I've been thinking (rut roh we all know where that can lead). It seems to me that we want to encourage as many people as possible to start preparing themselves for inevitable disruptions. We need to be focusing upon converting their opinion leaders.

We should think of names of people from all walks of life who are well-respected in certain circles; ones who are known as people of integrity, good judgement and well-rounded intellect. These should be (or at least appear to be) honest, non-ditsy & hard working people who have been known for speaking truth to power or bravely taking politically incorrect postures, but would not be perceived as someone who just wants to make a buck or push some political or religious agenda. They should be perceived to be fairly apolitical, and easily recognized. A track record of caring about ethics and about people would be a big plus. We should attempt to recruit them to be spokespeople for prudent preparations.

I'm going to name some of the people who come immediately to my mind, in no particular order. I do not know the Y2K opinions of any of these people, but I would be surprised if many of them don't "get it." I'm going to include a few recently deceased people, who obviously have no opinion one way or another, as examples of the types of people that I'm talking about. (Please excuse if I mangled the spelling of anyone's name.)

Steven Hawking, Carl Sagan (dec'd), Jodie Foster, Ann Landers, Mel Gibson, Robert Mendelsohn (dec'd), Doris Day, C. Everett Koop, Bill Nye, Jayne Bryant Quinn, Ted Turner, Tracy Chapman, Lee Iacocca, Jimmy Buffet, Barry Goldwater (dec'd), Ron Howard, Melissa Gilbert, John Stossel, John Holt (dec'd), Brad Pitt, Steve Allen, Ralph Nader, Jesse Ventura, Wapner (heh), Phil Donahue, Colin Powel, Leon Panetta, David Attenborough, McNeil, Leherer, Dean O'Dell, Nancy & Ron & Maureen Reagan, Gloria Steinem, Charlton Heston, Depak Chopra, Patty Duke, Rachel Carson (dec'd), Linda Elerby, David McCauley, Sarah Furgeson, Dick Cavett, Stephanie Zimbalist, Catherine Graham, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Alan Alda, Gregory Peck, John Glenn, Wesley Snipes, Jackson Browne, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jordan, Andrew Weil, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael J Fox, Steve Wozniak, Esther Dyson, Clifford Stoll, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Jeff Foxworthy, George Carlin, Ellen DeGeneres, Dennis Miller, Bob Newhart, Jerry Seinfeld, Jean Michael Cousteau, Thomas Sowell, John Dvorak, Noam Chomski, David Gardner, David Copperfield, Willie Nelson, Pete Seger, Annie Lenox, Todd Rundgren, Linus Torvald, Milton Friedman, Thomas Szasz, Paul McCartney, Walter Menninger, Ivan Illich (dec'd), George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry (dec'd), Isaac Asimov (dec'd), Barbara Streisand, Jimmy Stewart (dec'd), Louis Ruckhyser, Marianne Williamson, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopie Goldberg, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruz, Kate Jackson, Katherine Hepburn, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, Brett Butler, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mary Tyler Moore, Bette Midler, Sidney Poitier, Mare Winningham, Jimmy Smits, Blake Edwards, Dick & Jerry Van Dyke, Leslie Stahl, Paul Harvey, Dave Berry, Stephen Gould, Edmund O. Wilson, Alvin Toffler, Howard Zinn

There are also a few known GI's: Pat Boone, Leonard Nimoy Who else would make excellent Y2K spokespeople? If I left you off this list and you should be there, please, write to me. And if you're Mel Gibson, write to me anyway :::grin::: If even one of these people got on board, funding shouldn't be a great problem. The living ones shouldn't be too hard to find. I'm envisioning a public service announcement like the ones done by Amnesty International Or, maybe it would have to be a documentary length piece.

What would we say to them to assess their position? What would we ask them to do? It might be hard to come up with a message we could get them all to sign on to, without making it so safe that it would be worse than no message at all. What if we contacted all these people (the ones that are alive, of course) and they were all DWGIs? Would that influence any of us? If any of them are GI's and have hesitated to speak their minds, to do so in the company of even a tenth of this list should be a great honor for them.

I'm thinking of a message in which each person says something that they personally believe, such that some of them contradict each other, or so that it is clear that there is a wide variety of opinions about what kinds of impacts there might be. All speakers would be united, though in suggesting that Y2K is a serious problem, and that people should carefully inform themselves about it.

The announcement should acknowledge the heroic efforts being made by programmers all over the world and encourage them in their work, recognizing how vitally important continuing remediation is to everyone. People should be asked to help the programmers in every way possible to make their lives easiser, so that they can focus on the work that needs to be done.

