Rusty Saber: 'Jettison the bad stuff' for new year

Two weeks in a row I've been slightly out of sync. My early deadline combined with Christmas falling on a Saturday with no mail delivery, led to the Rusty Saber Christmas column reaching readers a couple of days after Christmas.

Well, I still have the early deadline, and New Year's Day is Saturday. By the time this issue hits the streets, the year 2000 will have been ushered in. As you read this, you will know if Y2K lived up to its advance billing. You know what I don't know as I write this: Did disaster hit the computers that rule the world? Or did Y2K lay an egg and nothing much happened?

I suppose if it were the worse-case scenario and Y2K wiped out such things as electric power, you are reading this by candlelight, assuming you received this issue of SBJ. Come to think of it, with no electricity the presses couldn't turn out this issue. If Y2K zapped the gasoline supply, the mail carrier couldn't have delivered this issue. What the heck, I'm assuming you are reading this the same as always. I just hope my laptop computer didn't crash.

I've never been much of a New Year's Eve party sort of guy. Instead of frolicking my way into the new year, I greet it sort of philosophically. To me, the new year gives us an opportunity to start over, to get it right this time. We may have messed up almost everything last year, but come midnight, Dec. 31, the world's odometer turns over, and a new calendar awaits. It's a whole new year and a whole new ball game.

If you're like me and take a similar philosophical view of the change from old to new, you vow to keep on doing whatever it was you did right last year and jettison the bad stuff. I do it, but it usually takes until, I don't know, Jan. 15 to revert to last year's bad habits. New Year's Day allows us to change our ways, even if the change doesn't last long.

The end of the year is a time for reflection, not only on my life, but the world around me. I expect you do the same. If so, we follow the look back with a look ahead to what the new year holds. For instance, we can look back and rejoice that there was no presidential election in 1999, which means we were spared the glut of political rhetoric that thankfully comes only every four years.

Of course, in 1999 we did have what I call the six P's: Potential-Pre-Presidential Primary Political Pronouncements, where wannabe candidates test the water. However, this is fairly easy to ignore.

Looking ahead, 2000 is a presidential election year. Gracious, we can only hope that other really good things will happen to offset the mud that is bound to fly through the air prior to the election in November.

Looking back at 1999, there were wars and rumors of wars. During the old year, an uncommon number of tin horn dictators took it upon themselves to commit mass mayhem against helpless people. I don't know about you, but I hope that in 2000, some way will be found to rid the world of these murderers disguised as statesmen.

Looking back at Springfield's 1999, growth again has been a big item, a bigger issue in '99 because of such things as the intense expansion of the James River Freeway area, East Sunshine and South Glenstone beyond the Battlefield Mall. The hostility of homeowners was equally intense toward growth-induced traffic that threatened the tranquillity of their neighborhoods. More to come in 2000 and beyond.

The really big story of '99 was the revival of downtown Springfield, which hit its peak with the naming of the Jordan Valley Park project.

It appears the park and other downtown projects, including possible athletic facilities, will dominate 2000 news events. It won't happen overnight, but if all goes as planned, eventually downtown Springfield will become a major tourist attraction.

The exclamation point on 2000 will be the Wonders of Wildlife Museum at Bass Pro Shops. While it didn't attract a lot of news in 1999, it may be the news story of 2000. My research on the museum for a recent Rusty Saber column convinced me that it has the potential to be a really big national tourist attraction when it opens its doors in 2001.

Yes, 2000 will be a good year. Enjoy it. Happy New Year!

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury College and a Springfield public relations consultant.)