My assumption is that most people won't make any preparations
before Y2K. Most people won't notice anything until their
power is off.
...Most people who live in earthquake and
hurricane zones don't make advance preparations, and many people
in Oklahoma City did not have access to a good tornado shelter
(that's why so many people died, there was plenty of warning).
So in considering what's to be done, we should include
contingency plans for informing the rest of civil society about
what should be done WHEN disruptions happen: e.g., unless I find
something better, I'm working on a series of handouts that will
be copied in advance and stored in Catholic churches (or anywhere
else conveniently located to neighborhoods), to be distributed as
failures occur, e.g., a page on water, another on emergency
heating, another on the location of soup kitchens, another on
emergency sanitation and garbage. Then there would be a handout
for civil society organizations, another for churches, and still
another for neighborhood organizations. "Here's what you can do
about the Y2K problems we are experiencing now."
So, it's kind of like plotting a "revolution." (Monocle ON:)
Virst, ve infiltrate all zee neighborhoods, Zecond, ve make zee
propaganda. Zen, ven ze time iss ripe, there ve are, with ze
instructions. (Monocle OFF).
Remember: even if the power is off, you can still create and
distribute a flyer using the old-fashioned hectographic spirit
duplicator (a tray of gelatin, a carbon paper stencil, some ink,
and paper). Oh, a manual typewriter would help (the ribbon
doesn't have to work).
Now, for over a month, Robert has been creating such fliers and sending
them out for comment to Y2K activists on the Coalition 2000 listserv. He
has now completed a series of them. Here's his latest note:
Dear friends,
Over the past few weeks I have posted drafts of several flyers
designed for distribution during y2k disruptions. They have been
considerably revised due to the input of people from this list
and from others lists I subscribe to. I have four ready, which I
have posted to http://www.justpeace.org/printflyers.htm.
... I have included formatting
instructions on the main page (copy the text, format as directed,
you will have flyers that fit exactly on one or two 8-1/2 x 11
pages). The flyers are on
o warmth and light,
o food preparation and safety,
o water, and
o hygiene/trash/human waste disposal.
Thanks to the generosity of someone in cyberspace who wants to
remain anonymous, the printable flyers are now available in adobe
acrobat format, so they can be printed and taken directly to a
copier without further formatting.
There are some other flyers in production, but it will
be a week or two before they make it to the page.
Tell everybody!
Robert Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
http://www.justpeace.org
http://www.justpeace.org/y2kcivil.htm (Y2K and Civil Society)