RobertXGillis

By Robert Gillis
Published in the Foxboro Reporter, 1/2001

What if they gave a millennium and no one cared?

Unlike the galactic hype accompanying New Year’s Eve 2000, the dawn of the true millennium seemed almost a non-event. Besides the inevitable comparison of the predictions made in “2001: A Space odyssey” to the current world, even the media didn’t devote an enormous amount of coverage to this New Years.

In fact, New Year’s 2001 seemed such a non-event that the bigger news story was the blizzard that wasn’t. For a week, the meteorologists were heralding the upcoming blizzard as the biggest since the April Fool’s Storm of 1997.

We reacted as predicted; over New Year’s weekend the bread shelves at supermarkets were emptied and the lines at the video stores were twenty deep. By Saturday afternoon, with all of us hunkered down with our survival gear (milk, bread, chocolate, movies) we gradually noticed that the snow had stopped and a loud chorus of “That’s it?” resounded. That night, the disappointment in the meteorologist’s faces was so obvious it was funny.

But the relatively mild storm allowed First Night to continue, and the next night, thousands of people crowded into Boston and countless other New Year’s activities, but there was something missing. Something different. In hindsight, it was obvious: This year, New Year’s failed to deliver.

But how could it not? The celebration a year ago was planet-wide in its scope; the largest and most unbelievable celebration any of us have ever seen. It was wonderful. It was glorious. All of humanity partied.

We expected that something amazing was coming. We had been “millenniumed” for four years. We had been flooded and saturated with millennium this and Y2K that.

And then, 2000 unfolded, and turned out to be an ordinary year. Events big and small happened, holidays came and went, and the universe continued to expand. Locally, there were many memorable events in 2000; some were wonderful, and others gave new meaning to the word tragedy.

But in the end, worldwide, 2000 was just another year. Certainly the biggest coming our party any year has ever seen, but still just a year. Nothing more or less.

Every December 31, as we ring in the New Year, we expect things to be different. To be better. We want to file away the previous year and start fresh. We reminisce, party a little or a lot, and make grand resolutions we probably can’t keep, and hope everything will be new and shiny in the morning

But the icy jangle of the alarm clock wakes us up on January 2, and the world is still the same. It’s still the dead of winter, cold and dark out, the sun remains a dim and ineffective 40-watt light bulb in the sky, and we return to the routine of life. School. Work. Ice. Cold. Snow. Bills.

At its core, New Year’s is a great time to reflect, to reminisce, to make resolutions and hope for a better year, but beyond that, we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Resolutions will be made and broken repeatedly, and things will not change overnight. As the song goes, “All is quiet on New Year’s Day, nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” Real change is gradual, and often takes place while we’re too busy to notice.

Happy REAL millennium!

by Robert Gillis
Published in The Foxboro Reporter 1/2000

Well, we made it.

The lights are still on, the computers didn’t crash, the planes stayed in the sky, ATMs still gave us cash, the nuclear missiles remained nestled all snug in their silos, and we had enough water and food.

It’s time to knock on the doors of all those bomb shelters in Arkansas and Montana and let them know that Y2K wasn’t the end of the world. Then again, the rest of us are probably safer if all those shotgun-toting, canned good stocking folks stay right where they are.

Surprisingly, after years of reading about Y2K and apocalyptic events ad neaseum, it has been an amazing, and exciting couple of days. The reality was much better than the hype.

On December 31, I was up at the hour my Army friend Sean refers to as “Oh-Dark-Thirty” to see the initial 2000 transition in New Zealand. Like the manned moon landing and the wedding of Charles and Diana, it was something I wanted to see live. I’m glad I did.

Hours later, I arrived at work and was pleased to see that the Internet was still on-line. CNN provided up to the minute coverage of year 2000′s hourly progress across the Earth. Happily, there were no major noteworthy Y2K glitches. Hour after hour, the Y2K problems proved to be minor inconveniences and nothing more. Everything was still working.

(While some may now say the Y2K thing was over-hype, it is important to remember that the reason Y2K barely registered a hiccup on most systems is that people all over the world have been working for four years to fix the problem.)

As New Year’s Eve progressed, I found myself in absolute awe at the spectacle I was observing on television. Never in our lives have we seen such a perfect use of our amazing communications technology. This time, it wasn’t a tragedy or war that glued us to the TV — it was to share the joy of all people. In an unprecedented 24-hour broadcast, the entire planet watched a jubilant and exciting event unfold. Humanity shined this past weekend. As a planet, as a global community, as a family, we shined. Sure, it seemed that there was a friendly brand of national rivalry going on, with many countries trying to out-do each other’s celebrations, but what we really saw was a world-wide party and sense of community.

We saw images that will stay us forever: The spectacular meeting of old and new at the pyramids. The Eiffel Tower exploding in so many pyrotechnics It seemed ready to launch into space. The River Themes aflame with fireworks. A blizzard of confetti in a jam-packed Times Square. Dancing in China. Fireworks over Red Square. The frail Holy Father making a speech to the a crowd in the Vatican. The people of Berlin, united in celebration. And except for Iran, which celebrated the new century by calling for the destruction of Israel, it seemed that everyone else in the world was partying. Dancing. Singing. Rejoicing.

