Below is the link to Cynthia Beal's latest essay found at The Co-Intelligence Institute.

A Mid-Sept. 1999 Y2K Touchstone: Trajectory - 2 Years In

--She in the sheet standing upon the hilltop,

-- Donna B. (moment@pacbell.net), September 16, 1999

Answers

Excellent find! Thanks.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 16, 1999.

So with the Postal Service not working, how can anything else work? Just asking... I'm leaving money orders for my rent here with my friend and if it's safe here, he can deliver it. If everything is really bad, he can forget about it. If things are partly bad and he needs the money, he can cash the money order, if he can...

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 16, 1999.

Donna,

Thank you so much for posting that link. I was mesmerized by her essay.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), September 16, 1999.

It is links like this that keeps me coming back here - spending way more time than I should reading. Just can't help it. Somebody please stop me!!! Thanks.

-- April (Alwzapril@home.com), September 16, 1999.

That was a wonderful essay. Thank you.

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), September 17, 1999.

Donna

Good catch! Cynthia IMHO was the best writer in the push for community involvement. Unfortunately it seems to be a dead end as a solution to local problems. Some communities GI but not many.

April

If you keep writing we will keep reading :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), September 17, 1999.

Thanks Donna and thank you Cynthia...

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 17, 1999.

A snip from "A mid-Sept 1999 Y2K touchstone" regarding the readiness of the U.S. Post Office:

Last week I was at the post office. When the clerk's computer seized up and he had to re-boot it, the Operating System info screen came up. A 1988 Version of Unisys software listed its components as the system loaded. "That's still not a compliant piece of software," I said, recognizing it from a year ago when I first noticed it. "What's up?"

The clerk looked rueful. "Yeah, I know. And funny thing is, we're not going to have our new system up before the end of the year. Our machines are on order, but they're not going to be installed before January 1st."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know. They're not telling us."

"What about all those folks who actually use the Post Office for their business?"

"I don't know. I guess they'll have a problem."

hmmmmm.

I think about this. I've brought it up into my community before - this same issue, as a matter of fact. The word, a year ago, was "They'll get it fixed in time. There's too much at stake."

I wonder about my current responsibility to inform, now that my own voice of concern falls into a neat and dismissable package of one of "those Y2k people" droning on and on about the Post Office having problems and other vague impossibilities. I think about those people in my community who might say "But if I'd known it was the *Post Office* I would have done something..."

OK, folks. Consider this one more gentle nudge.

Great essay, Cynthia! Thanks for posting it, Donna.

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), September 17, 1999.