Jay Golter has drafted an open letter to President Clintion

At present a little over 20 people have signed the letter.

The plan is to release the letter at a previously scheduled Y2K press conference that will take place at 1:00 PM Thursday afternoon. In order to have the materials ready by then, Jay will have to have all of the signers names by this evening. So if you want to sign, please let us know right away. We will continue to take signatures after the press conference.

Jay is Pres. of Northern Virginia Y2K Community Action Group. I am VP. I have placed an automated signing form on my site with the text of the letter. Please go there and sign. You will be sent an email, which you will need to reply to in order that we do not include names sent by other than the real person.

Sign Open Letter to Clinton

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

Another "open letter"????

Once an open letter to someone was a positive thing, something to bring a wrong into the open or to encourage a needed change.

It has been abused to the point now where they only cause someone to go "oh Sh*t" just more junk mail and put it in the trash. I'm sure if he even see's this one he will roll his eyes and wonder if he should forward it to newt gingrich jsut to show he cares *grin*.

If you want to do something positive, become a foster parent and make a real difference in someones life.

Signing an open letter may give you the "feeling" that you are doing something, but are you really?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), December 15, 1999.

Would be better to have said:

-------------------------------------------------- Dear President Clinton:

We have done all that we could to warn others about the likelihood of Y2K disruptions occurring during the coming months. Could you please explain why you decided to screw us?

Sincerely,

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), December 15, 1999.

HEy Cherri how is that reply to Cory coming? hahahhaa

-- (TomWaits@zensearch.net), December 15, 1999.

I support this letter. But it suffers from a fundamental problem. President Clinton already knows everything in it and has known it for a long time. Im sorry to have to say this, Sally, but he doesnt care.

When I was growing up in a Washington DC suburb in the 50s and 60s, the city had an aura of power and invincibility about it; there was a feeling that the things that happened there mattered. I visited my family in 1976 to watch the bicentennial fireworks display. It was a thrilling spectacle; we were proud to be Americans. We were the leaders of the Free World.

That was then. This is now: The left hand seemingly doesnt know what the right hand is doing. The president issues a proclamation saying 99.9% of all mission-critical systems are finished, codswallop that he and everyone else knows to be untrue. In the same document he says

For many others, including smaller businesses and local governments, there is still work to do between now and the end of the year. I urge them to make every effort possible to fix as many computer systems as they can, and to develop contingency plans if they are needed.

This with only two weeks to go! Thanks for the advice, sir, but where were you three years ago when it might have made a difference?

I am ashamed of my country. I am ashamed of our leaders, elected and unelected, Democrat and Republican alike. They know whats about to go down. They know the truth. They know. They have let us down.

There is a cartoon on the front page of todays SF Chronicle. It shows Lucy taking the football away from Charlie Brown. That is what our leaders have done to us. And next year, that is what we will do to them.

I got up in the dark this morning and put on black shoes and brown socks, and have been slinking around all day hoping the geekettes dont notice. Its been that kind of day. I hate when that happens ...

-- Alan Rushby (arushby@yahoo.com), December 15, 1999.

Agreed...

Alan,

Politicians have put politics and markets above all else and we act surprised. I've been of the listserv of Sally's community action group and have seen many appeals to various "leaders" like Greenspan, Klinton to sound the alert. I've been amazed that although these are courageous, tireless heroes in their communities who have fought stupidity to the best of their abilities, they are naive to think that Klinton, of all people, or ANY of the elites will come clean with the truth. He is in office precisely because of his stealth ability to hide the truth with help from the media. Capers Jones briefed this man in late 1997 on Y2K. I think he's just simply one of the denial heads or he's an emotional child that can't bring himself to do the right thing. This can only spell disaster at this late date.

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), December 15, 1999.

It really is too late. the die is cast. lets hope Bill is right and 99.9% of everything is really okay. othewise it will be social darwinism at its finest. Sally you tried and the credit is yours no matter how it turns out.

-- Noone (Noone@none.com), December 15, 1999.

Sally,

I watched the PBS show you were on the other night. NICE JOB!!

Sally, one thing that stood out above all others on that show was the two government Guys were acting like robots. It was amazing to see the dichotomy of behaviour between what I would term civilians and government officials. Very Sad! indeed.

Robots I tell ya!!

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), December 16, 1999.

Great letter sally, I put my vote in for you to get the salt and light award. God's award for Love of our community in the face of blatent stupidity. Our leaders are stupid. they think they can top down manage this global f-8 digital superstorm that is fast approaching after the fact with very little advanced community preps. Nobody has ever seen a problem as large as y2k ever before.

It is stupid, If they think they can bluff and con the american people thru it they are wrong and very unwise. I do some volunteer work helping a homeless shelter in Ca. I have not seen any evidence that our Govt is preparing to deal with y2k as a disaster. From the standpoint of making extra essential supplies ready in the food network that currently is in place to help thru the shelters in a time of disaster. Fema hasnt done anything and neither has the red cross. If they were serious they would preposition supplies and equipment at every shelter that is currently in operation around the country in case y2k turns out to be real bad. Waiting till after the fact is going to create big problems. I think the administration's policy on y2k is a recipe for Big time failure (y2k may cause a decade long depression and a increased likely hood for a global envirnomental catastrope. Only responsible truthfull leadership at this time can avert a global y2k nightmare from unfolding. In order to preserve peace between nations and communities we need real honest leadership. All the leaders of the world know y2k is a serious problem. It is time to start working for the people their boss. If they dont they will reap what they sow.

This is what I would like to see Clinton or any world Govt leader do. Come out on national t.v with someone like Walter cronkite or Morgan freeman as spokesperson and say that you have all by now have heard of the y2k millenium bug that is a programming anomoly that can cause computers to mailfunction. Although our Govt and all other nations govt's from around the world and industries of every type have spent trillions of dollars trying to lessen the risk associated with failure of computerized sytems, we cannot assure that the y2k bug is completely fixed. Due to the complex nature of software and the immovable time constraints it is almost a certainty that some maybe even all areas of our nation will experience multiple mission critical failures in essential services and utilities that we have come to rely on as always being there. It is with great hope that I am commiting our govt to ready all nessary means at our disposal to lessen the impact and provide for a smooth as possible tranisition to the new millenium as possible given the circumstances. Here is our plan and we need your help to make it a suceess. To ensure that our communities elderly and poor are looked after during this time of inconvienance. Working together as a community we can ensure that we all have safepassage until our socities equipment is functioning again relably and properly. We need to work together here is the areas that will require our most diligent efforts. Thank you for your time and understanding then have someone like Dr schuller pray for the nation and encourage us to stay positively focused despite the tempary hardships that y2k may bring that God will see us thru it if we work together in the spirit of peace and love and Trust in God to see us thru it.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), December 16, 1999.