Year-End Hysteria (Bring Back the Millennium Bug!)

The end of this year brings to mind some of the end-of-year hysteria that accompanied the turn of the millennium. People generally are woefully misinformed, and I have heard many opinions expressed at the end of this year, without a ton of facts to support them. The attempted bombing in Detroit did rattle me personally a little bit, with some direct ties between my dad's job and the events in the news. I worried for him and for my mom, who worries already about dad's safety. But I'm trying not to leap to conclusions, especially about Nigeria, Yemen, and these "new threats" despite the best efforts of the media to raise interest levels in threat assessments, wars, and other "exciting" news. The speculation at the end of 2000 was that something catastrophic would happen due to computer dates not being set correctly. That fear seems quaint after the events of 9.11.2001, but I hope the new mindset of the U.S. being at war with "Islamic extremists" does not result in more hatred. We seem to be in a cycle of violence based on fear and misunderstanding on both sides. The reaction of Fox News to the attempted bombing has been to inflame already aggravated emotions. I know because my father-in-law was watching Fox News on Christmas Day, and his opinion has been set by their drumbeat demands that the President label "the enemy," together with his natural conservative leanings. An antidote to this may be to hope for something better in the future, focus on family and friends and keep trying to learn more about the people in these countries than can be reported in the media.