While we celebrate on this last 4th of july of this century ,we must reflect on the enormous cost that has been paid in blood to provide us with the freedoms civilization now has today and enjoys, that provides us with the high standard of living we now take for granted. We have an obligation to our children and there future to call our leaders on the carpet now to find out the real facts. Face them down eye to eye and ask them the tough questions on live T.V about y2k. No spin doctors just facts. Have a panel of experts prepare a probing series of questions keep in secret until the day of the televised Town hall meeting. With such a serious life an death issue such as y2k, we need to hold our elected officials up to the glare of the public eye. If we are to ever trust them with our family's safety we need hard answers about the state of y2k readiness in this country.

If there is a philantropist that cares about our nation's future and is willing to provide the source of full funding to make a national Televised town hall meeting on y2k happen let me know on this forum.I do not accept e-mail to prevent spaming so If you are serious about making this happen I will provide a way for you to contact me off forum. I will be watching the post to see if you respond to this thread.

If ed yourdon,gary north, cory hamaski,michael hyatt, are reading this and would you be willing to either sit on the panel that asks the critical y2k questions or have other experts in mind let me know. If by some large miracle we are able to make this happen who would you want to question. The president, John koskinen, Stephen horn, Bennett, dodd,the head of the nrc,Epa, or Fema. Some or all the above. I know this is bold thinking but someone should have already done this already. The press is not doing their job. They need to ask the tough questions. Like what is the plan to ensure we have continiuty of community if y2k takes down our critical infrastructures,what is the plan to keep the peace,the plan to keep people fed etc. The Important stuff. In a free republic were democracy is held as our standard that Public accountability needs to be available. As I see it if a forum was created in which these imporant questions can be asked without media censorship live on tv in regards to what is pertiant to y2k. We will understand what we are facing in terms of how much to prepare. Looking foward to your replies. y2k aware mike.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), July 04, 1999

Answers

I'm with you. A fund to buy several full page ads in the major newspapers may be a challenge congress can't ignore. I'm also open to suggestions. I'll be watching here.

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), July 04, 1999.

Two thumbs up y2k aware Mike! I'll monitor this thread, I have no productive input at this time.

-- GBA! (midwestmike_@hotmail.com), July 04, 1999.

I feel that y2k is a war or peace issue, there will be no bluffing or dancing around the truth with this one. If they are going to have a big problem we need to examine what we can do as a nation to deal with it resourcefully,inovatatively and resolutely. They know at this time it is not fixable in time to prevent serious problems. They need to start at the truth and work from there. Their failure to provide serious answers will cause worst trouble for society then if they gather all hands on deck to batten down the hatches. The trillion dollar surplus should be put up as a y2k war chest in which we look at the worst y2k can do and mobilize resource and man power through a million man civilian y2k task force specially set up for this purpose. this task force modeled after the highly effective CERT teams that would be our best proactive thing this nation can do at this late date. We need a wealthy angle to get the the y2k awareness pump primed big time. The truth is a precious pearl of great price.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), July 04, 1999.

Mike, You are right! Today I talked to a woman running for City Council in NYC (special election) and wanted to know where she stood on Y2K. She was actually aware of the problem, but didn't give me a single answer as to what she felt could or should be done for mergency help for the literally millions of New Yorkers who may be without heat, food, or water, come January 1st. Let's get some answers instead of all the pussyfooting. The fact that they won't speak to us directly is the most aggravating thing.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), July 04, 1999.

Wonderful idea! Hope we have someone here who fits the bill.

I am interested in what sorts of tough questions you all would ask, as there is a y2k "community conversation" next Saturday in Austin, Texas which is 100 miles south of me. I am wondering what the best things to ask would be.

-- Mommacares (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), July 05, 1999.

Mike,

Am willing to contribute. Open the escrow, relay the account terms here and I'll send a (modest) check.

-- Carlos (riffraff1@cybertime.net), July 05, 1999.

To mommacares we need to find out if they have a food plan if the power goes down nationwide and doesnt come back up for three to six months. Not saying that it will but I not convienced that it wont. How about a water & sanitation plan if the water treatment & sewers stop working. Will we have protection from losing our homes during the crisis if the economy stops. Read the Bis report on year 2000 contingencies that out lines the gravity of the finanical mess that they and we are facing. A world shutdown of the economy with all it's ramifications if remediation efforts fail. We dont want no happy face song and dance we need hard data what will we need to meet the challenge so we can figure out how we need to mobilize our community. What are the security challenges we will face if it remediation fails, we need to see If they have seriously considered all the ramifications. By their answers you will know weather you can stay at home when the power goes down or if you will have to execute your bug -out plan right away. These are life and death questions you will have to make a decision about in advance of event day. If they give you a brush- off answer and dont give you truthfull full picture answers with all the risk illuminated and options in place ready then you know it's going to be real bad. If they are honest and give you some indications that a well though out plan is finished and ready to put in place and they are willing to share with you some of the important details, then I would say it would be safe to consider shelter at home until the danger has past or if the national outage does not exceed 4 weeks.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation .com), July 05, 1999.

To carlos I will need a couple of days to look into the logistics and cost of arranging this. I network with people who are very capable of making this townhall forum come together very quickly if funding wont be a problem. They are very public figures and very y2k aware. I will need a little time to conference with them. They have the media connections to help me pull it together very quickly. Stay tuned in ,I should be able to have the Info I need and get back to you By this friday or by next Monday. y2k aware mike.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), July 05, 1999.

I applaud your efforts to get this going. Look for the government to step in and knock this down under some type of emergency powers act.

In case you haven't noticed, they are EXTREMELY active in making certain that information is filtered in a positive light.

A while back I read a story in a Webzine (Feed) which interviewed someone who was claiming to be a Nuke Y2K remediator in Illinois. The piece was interesting in that the young man (23 yrs old) pulled no punches regarding his experience. The piece was shocking in that he was a team leader at a nuclear facility. The piece was hyperlinked from the Yahoo 2000 site to the webzine. On a Sunday night, I posted it to the Euy2k site to get feedback. By Monday morning the link was gone from Yahoo (despite the fact that there were many older articles linked) and it was gone from the Webzine! POOF! Now you read it, now you don't! No one from any of the above sources returned numerous emails from me.

My point here is that you're engaging in a noble effort. I applaud you. I also caution you, these people don't screw around. The people on the other side of THIS curtain play at a very, very high level.

Best of luck to you.

-- Nat Security (philanthropy@isdeadinthewater.com), July 05, 1999.

Good advice nat. I know what you mean, I know how they operate from past experience. Not looking to become a martyr just want the facts like joe friday. Actually we would be doing them a great favor by giving them a way to bring the bad news out in a positive constructive way. Great benifits to the public and the politicians who are not known as being honest about anything these days. Even if I could get the funding bringing the political leaders to the table in this format would be difficult at best. Big money would freak I sure but so what. If this forum can be made availible and we invited them publicly thru the media and they didnt show up that their silence would say volumes. When a govt controls the press so hard that a life a death issue such as y2k cant be discussed with vaild representation of the people then we are in serious trouble. I know in my heart that this is already the case but I hopeful it is not and that I am mistaken.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation .com), July 05, 1999.

You're a good man, Y2KawareMike! I pray that God will go with you in this one, and that it will become a reality. We all feel the utter frustration of our government's silence, which is deafening, and the feeling that "they" just do not care enough about the citizens, or perhaps do not trust the citizens enough to give them the proper, full disclosure to which they are entitled. After all, it's OUR lives on the line! God bless you, and anyone who has the means to help you in this endeavor.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), July 06, 1999.