There's been a bit of defensiveness on the Y2K issues from industry insiders and authorities. Authorities from Koskinen, supposedly at the top, industry insiders in the middle and community leaders at the local level tell us it's under control. Don't worry, don't panic, they even warn us against preparing too much. Hell, they don't even want us thinking about it. They don't seem to like it when we stick our noses into their business and find out something they didn't know.

Almost ten years ago my then wife was near full term with our second son and wasn't feeling well. We called her doctor who downplayed it, said it was probably the flu. A few hours later she experienced a siezure. I called 911, I raised the only alarm I knew. It took over twenty minutes for the authorities to arrive. This was about four o'clock in the morning and the paramedics came from less than one mile away. Excrutiatingly slow response!

Shortly thereafter doctors came out of a delivery room in the hospital and told me my son was dead. Three hours later they told me he wasn't dead but might die any minute. The story goes downhill from there. All the way down the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, etc. assured me everything that could be done was being done, or that my wishes were being followed, and if that couldn't be done then Supreme Court decisions dictated what had to happen, (we said Do Not Resuscitate, No Heroic Efforts), our wishes were over-ruled by a greedy hospital. I later found out they flat out lied to me. It was a horrible gut wrenching experience. The worst of it was being mislead and deliberately lied to.

I got totally fed up with the deceit and educated myself. I had to become Sherlock Holmes and discover what was going on here because the authorities could not, would not or dared not tell me. The bevy of doctors weren't even following what the other doctors were doing. Two anti-siesure medications were being pumped into him. When I told them to wean my son off of the suspect one, (I studied the paperwork that came with the medicine), my son woke up and they called him the miracle baby. This was an exaggeration but he did wake up seemingly from the dead. People came from all over the hospital to see him. When the doctor who had prescribed that med found out what I'd done he ordered my son back on it. My son promptly sank back into a stupor and I raised hell, to no avail.

I was up against the machine! I was surrounded by authorities! I was hog-tied and was not permitted to make decisions. They did not like for me to even think about it. Hospital staff and social services were oh so sympathetic to my plight. They reassured continually; The best was being done. My son would have to live in a nursing home. They said they wouldn't send him home with us because it would be too difficult for us. When the insurance company refused to pay anymore the hospital called us to come get our son or we would be charged several thousand dollars per day. (no preparations)

He came home, ended up getting worse and going back to the hospital. Later his mom and I held him in our arms as they disconnected life support, (I'll take y2k over that any day),.... He pulled through and eventually ended up going to a nursing home where he still is.

A law suit was won, an annuity pays his expenses and the nursing home blatantly breaks the law by double billing, getting paid from his annuity and charging the State for his expenses. I've spoken to the authorities about that matter as well but it slides past them like so much unimportant information.

There were many different types of authorities involved in this; The slow talking ponderous authority who stretched the "truth" in the favor of the hospital. The terribly sympathetic authority who eventually got sued. The nervous authority who ran the hospital and relied entirely on lawyers. And later on there was my own authority, a lawyer who made demands in my favor, and forced those other authorities to listen and act more responsibly. There were also industry insiders, nurses, who cheered me on,(privately), after I dressed down a doctor in front of a group of authorities who were his allies. The nurse told me she witnessed doctors making mistakes regularly.

It was a horrible game of vested interests protecting themselves. Parochial stands and stand-offs, self centered viewpoints. No open honesty anywhere. None! Records were even altered which brought them down in the end. We went for enough money to cover my son for life. The attorney said we could get twenty million if we wanted it. I didn't. I was sick of the awfulness of the greed and dishonesty and couldn't turn my son's dillemma into something we might profit from.

Since then I've wondered should I have nailed the bastards for twenty million and given the excess to charity. Nothing changed in the system and I don't think a twenty million dollar hit would've been punitive enough to change it. It will take more than that to break through faux authority and dishonesty. To the last, every authority involved defended his or her actions or inactions.

After the rollover if there have been disasters, if there have been deaths or maimings or any other of hundreds of horrible things that could potentially happen, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if every single authority, every CEO or CFO or lawyer or public relations person or other vested interest, every industry insider with the opinion that since his or her portion of the work is done therefore it must all be done, it wouldn't surprise me at all if all of these people and the rest of them, every programmer and electrical engineer and anyone else involved in taking care of Y2K, if all of them defended their position and went on telling why such and such wasn't their fault until no one wants to hear them anymore and we all just give up and move on with our lives and our families or what's left of them.

