How do Americans celebrate New Year's Eve? The bars stay open and have bands or a DJ play music to bring in customers. Free hot dogs and sauerkraut is given away between eleven at night till midnight to help sober up the drunk customers. Some bars offer free transportation home if they believe the customer is too drunk to drive. Then there are the thousands who travel to Timers Square in New York City to watch to ball drop to greet the New Year. They bring their own food and refreshments while they wait in the freezing cold to help usher in the New Year. At midnight everyone hugs and kisses each other and there is no discrimination until the next day when they forget all their New Years Resolutions not to hate or judge others.

The churches celebrate the New Year but having prayer sessions. Some churches feel it is too dangerous to be on the roads because of drunk drivers so they arrange for all their members to start praying from their home to help bring in the New Year. The Catholic churches often have a midnight mass for congregation members to help insure the New Year is a good year.

The year 2001 starts a new millennium and hopefully a year that will bring about a lot of good changes in our world. No many people live to experience all the changes made in the last century so ask the people over eighty what it was like when they were young and I'll bet you realize you really have it better than they ever did.