A clear expression of anger...

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

[snipped from the Civic Preparedness discussion list. To post messages to this list, address them to civicprep@4hlists.org.]
I have pondered at some length, and finally decided to post these. Not to be negative, but to underline what I consider the insufferable presumption of the Rendon Group's wrongly-placed missionary zeal.

My ardent hope is that out of this debacle, something positive may come...a new degree of enlightened cooperation between the Koskinen Office and us out here in the trenches. We badly need it.


Message No. 1, dated 10.03 AM PDT, Jul 1 99

This is taking more time than I want to spend, but I think it's important.
The view from Washington...the Beltway... is totally different from the view out in the boondocks, where America actually lives... and thinks. And thank God, we have not given up the habit of thought. We are still an intelligent people, despite much superficial evidence to the contrary.

I have written (elsewhere) considerably about the fact that many people away from the East Coast Corridor consider what goes on there almost totally irrelevant to their concerns, their daily lives, etc. Tragically, pathetically so. The result of too much hype, spin, advertising, promise, etc.

These people are not about to be bullied, talked-down-to or sneered at by suits. They might listen, politely, because they are still courteous. But The Message is so wildly off the mark, it is ignored.

In a nutshell, this is the problem you face with us of SB Y2K and with others who are not hostile to Rendon/Koskinen, just see little point in a high-powered, high-pressure PR campaign which provides nothing new. . . and certainly provides no leadership, but rather tells us what we already know - that we are on our own.

You might want to ponder this.

Bayard

Message No. 2, dated 3.53 PM, Jul 1 99
I've been pondering my last message, and concluded that some other things need to be said.

I know that the views here are not merely my own, but I take full responsibility for iterating them.

What many people who circle and sup within the Beltway cannot, do not, or do not want to understand is that we out here in the sticks are not impressed with their posing...nor even with their haberdashery.

Nor are we enchanted with their scorn. . .the snear that implies only They Know - that we are too stupid to penetrate the blather that emanates from The Capital.

We feel, in short, cheated, lied-to, hornswoggled and conned by a government and its satraps who have sold out... to many things, and not just to "vested interests". We, in turn, feel contemptuous of transparent >attempts to mold our thought processes. We are sick of it.

The result of years of shamelessly ridiculous, pettifogging politics, and the abuse of the electoral system, is that for many, what happens within the Beltway is totally irrelevant to our daily lives.

We read the papers - maybe - watch the TV for the headline idiocies, glance at the newsmags...Quite possibly lie to the opinion surveyors - I know I do.

And then we get down to the gritty of education, child care, women's rights, traffic jams, day care, affordable housing, whatever.

Washington is a circus where honesty simply does not exist. CEOs play the same game (witness the turnout for Colin Powell's kickoff in Philadelphia a while back - or the cozy little TV morals gathering (The President summoned to the White House).


We wish all the chatter would be conducted in closets somewhere, and not clutter up our sensibilities.

It is because of this overkill - conducted jauntily by powermongers for the last couple of decades - that we regard anything from Washington with skepticism. Anything.

This does not bode well for the broad political process.

Why are so many people turned off by the travesty of presidential elections? See above.

To come back to Y2K...These are the reasons you meet resistance from me. What you are selling is totally irrelevant to what we are trying to do here on the ground.

Plus there is a somewhat degree of dishonesty in the message.

OK? Capice?

Bayard Stockton
- tell the truth, and tell it fast.

Critt

-- Critt Jarvis (middleground@critt.com), July 11, 1999

Answers

well said Critt.

I have had good results of late talking to people that were unaware of y2k an it's implications. Talked for an hour or 2 today at a bar with a retired shop steward for our local power company. He knows that "everything" is computer controled, but had no idea that we were in trouble. At least I got him thinking.

sorry for this breif rant on perhaps an unrelated topic, but It really does let you know of the disconnect between the leaders in Washington and the population in gereral.

We'll see some fireworks soon in all quarters

stocking up,

Bob P

-- Bob P (rpilc99206@aol.com), July 11, 1999.


so what the hell don't you like about their hats, pray tell. i've been very impressed with beltway haberdashery. they also have some very nice suits as well. come to think of it they have very nice belts inside the beltway.

a fashionable smooch to ya coco.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), July 11, 1999.


If there's an election in 2000, the prize will go to those who told the truth today. If someone would...

-- Mommacares (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), July 11, 1999.

To Mommacares: And it sure as hell won't be Big Al.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), July 11, 1999.

Feds Plan Y2K Spin Control

-- (no@more.spin), July 11, 1999.


There's a disconnect all right. But it's only what the Beltway mob says that doesn't matter. What they do there does matter, and it matters right where everybody lives.

Greenspan jumps the interest rate a point, and credit card and mortgage interest jumps even further.

Lie about an attack on a U.S. naval vessel off the coast of Vietnam, and tens of thousands of young Americans die in the aftermath.

Mess with a girl in the White House, and the affairs of the nation are moved to the back burner for the next twelve months.

Fulminate on the evils of existing campaign finance legislation, yet never bring corrective legislation to the floor: and the offices of government remain for sale to the highest bidder.

Nobody with an ounce of sense believes what these folks say any more, but their actions (overt and covert) have real consequences which affect us all.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 12, 1999.


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