Now if the authorities had paid attention in the first place none of it would have happened, (that first doctor was at a party when we called him and he said it was probably the flu). Then, if they had responded promptly to the 911 alarm my son wouldn't have gone nearly so long without oxygen, (the placenta came loose). And if the doctors had been a bit more coordinated among themselves my son might have had a better chance. The fields of practise are very specialized and they weren't checking one another. Also, if there was honest open communication between them and us we would've been better able to cope with the situation. We wouldn't have left it all up to them to take care of everything for as long as we did.

I didn't have an advocate on my side through that until I got a lawyer. I wouldn't have gotten him if he didn't smell money. With regards to Y2K the only advocates I have are people like Rick and Bonnie and all of the very vocal persons who contribute to this and other forums.

When Rick or anyone else goes over the charts, the reports, and makes sense of them for me I feel like I owe him or her an awful lot. More than I could ever pay. It lifts a mountain of manure off of me. It clears the air of the stink of deception. And it allows me to make well informed decisions. The value of that is priceless.

When Malcom speaks I get no spider sense tingling. It rings of truth. The truth of his domain. It comes across as clear, open, honest communication. No deceit. He doesn't venture guesses under the guise of authority beyond his domain either. A very respectable and honorable man.

I believe that all that anyone who ever visited this forum ever really wanted was clear, open, honest communication about this confusing, murky, sometimes bewildering situation, with particulars to electric utilities. That's all we ever wanted. We don't want good news, we don't want bad news, we just want it told like it is, whatever it is. If you don't know then say so. It is more than okay to say you do not know. It is much preferred to B-Sing your way through it. That goes doubly for the doomers who can't hold themselves back from jumping the gun and telling me the baby died when it hasn't. If your area is coming along brilliantly then say so, but don't say so about areas other than your own! If you've spotted a problem say so. If you've found a solution then say so.

If you are posting as an authority or an insider and wish to express an opinion then you'd be safest by making it perfectly clear that you are expressing a personal opinion. We are all entitled to our opinions. Many of us want to hear your opinions. But by posting as an insider or any kind of authority whatsoever you have taken on the onus of a higher responsibility. Simply tell it like it is. Your life will be much easier if you have nothing to defend. All you need to do is simply tell it like it is. When ANY "authority" speaks in placating, reassuring, sympathetic

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

Answers

When ANY "authority" speaks in placating, reassuring, sympathetic, or even cynical tones my spider senses start to tingle and I sense danger.

That's just the way it is with me.

Steve

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

steve,

i don't call it 'spider senses' but i know *exactly* what you mean and *exactly* how you feel... i feel the same way.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

If there is one lesson the media, the lawmakers and citizens learned near Three Mile Island, it is - - never blindly trust anyone, especially those who have the power to kill you while making a profit. Our entire nation was built on limitations of government and methods to raise questions and be suspicious of power.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

My wife is a certified nurse-midwife currently suing a semi-nearby hospital for 23M for the unspeakable way that they tried to destroy her ability to practice ever, anywhere. She has never had a single bad outcome of ANY kind, but she supports home as well as hospital birth, etc. Given the kind of person she is, she would be just as glad to simply receive an apology. Unlike you, I'm not satisfied with that. The only way to slow these people down, regrettably, is to turn one sleazy group (lawyers) against the other (medical professionals).

Bringing the lawsuit, btw, was the only way we could put adequate pressure on the other local hospital so that they were forced out of fear to give her hospital privileges.

Is this a swell country or what?

Yes, there are still tens of millions of Americans whose word is their bond.

But there is a corruption and deceitfulness that has spread like poison through our culture over the past fifty or so years that may be too widespread to reverse. It is the worse that the culture as a whole is arrogantly blind to it. Y2K has proven to be an especially gross example of deceit.

