Consider New Year's resolutions: As the calendar resets, most of us set goals for the coming year. That's the emphasis on seeing 12 months go by. Imagine the emphasis on seeing 1,000 years go by. That was the challenge for the Forum for the 21st Century, a discussion sponsored by UMass Boston, that addressed a celebration and New Year's resolution big enough for a millennium at its Feb. 18 meeting.
The Forum pulled together a group of panelists with diverse
perspectives on Boston's celebration, including Geri Guarino
(executive director of First Night), Michael Taylor (president of
Boston 2000), David Davies (a director of information technology for
the state's Department of Revenue), moderator Paul Guzzi (ceo of
Boston Chamber of Commerce), Hillel Schwartz (scholar and millennium
consultant) and Richard Landes (co-founder of Boston University's
Center for Millennial Studies). But the common theme among them
probably was summed up by David Lee, partner of an urban design firm
in Boston.
"I like to party as much as the next person, but I also want to make
sure everyone is invited to the party and that they are healthy,
well-fed and well-paid."
From addressing class disparity, to celebrating women and minorities
in Boston's history, to determining those societal ills that we don't
want to bring forward into the next millennium, the audience and
panelists turned over the stones of nearly every social issue in the
city. Still, underneath those stones, there weren't many easy
answers.
However, Schwartz, who has consulted on the millennium to groups
around the world, said that Boston appears ahead of many cities and
countries, not only in its planning but also in its desire to shape
its future.
"You are all going to be asked by your children, 'What did you do in
2000?'" he said. "If you tell them you watched a ball fall on
television, they won't be very impressed.
"If on the other hand you show them schools, forests, open land,
running water and say 'This is what I did,' then I think they will be
very impressed."