Letter to the Editor, February 2000

Apalachin Community Press Gets 21st Century Right

To the Editor,

Thank you for showing that the entire publishing world has not lost its collective mind. I'm referring to the "Happy 2000" article in the January issue that correctly states that the 21st Century doesn't begin until January 1, 2001. Leave it to a small town paper like the Community Press to get it right when virtually all of the liberal "journalists" in the national media got it wrong.

Over the last 5 months or so I've written to maybe a dozen news organizations to point out that they were making a factual error by stating

that the 21st Century would begin on January 1, 2000. About 75% of them

responded; all of the responses stated that they were well aware of this error but were going along with the general public perception. A couple of the responses were downright huffy, as in "Of course we know how to read a calendar...", etc., etc. One even claimed to be trying to avoid offending the public. Imagine that, a journalistic organization worried about offending people by telling them the truth?! I always thought that correcting common misconceptions by publishing the facts was part of their job. And isn't it more likely that people would be offended by being lied to?

While we're on the subject of lying, there was also President Clinton's response in December to this question on CBS News. He basically said that

he was going along with the majority of Americans who think the 21st Century begins on January 1, 2000. Shocking, huh? Our president aligns himself with public opinion instead of with the facts? Stop the presses!

I suspect this all began as an honest mistake caused by the difference

between how the calendar lists the years and how people are used to measuring periods of time such as their age. For example, a person's 30th birthday (the day they "turn 30") is the first day of their 31st year on the planet. When they give their age as 30, they're giving the number of whole years that they've been alive, not which year of life they're currently in.

The calendar works the opposite way; we're currently in the 2000th year AD, and like the 30-year-old mentioned above, the calendar will "turn 2000" on

the first day of the 2001st year AD.

Still, if this were all just an honest mistake, why would reputable journalistic organizations have a problem with admitting their error and

correcting it? It seems that perhaps the people they're really worried about offending are all of their sponsors who are raking in big bucks by promoting special "Millennium 2000" versions of their products. Fast forward to sometime in late summer when these hucksters suddenly feel obligated to report that, oops, the 3rd Millennium really doesn't begin until 2001 and those "Millennium 2000" products missed the mark. Aw shucks!

Not to worry, as their shelves are now stocked with the official "Millennium 2001" versions!! Just have your credit card handy and call 1-800-SHAFT-ME to place your order. You say it can't happen? You say that a once-in-a-millennium marketing opportunity just can't come along two years in a row? We'll see.

Bernie Letner

Apalachin