LOOKING BACK AS WE MOVE FORWARD!

As we prepare to show the year 2015 the door, I took a look at some of the changes we have made since the turn of the Century just 15 years ago.

Just before our clocks and computer chips registered the year 2000, there was a rush to predict
the downfall of society as we had known it.  Years before the "fateful" date, workshops were
conducted for large and small businesses about what to do to avoid "meltdown."

Hospitals were not to schedule elective surgery as the new year came in.  Bank officials
were told to cancel all Christmas holiday vacations and to keep tellers at their stations, if needed overnight.  Travelers were told to prepare to "stay put" for the duration where ever they went.

Armageddon was predicted! Computers were not designed to accommodate the number 2000, or so we were told.

The catastrophe did not ocurr but in many cases we had to learn to adjust to new systems and technology. The months-long "panic" was for naught and we learned how susceptible we were to
to acting on misleading information.

In the late '90s and early on in 2000 we lost our homes because of manipulation of markets and because of our own desire and impatience to have what the "Jones Had."  Everyone, economist,
employer, employee and investor learned that recession wasn't pretty.

Midway, about 2007, we watched incredible feats of technology to explore
our Universe or what we thought was our Universe.  We worked alone and with others
to advance our understanding of the limitations of our own knowledge
and the infinite possibilities before us when we worked across borders.

Science was able to prevent and overcome diseases like EBOLA, HIV AID, and Cancer
even as we still listened to the voices of the uniformed who told us it was a governmental
conspiracy or worse yet the advances were sacreligious.

In the past three or four years the voices of people my age and older  have become shrill and our thinking misguided as if in a stupor. Our actions have been less than wise.  We sit, transformed by
entertainment as we attempt to legitamize candidates who play us for fools.

We lament the killings in the streets but are afraid to put away guns.  We advocate fair play for all but not those who look  "different."  We know right from wrong yet we accept inhuman treatment of prisoners, veterans and our own at the hand of those we have hired to protect us under the law.

We have watched with sorrow and sometimes a sense of guilt that we do not question the daily injustice to men, women and children who are members of our community, even as we are mesmerized by those who take advantage of the down trodden.

Younger people call out to us but they go unheard.  We are too busy slaying a dragon.  It is
too difficult to listen or to recognize that the very enemy who shall defeat us is our inability
to deal with the changes we need to make. Or like the great philosopher Pogo said,
"We have met the enemy and he is us!"

Have a good, healthy New Year!  See you at the Polls!