Letters

MILLENNIUM MADNESS

"The doomsday prophets need to get a life! In a universe that is 15 billion years old, the entire era of human existence is a nano-blip." JENNIFER L. WOOD Bakersfield, Calif.

When 2000 arrives, our undoing won't be a massive computer problem [Y2KY2KY2KY2KY2KY2K, Jan. 18] but the public's senseless panic triggered by the radical sensationalism surrounding the issue today. Instead of fueling fear, the media should reassure people that the new millennium is not something to be dreaded. But it may be too late. Just imagine what lies in store economically if terrified individuals begin making drastic withdrawals from bank accounts and selling off stocks. We would be better off sitting tight, staying calm and letting the computer programmers do their job rather than getting ready for a Judgment Day that may not come. ADRIENNE JO ODASSO Brookville, Pa.

Relax. God does not have a calendar. HAROLDINE TANDY Portland, Tenn.

What worries me most is the families you profiled in your millennium-bug cover. One has two rifles, a shotgun and a handgun. Another is buying rolls of toilet paper in Arkansas. While these people are shooting it out over the last piece of toilet tissue on New Year's Day, my family and I will be comfortably watching the Rose Bowl parade with all of our electric appliances working just fine. DOUGLAS A. HIKADE Mount Laurel, N.J.

Y2K will be the nonevent of the millennium. The only thing less likely than a catastrophe is that the profiteers who make a fortune off the gullible will refund everyone's money after being hit by "survivor's guilt" in January 2000. ANDREA CHESNEY Los Angeles

Oh, now I see. The "story" about Y2K isn't the billions of defective codes in mainframe computers or the 25 billion to 50 billion embedded chips. The blame doesn't go to shortsighted programmers or managers who procrastinated until it was too late to fix the problem or to a government that knew about the Y2K situation in 1995 but did little about it until 1998. The real issue with Y2K is American Christians who see serious potential problems and are making rational preparations. What an interesting spin you put on Y2K. LOREN JACOBS West Bloomfield, Mich.

There may be some computer problems as the year 2000 dawns, but the notion that there will be cosmic events in the supernatural realm is absolutely ludicrous. Here we are approaching the 21st century, and our folk culture is still stuck in a medieval mind-set, with all its superstitions. Jan. 1, 2000, will be just one more day in the life of Planet Earth. JOSEPH W. ADAMS Johnson City, Tenn.

Chris Taylor mentioned in his article "The History and the Hype" that "no one in the computer industry wanted to rock the boat..." by confronting the Y2K problem. Well, Apple Computer did, and thanks to the makers of Macintosh, Mac users do not have to worry about the Y2K bug in the operating system. Just imagine manpower expenses for those who did not rock the boat--whole nations could be given a free computer for every citizen. WOLFGANG SCHUBERT Tien Mou, Taiwan

I did not read in TIME any sensible explanation of why ICBMs and power plants (among other computerized junk) should go crazy on Jan. 1, 2000. If your experts cannot explain the time-bomb scare story, then they bring support to the concept of supernatural powers impacting the whole of information technology. I am going Quaker! CHRISTIAN ENLART Paris

How could the world collapse? Since Microsoft started to sell Windows, everybody has got used to collapsing systems. Every day a lot of computers break down, and it's not a big deal. In the year 2000 we'll have to face some new computer viruses sending frightening messages to us like HERE IS THE END OF THE WORLD, JUMP OUT THE WINDOW ASAP. GABOR NEMETH Szombathely, Hungary

Your sane pieces on the Y2K epidemic were guilty of a surprising omission. You neglected to address a question burning in the minds of all your readers: Will TIME stop? GEORGE BROWNSTONE Vienna

Instead of ridiculing people who are concerned about this computer bug, which can affect big parts of society all over the world, you could have asked the Big Names about the progress their companies have made on the Y2K bug. Can they give us written assurance that their computer systems are ready for the year 2000? Or will it become a big mess? ANNA LONT Amsterdam

LEMMINGS RUSH IN WHERE...

How can millions of Americans not see the real issue in President Clinton's behavior [NATION, Jan. 18]? I spent years of my army life involved with the West's nuclear confrontation with the U.S.S.R. That danger may have receded, but the fact remains that the President has responsibility for the lives of millions. Is it asking too much that he keep his mind totally committed to the gigantic tasks entrusted to him? PETER MACDONALD Bristol, England

Republicans in the House and the Senate are like a pack of lemmings rushing toward the nearest cliff. GLORIA CADET London

COMMITMENT TO SCIENCE

As the chair of an independent-research national committee that critically assessed the value of a federal Human Genome Project more than a decade ago, I disagree with those critics referred to in your article [THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE, Jan. 11] who assert that the project has been mismanaged. In fact, the Human Genome Project has been one of the most productive programs in all of science, owing to its commitment to catalyzing cooperative scientific work and making all data freely available, while involving a wide cross section of the research community in its rigorous planning process. BRUCE ALBERTS, PRESIDENT National Academy of Sciences Washington

CANCER RATES ACCESSED

Your report on Jan Schlictmann, the real-life civil-action lawyer [ENVIRONMENT, Jan. 18], stated that some neighbors of Suffolk County, N.Y.'s Brookhaven National Laboratory suspect a connection between the lab and the childhood cancer rhabdomyosarcoma. But a yearlong study commissioned by the county found that cancer rates near the lab were no different from those elsewhere, and that rhabdomyosarcoma seldom occurs near the lab. ROGER GRIMSON Department of Preventive Medicine State University of New York, Stony Brook Stony Brook, N.Y.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT JESSE!

If you are going to question Jesse Ventura's qualifications to be Governor of Minnesota [NATION, Jan. 18], you are going to have to define qualification. For the past month, I've been watching more than 500 "qualified" bozos scrambling through the hallowed halls of Congress trying to figure how to get out of the mudhole the House Judiciary Committee dumped them in. And you worry about Jesse? Ventura is a joy who got elected with votes, not big bucks. He not only doesn't owe anybody anything, he doesn't have to protect anybody--not that he couldn't. Jesse will do just fine. JACQUELYN RYSKAMP Baldwin, Mich.