including those of Father Abraham inrnRichmond in 1865 and Powhatan Beatv’,rna black Medal of Honor recipient. Thernproposed murals were displayed in a civicrncenter, and the public was invited torncomment. After more than 800 peoplernoffered their opinions, the murals were finallyrnapproved. The recommendationrnwas generally well received: A RichmondrnTimes Dispatch poll found that a vast majorit}’rnof all races —81 percent—supportedrndisplaying the picture of Lee.rnIf racial harmony was his objective, El-rnAmin could have surrendered to publicrnopinion and dropped his opposition. Instead,rnhe proposed that the City Councilrnorder the removal of all the pictures,rnclaiming that “white supremacy underliesrnthe whole issue.” He called anyrnwhite person who disagreed with him arn”racisf and any black, an “Uncle Tom.”rnIgnoring El-Amin’s race-baiting rhetoric,rnthe council defeated his proposalrneight to one. Infuriated, the Coalition forrnRacial Justice announced that its membersrnwould “shun” two black councilmen,rnincluding W. R. “Bill” Johnson, Jr.,rnbecause they “voted with the white folks,”rnThey picked on the wrong man. Johnson,rna former Marine, asked, “Who arernthey to tell us who we can or can’t talkrnto —like we’re a bunch of sheep?” Hernadded that “Folk need to have a littlerngumption. It’s the same thing with dealingrnwith a bully. You take so much, thenrntake it to him. Once you do, you’ll find arnpaper tiger.”rnAs Orwell cautioned, history is writtenrnby those with power, and it is power—notrn”reconciliation,” “tolerance,” “diversit}’,”rn”harmony,” or “equality”—that the El-rnAmins of the world desire. Who mightrnbe the next target, as their appetite forrncultural destruction is whetted? UnlessrnAmericans of all races stand unitedrnagainst these demagogues, we may findrnthat we have no history left.rn— Lynn HopewellrnYlK has come and gone, and the modernrnworld (for good or ill) is still standing.rnIn the United States, business and governmentrnspent heavily on Y2K fixes; inrnforeign countries, much less. Yet the resultsrnwere similar: Y2K was a false alarm.rnWliy were so many computer-savvy peoplernmistaken?rnThe reason computers did not comerncrashing to a halt when faced with the decisionrnwhether to classifi’ “00” as “1900”rnor “2000” is simple enough: They cannotrntell time. They respond to counting programsrnthrough electronic or mechanicalrnmeans only; imlike men, they are notrnconscious. By labeling complicated storagernsystems as “memory,” the “experts”rnhad set the stage for the fiasco. The Russiansrn—who, at least, understand the significancernof philosophy—were not overlyrnconcerned about Y2K. It was the “pragmatic”rnAmericans who fell for it.rnWliat lay behind the Y2K hysteria wasrna fundamental misunderstanding of howrnwe become aware of time. Electrical impulsesrnrunning through a silicon chiprncannot enable an unconscious machinernto develop a sense of the past, anv morernthan a tree’s annual rings cause it to recallrnan earlier winter. We become aware ofrntime through the human faculty of memory.rnIn the absence of memor)’, an awarenessrnof time could not be acquired simplyrnby observing changes in perceptualrnpatterns. Memory is more than mere retention.rnIt shows us that the past once ex-rnB O O K OF NEXT MONTH 1rnOur book for next month is Dark Rivers ofrnthe Heart by Dean Koontz. This paranoidrnthriller is the popular novelist’s best effortrnto date. The son of a psychotic ladykillerrndiscovers that his dad is just ,„,ammrnan amateur villain compared with j|Hrngovernment agents who only want to ^Brnhelp. Please note that, like many of ^rnKoontz’s novels, Dark Rivers is not for thernfaint of heart. “rn^ ^ ^ ^ 9 ^ ^ ^ .rn^91^rnisted and that a present exists, and it indicatesrnthat a future will come. Lackingrnthis faculty, computers cannot truly recognizernthat something occurred in thernpast (say, 1900) in contrast to the presentrn(2000).rnTime is not a subjective reality. Tornborrow an example from my book. ThernStance of Atlas: Wlien we say that a boy isrnnow 18 years of age, we could mean that,rnsince he was born, the earth has traveledrnaround the sun 18 times. But “since” is arntemporal term, and so is “was.” Thisrnstatement of the boy’s age cannot bernmade without reference to the past, present,rnor future. Clearly, those 18 revolutionsrnwere independent of the boy’s existencernat age 18. They might havernoccurred even if all humanit)’ had died—rnor even if there had never been any lifernon earth.rnSince men become aware of timernthrough the facultv’ of memory and notrnthrough a mechanical comparison ofrnperceptions, and since time is neitherrnmental nor physical, but simply a fact,rnhow could an unconscious computerrnchip develop such an understanding?rnAnd so the Y2K fiasco originated in anrnunwillingness to recognize the essentiallyrnhuman character of memory, which allowedrncomputer programmers to ascribernthis faeult)’ to mechanical systems of retentionrn—and to ignore the fact that thernver}’ existence of human memory pointsrnbeyond Man to his Creator.rn— Peter EricfeonrnOBITER DICTA: Matija Beckovic, arnMontenegrin, wrote and publishedrn”Amerika” in Belgrade during the NATOrnbombing. The poem was translatedrnfor Chronicles by our editor, ThomasrnFleming. Mr. Beckovic, who serves onrnthe Crown Council, is considered therngreatest living Serb poet.rnOur second poet this month is JamesrnEverett Kibler. A professor of English atrnthe University of Ceorgia, Dr. Kibler isrnthe author of Our Fathers’ Fields and thernforthcoming Poems From ScorchedrnEarth.rnChronicles is illustrated by our art director,rnH. Ward Sterett of Roscoe, Illinois.rnMr. Sterett received his B.F.A.rnfrom the University of Colorado and hisrnM.F.A. from Northern Illinois University,rnand attended the L’Abri Fellowship,rnwhere he studied the effect of Christianityrnon art. He currently works as a sculptor,rnpainter, and printinaker in Roscoe.rn8/CHRONICLESrnrnrn