of useful civilians, I had the idea I'd get a general-level HAM license, radio and backup, so I could be a communications hub for my little town, and see what was going on in the rest of the country. I went and talked to a group about the topic and for some reason, promptly had three days of consecutive nightmares, the same general recurring dream, that all these guys in uniforms came to my house, reading my name (badly) off some sheet, and made me come with them to do HF band morse or some stupid thing. In the dreams I kept crying about leaving my baby and they all just stood around my living room and looked at me uncomfortably and impatiently. My husband was getting pretty bummed out that I slept so badly, apparently over that one simple, non-Y2K ham meeting. The dreams passed. I must be a closet paranoid or something, sheesh.

How can I move. How can I stay. How can I not prepare my neighbors. How can I prepare my neighbors. All seem like the right and wrong thing to do, or just impossible.

And what about the scenario I'm in, where my neighbors already know I'm a "computer person" and probably would expect me to be prepared, and/or already come to me when they need something, so would come to me at Y2K anyway. I don't mean john doe next door. I mean that welfare apt. complex isn't your average one; there's almost nothing but elderly, infants, and single mothers with small children there. The kids play in my house all summer and it would be pretty hard to hide everything I'm planning to acquire. And pretty hard for me to say no to babies and small children and old people.

In short, "not educating" my community is not going to make me invisible. I am already highly visible. Not educating my community will only ensure I am the ONLY person with food, and that it promptly gets taken from me. While I keep hoping that if I could get the local churches motivated as a group, there might be some hope.

Maybe there's no hope. Or not enough to save me. Maybe I'm dreaming. Maybe I should do what I'm doing, can/freeze/use the garden this fall, plant for winter for whoever ends up there, and then head up to dad's house in OK where nobody knows me and hopefully nobody would know we had supplies. Course his town has 14000 people instead of 1100 and he has basically no yard, a chain link fence, and a little tract home. (While I begged him to aim for land, as there's tons you can do on it to make money and I was planning for Y2K and hoping for a doorway out, Dad gave up a cheaper, gorgeous, larger home with 11 acres, and in explanation said to me, "How would I mow it?" You know, I just wanted to cry. Oh, brother! I hope it isn't genetic....) I don't think his place would be any improvement frankly. And I've nowhere else to go.

So far the consensus seems to be, make flyers, make them anonymous, send them from the next town or put them up at night, and then bring it up in conversation to everyone you meet based on "did you get this flyer-thing? I found it on my windshield this morning" or some such thing.

It's an idea.

On the other hand if I can just siphon enough Gary North Fundie off his otherwise wonderful web site, maybe I could motivate all the preachers in town by convincing them it's the end of the world.

Naw, it'd never work. Besides, if the town reverted to that extreme I'd probably be burned at the stake or something. Sigh!

An answer, a larger vision, that's what I need...

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), March 20, 1999.

From PJ in AZ to PJ in TX-

Hear your pain and anquish all the way over here to hot AZ. First "got it" a year ago June, and immediately set on a program to *enlighten* the neighbors. Didn't take me long to realize that not every person sees the problem or wants to see it. Some of the neighbors are more computer literate than myself. The latter in particular laughed and scoffed, and with two daughters 8 and 10 in the home! Across the street lives a police officer, a SWAT team sarge. Through the years of associating with him and his wife, I actually fear them the most of all our neighbors. Sorry to say I let a few know of some of my preliminary plans and preparations (I have learned better since). Very concerned that my action to divulge some of my early preparations might backfire later this year. We are trying to relocate, so might be able to escape our error in trying to help our neighbors prepare. Who really knows, perhaps some of the neighbors I tried to help might now be secretly preparing. I hope and pray this is so.

PJ- presently living in a concrete/asphalt desert city, 10-20 minute walk to an ABCO, Walgren's, Target, Albertson's, Circle K, et.al.

-- PJ (Just@here.com), March 20, 1999.

Diane Squire offered this link:

"And at the Utne Reader web-site, their are some neighborhood links ...

Utne Reader web-site

They sell a pamphlet titled "Y2K Citizen's Action Guide" that is 120 pages long. It is all inclusive and an excellent publication. If you buy in volume they are $1.00. This is a great way to passs the word along.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), March 20, 1999.

Paula,

I put together a thread this morning of some Y2K news articles that you might find helpful. They're at this link...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000dCr

Hope this helps. I'd anonymously mail any information you want your neighbors to see instead of going door-to-door.

As for the thread I linked to, just ignore Mutha Nachu's "anonymous" troll postings he/she added to it...

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 20, 1999.

Here is a better link for the UTNE

Y2K Citizen's Action Guide

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), March 20, 1999.

PJ in TX - stop it, just stop it. You are under NO, repeat NO obligation to save your neighbors. You ARE under obligation to save yourself and your family. I remember you asking about a ham license back on the other thread... if I knew then what I knew now, I'd have told you to forget about it. So you have plans of being your community's communications hub, do you? Do you realize how many folks are going to be in and out of your house - HUNGRY people? who'll notice little things like cooking smells, and the fact that you aren't getting thin like they are? And as far as your SO's little badge, it'll be worse than useless against the kind of company you'll be facing.

Sounds to me like you want to save everyone around you - lose that idea and you might live. Although you're apparently a GI, I believe that you're also well on your way to being a WMI - Won't Make It.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 20, 1999.