My deepest sympathies to you for the pain that you endured about your son. And I agree with you about those who have done their best to handle Y2K with integrity -- they may prove to be right or wrong about their opinions, but I will always be grateful for their willingness to step up and walk the honest road.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

Steve,

Thank you so much for sharing your story and thinking. It caused a very deep sigh to run through me. You have maintained your integrity throughout your ordeal and have the right to spotlight the deceptions you had to deal with. You mentioned spider senses and it is an apt analogy. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive". I will look forward to your future comments and postings.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

Steve,

Thank you for sharing your emotions with us. I have a son of 11 months now and when I began reading your story I couldn't stop. It is a very dramatic and amazing story and it takes a lot of time to live with it. I hope that this it not the way it's going to with this world. As you put it, it seems to. It is true that a lot of money and power is involved and that everybody speaks from their own experience. I come from the Netherlands and that is a lot smaller than the US and there is, not yet, an open energy market. My experience is based on solving y2k in power plants and making contingency plans in my own country. It is a smaller scale, but the basics are the same. It is all based on matching generation with demand of energy with a high reliability. I do not want to be a doctor or staff with two eyes named profit and power. I want to share my experience with you in my own dutch/english words. I want to share my fear about the unbalance that will grow with every unnormal act during the rollover like stopping heavy industry plants before and starting it again after rollover or starting up thousands of emergency generators. Please let it be business as usual.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Steve. My heart goes out to you and your family.

It's strange, but I don't get an inkling of such things happening from the commercials on TV for this or that hospital. Anyway, I'm sure that the utilities care as much about their customers as the hospital authorities care about their patients. And I'm sure all the doctors and nurses and hospital administrators you could find would point out that they have children, too, and would never engage in such activities.

I think you are prescient about what's going to happen post-Y2K. More CYA than we can imagine.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

BTW, please forgive me for being hysterical. Or hypesterical. Or whatever I'll be accused of next. ;-)

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

I may be naive but what has this to do with Electrical utilities and Y2K, the title of this excellent forum. Bit of a stretch what?

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Jan, There really isn't much of a stretch to make in this story to have it apply to Y2K. I'm the mom of a multiply-handicapped son; I'm also a nurse and a former medical-school instructor. When the "expert" nurse or doctor tells you that everything is X, when it's really Y, and you really could make an informed decision IF one of the experts would inform you, it's important to be informed. Our government and utilities are telling us X, but industry and gov't insiders are telling us Y. For the people on this forum, we're getting the information we need to decide for ourselves how bad Y2K could be. For the rest of the world, or others who believe the experts without verifying the facts for themselves, life just goes merrily along. In ethics, it's called "paternalism", and it's always wrong, unless you're dealing with a child. We're not children, and we can handle the truth.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Jan,

No real stretch at all. Y2k discussion is not a science, it's an art- form. The center of the spider web is often the focal point for us, in this case electric utilities and Y2k. But the web goes off in many directions, yet is always linked back to the center if you stand away and look at it. Occasionally we have someone venture off onto one of the lesser used strands (threads) but it's still the same web afterall. Trust the moderator! If Rick thinks a posting is totally off the web, he will remove it. It's still here, so Rick has ruled.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Jan, I guess whether it's a stretch or not depends on how an individual views the information gathering process. I think the situation for many people reading this forum is one similar to the pre-trial discovery process in the legal system. That's not only a gathering of any possible pertinent facts to the issue at hand, but also an attempt to make determinations about the reliability of witness statements and what the expected impact of an invidual's testimony might be on a jury. In this process, questions which go to credibility might include "Is there a conflict of interest?", "Does this witness have any past history of trouble with the law or deceit which might cast doubt on his testimony?", "Does he/she have any potential motives or bias which might influence any testimony away from the truth?", "Are they in the employ of, related to, or a long time friend of either the defendant or the plaintiff?"

I think a lot of people who read this forum, and are trying to get an estimation of the Y2K risk factors which might impact themselves and their families are, in essence, placed in the position of a jurist trying to weigh all aspects of evidence presented, including that which goes to credibility. This is always a very difficult thing to do, and it's made more difficult when one doesn't have the opportunity to see people as they speak, hear their voice intonations, watch their mannerisms, look them in the eye, etc. All the clues which normally might help an individual to better figure things out aren't available when the information is all in written form.

Can you imagine a kind of pre-trial where the jury is never in the presence of any of the witnesses, the plaintiffs, or the lawyers, but is only handed sheafs of typewritten testimony transcripts and then told to make a decision? And where the testimony was not taken under oath? I think what Steve has bravely related, are reasons why, if he was a jurist in such a situation, he would have no recourse but to fall back on past experience, and if he came across any similar authority phrases in the transcripts he was handed they would not "go to credibility". I translate "spider senses" as a way of describing the focused use of every faculty and experience an individual can muster to come to a verdict, not of guilt or innocence, but of risks on an issue which is of serious import to them.

