Where is the bridge to somewhere? And is it virtual or real? Good solid bridges with long histories are those you can look at, ride over, and find on the road atlas. How about the bridge to the 21st Century?
On December 31, 1999 things seemed a little precarious. Those prone to superstition, aided and abetted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, could reel off numbers to prove that we were coming to the jumping-off place. Those threatened by computers needed technical reassurance. Techies explained how memory deprived early computers were. Back when some computers had only 2k, meaning 2048 bits of memory, every bit counted. A bit is one binary digit, which is either off or on in the computer. To use space by putting “19" on the front of the year was wasteful. It could be patched, however. And river locks would work, plumbing would function, hospital ORs would have lights. There were plenty of old programmers to code the fixes. We trainees from the 60s knew about such things. I have a friend who hooked up with an outsourcing firm in Washington D.C. and worked for nearly two years in the offices of WorldCom. The division of the company which had once been MCI was important to the government for communications. Things worked out for everyone except for Bernie Ebbers who didn’t know how to keep books.
For my part, as 2000 A.D. was approaching I felt a sense of wonderment. On TV, I watched celebrations from around the globe. The world is not flat, after all!
“Weird” and “spooky” set the adjectival tone in those days. Before two years played out in the new millennium, we were stuck with “scary.” I still prefer to dwell on some positive actions leading up to the calendar shift. For one, Knoxville had a new publication. Our local writing group hosted a columnist from the Knoxville News Sentinel. That night I got a good feel for the writing of Tom Wolfe. The columnist, Don Williams, and I jabbered a little about Ken Kesey. He came to tell us about a new magazine he started. Through it, I became acquainted with Cormac McCarthy, specifically with his early novel Suttree. The publication turned out to be more than just another little mag. Check it out at http://www.newmillenniumwritings.com/ where the rules for submissions are posted, as well as the winning entries. Don still writes a weekly column for Friday’s edition of the Sentinel, the latest taking the MSM to task.
Since Bill Clinton first introduced his idea of a bridge to the 21st Century, some water has run under it. By reading his book and hearing about his foundation, it’s obvious that President Clinton treats the issue seriously. However, it certainly doesn’t resonate in most publications, nor with the general public. Perhaps it’s too much to hope that a virtual bridge can rest on concrete pillars.