In the Bible, there's always a relevant story. Today's selection is the book of Jonah.
In the book that bears his name, the prophet Jonah decided to flee his reponsebilities and flee to Spain. As we know, he was thrown overboard, eaten by a giant fish and spit out on the shores of Lebanon, where he trudged to Niveneh and prophesies that city's doom. If the people didn't repent, the city would be destroyed.
The people of Niveneh believed Jonah, and repented. God saw, and canceled the holocaust. Jonah was furious, and the book ends with him fuming, and looking like a fool.
In the House debates this week on the financial bailout, a number of congresscritters derided the bill using the example of the Y2K crisis. They didn't remember! How many millions of dollars and 'man-hours" of work were spent to fix that? The problem was solved and thus nothing happened. People were like Jonah and were pissed that the world didn't come to an end, and there's an urban legend, which was trotted out in the congressional debate, that there was never a problem to begin with. After all, nothing happened, right?
Actually, several third world computer networks were seized up, but that didn't make big headlines in the international press. Y2K became a joke of premeture panic. No one remembers all that work to fix the problem before it became a problem.
If the problem is solved this week nothing will happen. That's why we have to solve it now while nothing could still happen. Remember that.
Thus endeth the lesson.