For what now seems like such a fleeting moment, we put aside all our concerns, problems and feuds, and concentrated on going to the party. We celebrated at home, with friends and family, and in gatherings large and small. There has never been a day like this one.

There were no bombs, no killing, no martial law, and no Armageddon. The threats of terrorism and violence were quietly dealt with behind the scenes — we may never know what might have happened, what almost happened, but here’s to everyone who protected the rest of us.

Much has been written and much will be written about this New Year’s to end all New Year’s. We have just witnessed something very unique, very special. We have celebrated something bigger than each of us. Something that will never happen again.

Things haven’t changed much, but we’ve all changed. We’ve all been to the party. We’ve all had the tiniest glimpse of how good things in the world could really be.

A new age has arrived. While the future is always uncertain, the one thing that can be said with absolute certainty is this: We have started on the right foot.

The guy being interviewed by ABC’s Peter Jennings, explaining how the date turnover went from in the LAST millennium (from A.D. 999 to 1000):

DCCCCLXXXXIX

to

M

By Robert Gillis
Published in the Foxboro Reporter 1/1/1999

Like the other six billion folks on the planet, the new millennium has been on my mind lately. You can’t help it; we’re being bombarded with magazine articles, news reports, and even the New Year’s Eve news broadcast led with two stories: The new Eurodollar, and Y2K. So I thought I’d lead off this year with some thoughts about the upcoming New Year’s to end all New Year’s.

Back in 1997 I wrote an irreverent column about the now well-known Y2K computer bug. I’m taking it more seriously these days, however. By now you’ve seen all the massive flood of articles and news stories, with experts around the world grandly predicting everything from minor inconveniences to the absolute end of civilization as we know it due to this computer glitch which will think the year is “1900.”

What’s interesting is how widespread the FEAR is. On the world wide web, there are literally thousands of sites dedicated to the Y2K bug, and I found that the sites seemed to be divided into two camps: The people selling software fixes for Y2K, and the doomsayers and survivalists. The survivalist web sites are extremely scary. Here are some quotes taken directly from a few Y2K survivalist sites:

“Learn about storing food in case delivery systems are disrupted. Read how to store water in case electricity isn’t always available. And most importantly, protect your money in case bank runs begin in late 1999.”

And:

“On December 31, 1999 the evening news is interrupted with a special briefing that parts of Japan have lost power as they rolled into January 1, 2000. News pours in from the Soviet Union, Australia, the Middle East and Europe: the power grid wasn’t 100% compliant after all. Cities are in the dark, and mass panic is starting to spread. But the ill-informed party on.”

And:

“…build custom waterwheels for landscaping purposes or for generating your own energy—are you prepared for the year 2000?”

Another site promises nationwide martial law, panic and bank runs.

Most people don’t buy the “end of the world” idea, and doubt society will collapse. But there is one certainty about Y2K: Regardless of what ANYONE says or predicts, we will not know its full ramifications and effects until January 1, 2000. Despite years of preparation and computer fixes, ultimately we have to just wait and see.

It makes good sense that you keep hard copy of your bank statements, 401K plans, and things like that. You may need them to refute the computer’s claim that you have eleven cents invested in your mutual fund (or that you don’t exist). Keep a good paper trail of your affairs this year. You may need it later.

Beyond that, I have no grand comments or philosophies for the millennium (you’re welcome) but I’m amazed by the sheer magnitude of it – the year 2000! Anyone reading this gets to live not only in two centuries, but two millenniums!

There sure are a lot of celebrations planned. The city of Paris has already installed a millennium countdown clock on the Eiffel Tower. As the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ approaches, Nazareth is bracing itself for a flood of pilgrims. Even M & Ms got into the act, calling themselves “the official spokescandies of the millennium,” after all, MM is 2000 in Roman numerals.

On December 31, 1999, the United States will turn over control of the Panama Canal to Panamanians. Thousands will flock to New Zealand and the pacific Islands to see the first sunrise of the millennium on Earth. Hundreds more plan to go to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine, to see the first sunrise in America.

Dick Clark will ring in the year 2000 in Time’s Square. First Night Boston will be a three day celebration. Many high-class restaurants have been booked for that night for years. And at last count there were more than 300,000 web sites devoted to the millennium.

And of course, there’s the debate: When does the 21st century really begin? Because there was no year “0,” there is the question of whether the new century beings in 2000 or 1999. Most everyone says “2000.” Ultimately, it’s no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but some people (mathematicians, mostly) are very passionate about the subject. I tend to agree with the man quoted in the Herald last week who said, “The millennium starts when everyone says it does.”

The year 2000 and new millennium will be many things to everyone across the planet. It’s the apocalypse for some, but millions of others will just want to, well, “party like it’s 1999.” Some others see 2000 as a time of reflection, others see it as a great opportunity to do retrospective television shows or magazine articles.

This one’s big, and probably the one event the entire planetary community will ever celebrate collectively.

Again, no cosmic thoughts here, no philosophy about 2000 (you’re welcome again). No matter what, the times ahead will be interesting. Happy New Year!