At the end of each year Dr. Kuiper reviews the events of the past year. Following is his year 2000 review, which he delivered on January 7, 2001.

The Year of Our Lord, 2000

This was the year whose dawn's early light revealed a world of relative tranquility, compared to the Y2K chaos predicted by some and feared by many.

No sooner were our Y2K fears laid to rest than the reality of Election 2000 began to dominate our attention.  AI Gore and George W. Bush emerged as the early favorites, though they faced serious challenges from Bill Bradley and John McCain.  After several election night prime time network flip flops, the election ended in Florida courts and ultimately the United States Supreme Court.  When Bill Clinton came to office eight years ago Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. As he leaves office, Republicans will control Congress and the White House for the first time since the early 50's.

Unemployment fell to an all-time record low of 3.9 percent and ended the year at 4 percent. While the economic boom extended into the beginning of the year, by year's end the stock market plummeted, claiming $3 trillion in investor wealth.  The emerging Internet world of dot.coms was hit particularly hard, with the demise of 130 online firms. Skyrocketing gasoline prices hit $2.13 a gallon at some service stations in Milwaukee.  Montgomery Wards closed its doors, and a Florida jury ordered several tobacco companies to pay a record $145 billion to smokers and their families.

This was the year of the Sydney Games—the Olympics that no one watched.  It was the year that Elian Gonzalez lost his mother in their flight to freedom, only to be stormed by federal agents in a predawn raid and sent back to Cuba.  This was the year that terrorists in a small boat planted explosives on the USS Cole, blasting a 40-foot gash in the ship and killing seventeen of our sailors.

This was the year Brown County voters approved a tax to help fund the $295 million renovation of Lambeau Field.  Meanwhile, in Milwaukee jurors awarded $99.5 million to the widows of three ironworkers killed in a crane collapse at Miller Park.  Across the parking lot, demolition began at County Stadium; and across town a section of the Hoan bridge fails and is taken down with explosives.  This was the year that 14-year Wisconsin governor, Tommy Thompson, received the call to Washington to serve the Bush Administration in Health and Human Services.

This was the year of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?,  The Survivor, and The West Wing. This was the year tolerant liberals censured would-be advertisers of the Dr. Laura television show, and mounted pressures to exclude the Boy Scouts from community United Way funding because of their position on homosexuality.

This was the year that the University of Indiana finally fired fiery basketball coach, Bobby Knight.  Packers tight end Mark Chmura faced sexual assault charges, and team mate Antonio Freeman likewise chose to make news almost anywhere but on the field.

Meanwhile in Madison, this was the year the football Badgers won their third Rose Bowl in five years. Hopes for a run at the national championship were dashed when several key players were suspended in the shoe scandal.  In basketball, the women Badgers were WNIT champions, and the men Badgers made it to the Final Four.  Meanwhile, closer to home, the Flying Dutchmen football team won their first conference championship in twenty-five years.

As a church family, we recognized the graduation of our doctor pastor in May.  During the year we witnessed the baptism of 9 infants, the adoption and baptism of 3 children, 8 professions of faith including 1 adult baptism, and 7 marriages, while we mourned the death of 2 members of the First CRC family.

This was the year of our Lord, 2000.