It seems that an increasing number of patriots are coming down with a case of the Millennial Flu. This debilitating ailment is caused almost exclusively by looking too long and too often at a calendar. Once afflicted, the unfortunate sufferer begins to lose hope of ever recovering. Somewhat like watching too much televison, the victim loses interest in life, becomes apathetic, and ceases to give important affairs the attention which they rightly deserve. Yet what is so special about January 1, 2000 that strikes fear into the hearts of the brave and the true?

It isn't even the beginning of the millennium, which doesn't commence until January 1, 2001. So a bunch of computers are going to go postal on New Year's Day, 2000. Why should they be any different from you and me? We're going to wake up with huge headaches and wonder what time it is. Now they're also going to know how it feels.

Everybody's always hollering about what a problem this is going to be. So just how worked up should we be? Personally, if I was really concerned about the problem, I would take the time right now to set my own computers' clocks up to 1/1/2000 and see if they still work. I haven't however and I'll just bet that you haven't bothered either. Which is exactly what a whole bunch of bureaucrats and businessmen are doing about it as well. The prudent and the smart have already checked their own systems out and either don't have a problem, have a fix underway, or a new system on order. I don't have any time-sensitive data in my system, so if the box won't rock in the year 2000, I'll just set my clock back to 12/31/99 every day for a couple of months until I can get around to buying a new one.

This is going to be a perfect illustration of Darwinism-- survival of the fittest. Maybe the IRS won't have a system that works. Gosh, I'm sure concerned about that. Aren't you? The whole Treasury Department might not issue a single check to a single bureaucrat. I'm real wound up about that, too. Do you know what happens when these lazy, improvident grasshoppers can't issue their own checks? The system gets fixed-- RIGHT AWAY. Or some ingenious patch is devised to keep things running until it all gets properly straightened out. The world will not cease to turn.

There will be no insidious Chinese or Russian BOOB strike (Bolt Out Of the Blue) any more than there will be an invasion from Neptune. Don't forget that the Chinese and Russians had to steal or otherwise divert American-built supercomputers for use as the brains of their weapons programs. Whatever problems we may have, at least we still have the owner's manual and the guys who designed the darned things. Probably more than half of the computer talent in the entire world is in the United States. If January 1, 2000 is a problem, we may be more vulnerable because of our relatively greater sophistication but we also have the lion's share of the available mechanics and talented amateurs.

Don't forget that our sophistication translates into newer software and hardware-- and therefore less exposure to millennial glitches. America's other great advantage over the rest of the world is that damned old Yankee ingenuity. Now that we are sucking the best brains out of every other culture on the planet, our ability to cope and overcome is even greater still. Remember that everyone else is wired in to our systems one way or the other. If we sneeze, a lot of other countries are going to need a doctor real bad. No matter what happens however, the sun is going to come up on the year 2000. The crops are going to grow and the rain is going to fall on the just and unjust alike.

Free Enterprise works on a simple premise: trust that the other guy is doing his job just as you are doing yours. This is why we expect to find gas at the station and food in the stores-- because millions of individuals all over the planet are feeding their little bit into the vast stream of commerce. Just as you are going to still be on the job on January 1, 2000, so too will the programmers and firemen and air force. Communism, or any other ism, assumes that the other guy is asleep at the switch and can best be motivated by a gun barrel jammed in the nape of his neck. If that is the "cure" for the Millennial Flu, you can count me out and a bunch of other Americans as well. I'll dance with the girl I brought to the prom. She's been mighty good to me so far and I trust that we'll get home alright.

Let me ask you this: Why should you alter your conduct in any way just because of the date? If this were 1968 instead of 1998. would you still be worried about all of this end-of-the-world stuff? If you have lived an honest and righteous life to this point, why should you alter your behavior? Do you know where it gives the date for Christ's return in the Bible? NOWHERE!!! Do you know Christ's answer when he was asked the date of his return? EVEN HE DIDN'T KNOW!!!! That information belonged to Almighty God himself and he wasn't sharing it with anybody. Live your life as if there was going to be a tomorrow. Trust in God in exactly the same way as he trusts in you. Do your job and have a little faith that he is doing his. Don't give up. Stand. Stand and fight.

This isn't the End Of The World but a new challenge on a new horizon. I'm betting that Americans can climb this new mountain. I'm also betting that we can reach the top first. I'm even betting that we'll have a hand to offer to the less-enterprising. I don't fear the future any more than I fear that God will forsake those who faithfully stand their watch on the walls.

Then outspake brave Horatius, The captain of the gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods?

The Union forever