We might not all use the same term, but I think most of us know what he's talking about, have our own credibility measures, and are just as frustrated at trying to judge an issue where we feel handicapped from the beginning. As Charles Siebenthal from EPRI told a NERC Committee about the Year 2000 issue, " [just saying] 'Trust us' won't work anymore."

Steve, I had to take time to compose myself after reading your post. I'm old enough to remember a couple of real life physicians on the order of Dr. Welby, M.D., but I haven't encountered any similar ones in forty years. Kind hearted, selfless and honest authority figures in all fields seem to have been slowly disappearing from society for several decades now and we are all the poorer for it.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Fred,

Sounds like you have a bone to pick with Rick. I don't know, he's always been very fair with me, and I have had a post or two removed, but he was always clear about why it happened. We all grow, and things change. Sometimes things that didn't seem pertinent at one point in time suddenly take on an importance and are then included.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

"Spider Senses" refers to one of the powers of the Amazing SpiderMan, a comic book hero I grew up with. A sixth sense that "tingled" when danger was near. Liken it to intuition if you will, but that's for girls. Guys have "spider senses". ;-)

I didn't intend to convey an emotional story. That's too personal and doesn't belong here. It was about the powers that be, "authorities" vs. me and my loved ones. I think that does have a place here. After all, each of us are relying on others to take care of this for us.

The writing is also about possible rotten consequences of trusting "authorities" to take care of things and then they don't do it. Y2K could have negative consequences that impact your life, hopefully not terribly significantly but quite possibly so. If it does then realize that in the end you are responsible for you, (and maybe some loved ones too). If you've been lied to, then you are responsible for accepting those lies.

I also wrote a BIG, GIGANTIC, HUGE, MOST MASSIVE THANKYOU!!! to Rick, Bonnie, et. al. for investigating, uncovering, deciphering, and communicating, and being the best advocates anyone could have in the whole wide world when it comes to Y2K. I don't go in for guru's but I do like a good hero now and then. Next to the Amazing SpiderMan, you two are t

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

i found this article about the recent blackout in chicago, which i think is evidence of the relevance of mr. kube's post. the article describes the concerns of the city aldermen (alderpersons?) because they had little or no warning from commonwealth edison, the local electric utility, prior to the blackout.

i'm sorry if this hot link doesn't work:

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/162nd1.htm

this is the quote i found especially on point:

That worries Rugai, especially in light of the potential for Y2K problems.

"This may lead into other elements of preparedness we hadn't considered," Rugai said. "ComEd was so confident at the (city council Y2K hearing). I think we need to review it again."

'Rugai' is Alder(person) Ginger Rugai.

to quote stan lee, 'nuff said.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

A big "Thank You" back to you, Steve. I have a friend I correspond with who is highly intuitive but, being a man, it tends to aggravate him sometimes. Now I can tell him to relax, he's got Spidey Senses! *huge grin* I love it!!

"Spider Senses" refers to one of the powers of the Amazing SpiderMan, a comic book hero I grew up with. A sixth sense that "tingled" when danger was near. Liken it to intuition if you will, but that's for girls. Guys have "spider senses".

And here I'd forgotten about Spidey's Sixth Sense...must be I was reading too many Supergirl and The Flash comics in my youth instead.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Next to the Amazing SpiderMan, you two are the best!

Steve

(I hate it when my last line gets cut off:(

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

Steve, at this point I think "If you've been lied to, then you are responsible for accepting those lies." should be mantra. There's no longer any excuse when the silken strands are being tugged at from every direction. Thank you for your courage personal and public.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 1999

More on Chicago that Maggie shared..............

Is Rugai having "spyder feelings"? I think so.

<<>>

Geez I can't wait till this whole deal is over.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Steve, thank you so much for your insight. Reading this thread is a real uplifting experience for me...there are people out there that think and are wise in their actions. I believe that will be a boon for recovery after TSHTF. Until then, we need people like Rick and Bonnie and all you other y2k electric gurus. Kuddos to all who are here. Wish the media could see this side of y2k awareness, but I guess it wouldn't sell, eh?

On behalf of the medical profession, I offer my profound apologies. I agree that $$$ and power have darkened the eyes of many. Maybe y2k will open eyes to what is really important in life. It has for me. God bless, ben

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Just a quick thank you to everyone who expressed kindness after reading my story. It's like you've sent flowers and I wasn't expecting them. I want you to know I believe the majority of people on earth are really good souls. I also think the jerks of the world will sooner or later grow weary of being jerks and so the good guys will prevail.

St

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999