It should be made clear that the job is not going to be done completely, and that nobody really knows how that fact might translate into disruptions in our lives. Right now, I think we'd be lucky to convince as many as 90% of the general population to be prepared for even four days of water and sanitation. The announcement should make it clear that there are credible government authorities that are calling for three weeks of preparations.

The piece I envision would strongly suggest that many people may experience daily blackouts (AKA rolling brownouts) for an indefinite period of time, such that the power may be on only a few hours per day. Some people (perhaps many) may experience no power at all. People who depend upon medications that come from overseas should seriously consider pressuring their doctors into helping them in stocking up.

The assertion that any problems will only be "localized" should be laid bare. It should be made clear that since this is a worldwide event, if some problem or other happens locally, that problem may be happening locally everywhere at once. In that case, the cavalry won't likely come to the rescue for a good long while. Mostly, the message should encourage people to talk to their neighbors, and share hope that we can all come through this with our integrity intact.

Could such a message be presented without triggering a panic? Would a panic as soon as possible maybe not be the worst thing that could happen? Would authorities prevent such a message from being heard?

-- Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California (minddancr@aol.com), July 14, 1999

Answers

Steven Hawking in the same group as Brad Pitt? Perhaps most prople would benifit from listening to Steven Hawking instead of watching Brad Pitt etc and they would be capeable of using their brains. Geeze..... But would you be willing to accept the opinions of all of these people if their opinions did not agree with yours?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), July 14, 1999.

Sorry. I just can't resist...

From the list 'o names:

Clint Eastwood- No preps?! Do ya feel lucky punk?

Carl Sagan - There are BILIONS and BILLIONS of embedded chips!

C. Everett Koop- Smoking, unprotected sex and not making y2k preps are all hazardous to your health.

Jean Michael Cousteau-We now have the robotic submersible "CivilizationII" poised over the brink of the abyss.

Paul Harvey- And now....for the rest of the Y2k story!

Paul McCartney- Yesterday....all Y2k troubles seemed so far away....

Jerry Seinfeld-Yadda, yadda, yadda. Where's your brain? Get preppin'. What do ya think... y2k's just about nothing?

Doris Day- Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be. The time to prep's now you see...

Jeff Foxworthy - You just MIGHT be a doomer if ......

Dennis Miller- Y2k will be a disaster. But then again, I could be wrong.

Willie Nelson- Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be doomers.

Barbara Streisand- People...who prep people...are the bestestest people in the world.

Tom Hanks- Crying! Are you crying? There's no crying in y2k talk!

Leonard Nimoy- Captain, we are prep'd and ready to beam aboard.

David Copperfield- Even I can't make y2k disappear.

Steven Spielberg- My next film is an epoch adventure entitled Y2k Park

Mary Tyler Moore- [quivering voice] Robbb. Milley next door isn't prepping and I'm scared.

Alan Alda- Oh c'mon Klinger! Dressing in women's attire isn't going to get you that section 8! Why don't you try ignoring Y2k instead. Jackson Browne- Dr my eyes have seen the years, and the overhyped new years fears....

Jesse Ventura- Come and get a piece of me Mr Y2k. If ya got the guts that is. I'm prep'd for ya!

I could go on but fortunately I have just enough sense left to realize I've already gone too far. It's ok I you want to beat me up over posting this. I will understand. Do keep in mind that I tried to be fair by making a point of ridiculing both the doomer and polly camps. My sincere apologies to "Dancr" who put forth a genuinely sincere post in hopes of getting the same in return. Like I said above, it's ok if you beat me up over this. I deserve it. (To be honest though, I think I just happened to find this post before the others who would have interrupted it did)Tucking my tail and slipping away now.....

-- CD (not@here.com), July 14, 1999.

CD - perfect.. absolutely PERFECT!

And Dancr - good idea, but not just on the national level. Time is very short. People would do well to identify opinion leaders at their local level and encourage them to speak out encouraging everyone to prepare. In my area the local sheriff is preparing OFFICIALLY - i.e. preparing his department - for 2 months of possible problems. Who knows what he is doing for his family. Many others including the one-man Office of Emergency Services (OES) are still singing the don't worry be happy song, but I find it encouraging that the sheriff - how much more level headed can you get? - is making SERIOUS preparations.

Find out who in YOUR area is both a G.I. AND a respected opinion leader. Then put pressure on them to encourage community-wide preparation. Local politicians? Church leaders? Heads of Service organizations? School board members? Principals? Chamber of Commerce? There must be at least a few G.I.s in these groups... find them.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 14, 1999.

