Lefties, Rightwingers, Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives, Radical This or Radical Thats, Republicans, Libertarians, Democrats, Greens--women, men, children, people who embrace diversity, people who are uncomfortable with it, environmentalists and loggers, the aged and the young, people with disabilities, people with health problems, people in perfect health, single people, people raising families, professionals, blue collar workers, bank clerks and performance artists, rich, struggling middle class or really, really poor--even without Y2K, we are all in this together. And we will remain 3all in this together2 whether the sky falls on Jan. 1st or not. Dealing with this fact is the work of this country, and whether we like it or not, it9s the work we must do in our communities and as individuals. So, is this truth so glaringly obvious, is it 3self evident?2 Why am I saying all this? Because sometimes some of the people who are posting--who are generous with their information and offers of help about Y2K, who seem to be delightful, decent and generous souls--then send along personal or cc email messages which are very specific and political in nature. These messages may contain strong language about people with opposing viewpoints or cultural customs, and if you happen to be someone who actually holds some of those opposing viewpoints or who comes from a different culture, well, you feel uncomfortable and don9t quite know what to do. You don9t want to offend the senders (who probably just acted with the best intentions) and just blocking further emails seems cold and rude. People with concerns about Y2K have amazingly diverse personal and poltical views. Please do not assume that the Republican careerwoman in the Midwest wants your opinions on 3gubment2 conspiracies or that the single father who works for Green Peace wants your opinions on the role of women in society today.The NRA lifetime member does not want your opinions on gun control and the Latina teacher does not want to hear what you think about immigration. Please, let9s just help each other while respecting individual opinions and differences by not venturing beyond the boundaries of civil discourse, until we know our email penpals well enough to venture more personal opinions. Thanks!

-- Amy Marsh (canaryclub@aol.com), November 07, 1999

Answers

Those superfluous numbers are substitutes for quote marks or apostrophes. Wrote this on word processing first and copied into this format. Weird. Sorry for awkwardness in the text.

-- Amy Marsh (canaryclub@aol.com), November 07, 1999.

Amy

Actually, THIS forum is pretty civilized (try TimeBomb2000!). We need to look at what we can do to recover and prosper after the rollover and associated problems. Part of this analysis, however, will necessarily be evaluating how various institutions need to be changed to avoid future problems (as well as, potentially, to survive). And, personally, I think that there is a continued roll for gun control in the future (BUT, remember, that I define gun control as hitting what you aim at!).

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 08, 1999.

I appreciate Madmonk's view of gun control... hitting what you're shooting at is a must! In order to re-build or build a new society, we need to regain control of our monetary system, and we must re-establish firearms as a foundation of liberty. Every country that has disarmed its citizens has later seen or actually committed genocide against those citizens.... there are no exceptions. Gun control freaks are actually (whether intentionally or not) advocating the slaughter of 300,000 or more citizens, and I'm willing to bet that the poor and uneducated are the pending targets. If you don't believe me, go to www.jpfo.org and view their research!

In truth though, the monetary system is the primary tool of control for those who would enslave the populace. Unfortunately, I'm much better with guns than I am with money so find myself without many answers.

-- Brad Bolz (bradbolz@cableone.net), November 08, 1999.

IMHO,not only guns and money are important to liberty post Y2K. The thing currently being violated the most and blatantly, is our privacy. Without that, there is not liberty, guns and money aside.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), November 13, 1999.