CD.....LMAO!!!

Linda, excellent advice, with just ONE observation. The current administration as well as the FBI (and other agencies) have made it quite clear that church organizations preparing, should be considered 'suspect' for terrorist activity. Welcome to America and the liberal Whitehouse!

I just recently posted a thread entitled, "apparently some of us are in need of government intervention". We happen to have MANY churches preparing in this area. Just where do they intend to draw the line as time grows nearer? Just what ARE their intentions when painting 'their' portrayal of Y2K preparers? Tread lightly and carry a big stick, America! Perhaps 'terrorists' will become WHOMEVER the government claims, at ANY point they choose, for ANY reason that may suit them at the time. Just MHO.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 14, 1999.

Dancr--deleted first two HTML goof-up threads per your e-mail request.

-- Sysop (y2ktimebomb2000@yahoo.com), July 14, 1999.

dancr,

great idea. i suggest you start calling all on your list as soon as possible. i'm fairly certain that if any of them are not in they will return your call.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), July 14, 1999.

CD, Funny!

I heard that Barbra Streisand is a big GI.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), July 14, 1999.

Hmm - where DOES Chuck Heston stand on the Y2K issue? Interesting thought. Also, Oprah. Did hear her say on a program that there was no way she would be on a plane during roll over. Don't know if she gets the whole picture or not. Would be interesting anyway. Could, however, be a problem for any of these people to take a stand - you know - no money for your next project if you are so nuts as to announce that the world may go to hell in a hand basket in 6 months. I have wondered if that is why there have been no movies out about Y2K as it seems such fertile ground for wild imaginations. Could no $$ be the problem coupled with pressure from Hollywood elite being in the White House pockets (eeew - what a place to be!). Interesting post Dancr.

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.net), July 14, 1999.

If Streisand is such a GI, why would she be conducting a "really biggg Shoeeeeee" in Las Vegas, Nevada on New Year's Evil? Population six million with a confirmed reservation list of hundreds of thousands to be present for the big millenium bash?

If she gets it.....she's insane! She gets it about like her boy, Billy-Blow Job does! Perhaps she's going to throw cake at the peasants like Hitlery intends to!

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 14, 1999.

Cherri, actually, Brad Pitt is apparently a highly evolved socially conscious person. It's kind of hard to believe, I know, but he does have an intelligent following in addition to the swooning teeny boppers.

CD, I had many of the same types of thoughts as you did about some of those people as I was making up the list. However, none of mine was as funny as any of yours.

Steven Hawking - A Brief History of Screwed Up Time Carl Sagan - yep... billions and billions of embedded chips Ann Landers - Look at the pros and cons of having preps, are you better off with them or without them Ted Turner - visual: holding tomahawk, chanting chop tune Barry Goldwater - Extreem preparation for Y2K is no vice Ron Howard - Gary Indiana, that's the town that blew up when... John Stossel - Everything fixed in three days? Give me a break! Steve Allen - Talk about dumbth! Elizabeth Taylor - You're all gonna have to learn to hold your own Tom Hanks - Deal With It! Bob Newhart - Yeah, Happy New Year to you too, mom. Hello? Hello? Jerry Seinfeld - What's with this "local disruptions" bit, anyway? Cuba Gooding, Jr. - Show me the KI!

Silly... anyway...

Linda, actually, at least four of the people on that list live in my county. I don't know as they have any special pull here, any more than they would nationwide.

Corinne1, I have no dellusions about being personally able to get the ear of any of these people, although most of them seem very nice. However, if any of us were able to get just a few of them on board, I imagine those few would have easier access to the rest. Perhaps Pat Boone and Leonard Nimoy could play a role in that regard.

Will, about Streisand and her show... supposedly she was scheduled to do a show someplace worse, like Carnegie Hall, or something like that, and backed out of that, sparking speculation that it was for Y2K reasons. Maybe she's got a retreat near Vegas for all we know.

Dancr goes looking for Mr. Nimoy's webpage... BBL

-- Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), July 15, 1999.

In reviewing the list, I could not help but think that if these are today's revered "leaders," we have a bigger problem than y2k.

Although I think Mel Gibson is quite sexy, I sure wouldn't lend much credence to his "expert" opinion on y2k. But what the hey, with today's spin doctors, every movie star is an "expert" on the environment and every other societal ailment. Why not y2k?

Shaking her head and muttering.........

-- anon (anon@anon.com), July 15, 1999.