Before I begin my column about the best and worse of 1997, here is an update concerning my last column about the Clinton-Tripp-Lewinsky mess. I received tons of email from my readers and here is the general consensus of what you told me as written in by Jane, 45, a mother of three from Minneapolis

"For the first time I actually found myself turning the television off because I got so tired of hearing about the Lewinsky/Clinton mess. Who cares even if it did happen! And what really angers me is how the press just kept bleeding this thing dry, to get every ounce of rumor out to get ratings. All of the networks, including CNN needed to me reminded by their viewing audience that we are not a bunch of idiots out here, and that this sort of thing needs to be left in the bedroom, hallway, or wherever it supposedly happened, if it did happen. I simply cannot believe this whole mess! And to think so far we, the taxpayers have funded over seven million dollars of our tax dollars for Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr to investigate this mess. Boy, we sure are becoming dumb taxpayers when we let this and other political situations continue to go on, and on, and on, and on. Maybe someday, we will wake up, but probably only after we realized that our last dollar has been taken from us to pay for such ridiculous things."

Jane certainly wrote in a mouthful, and represents the general consensus of hundreds of emails I received about this...on to more informative things

The best and worse of 1997, that can depend on what events and the effects they caused afterwards. Here is some Food For Thought on some of them.

The U.S. and World economy remains strong, but at what expense? In the U.S., corporations are planning for major layoffs in early 1998, moving plants to countries where labor is at little as $1.00 and hour. Our national debt is now over 1.7 TRILLION DOLLARS.

NASA's MARS Pathfinder explored the red planet Mars and we got a peek at what has ben termed our sister planet. And the discovery of possible prior bacterial microbes in rocks certainly caused a buzz, however, any planet that has had asteroids hitting into it probably has these, life, even as small as bacterial microbes do exist in the universe. What I would like to finally know is this. Is there a real face on Mars along with ancient pyramids and ruins? If this is true, this will certainly cause a religious upheaval on this planet of something you've never seen before.

Princess Diana's death. Very, very sad to have lost such a person that was creating so much good in the world through her charitable efforts such as AIDS, The World Child Organization and others. This loss was felt throughout the world. Is there even the remote possibility that there was some conspiracy behind he death because of her relationship with Fahid. Was there an actual car that was seen leaving immediately after the crash as reported by two doctors that were driving behind Diana's car that night?

Men In Black was the year's biggest box office hit. Hm....I wonder how much this to do with the ever growing interest of the world's population in extraterrestrial life in the universe?

Scientists in Scotland cloned a sheep, Dolly. I don't know about you, but I think we are starting to delve into such areas as this that we have no business delving into, regardless of the benefits of science. This can open up a whole bags of worms for the human race, for you know, once they get this down pat on animals, you know what they will want to do next, humans? And who wants a carbon copy of yourself walking around, although it might be handy for spare parts, ( just kidding!) However, in early 1998, the scientists that cloned Dolly are now not sure if she is a true "clone". By the way, anyone know what a true "clone" is?

Irag's Sadam Hussein confronted the UN again. Not again! How many times will the world put up with this threat before they finally realize they need to do something before we all wake up one morning breathing chemical warfare. Hopefully the currents in early 1998 will put him in his place within the world community.

There were several celebrities that passed on in 1997. John Denver, Jimmy Stewart, Mother Teresa just to mention a few. And then there were the celebrities that hit the news with news. Ellen Degeneres on Ellen shocked the nation on television with the first female to female mouth kiss. Farrah Fawett appeared in Playboy. Kathee Lee Gifford's husband, Frank Gifford got caught. Barbra Steisand becomes engaged with actor James Brolin. Singer Pat Boone started dressing in heavy metal leather and released a heavy metal album. Jackie Onassis died. The Spice Girls start to become a thing worldwide. Kevin Costner keeps trying to have a blockbuster movie, but keeps bombing. And last but least, Ted Turner starts giving away millions to help where needed, and is criticized by other multimillionaires for doing so.

Now those are some of the events and people that seemed to stand out the most. However, what I find more interesting are these little tidbits, which are informative, amusing and everything in between, and believe it or not these things did happen or are for real.

In St. Mary West Virginia, a court judge Joseph Troiso walked down from his bench and bit a defendant Bill Witten on the nose after Witten insulted him. I hope Witten has a current tetanus shot.

In a national survey, most workers complain that their place of work is either too cold in the winter time, or too hot in the summer time.

The first peanut butter flavored toothpaste for dogs begins to be manufactured by Crazy Dog Toothpaste.

A man attempting to rob a shoe store in Wyoming, shot himself in the toe during the robbery, needless to say he got caught very easily.

The worst promotional stunt ever done on a commercial flight was during American Airlines flight from Austin Texas to Miami. A man strongly resembling Fidel Castro was put on the flight as part of the promo. Just as the plane began to taxi out into the runway to takeoff, the man announced, "This is Fidel Castro, and I'm gong to fly you to Miami." They had also put a Carmen Miranda aboard. Needless to say, the incident caused quite an uproar with passengers against American Airlines.

Overall, 1997 was a year when most Americans were not concerned about losing their jobs, or having major upheavals. However, in a few parts of the country, this was not true. In some parts, factories were being shut down, people lost jobs, small cities lost huge numbers of their taxpayers, moving on to larger cities to find work. Worldwide, you saw the decrease of hunger in some countries, while in others you saw thousands starving to death

Worldwide, weather conditions were starting to be the most unpredictable compared to the last ten years because of El Nino. Rains and floods where they normally don't have it, and drought where they normally have abundant rainfall such as in Hawaii. The average world temperature increased by 1/2 degree to 1 degree in some parts of the world. Global warming becoming a fact?

And then the Clinton-Tripp-Lewinsky mess started to unfold. No, I'm not going to write anymore about that for now, enough has been said thank you

I believe that 1997 also was a year where many people worldwide (and I base this on my emails from my readers all over the world,) were in search of spiritual enlightenment, searching for more that what the standard religions have offered. The awakening of the world kundalini I believe started, and a new dawn for mankind's spirituality has begun that will bring mankind into the 21st century with a new sense of fulfillment. I also believe this will be associated very closely with our actual CONTACT with other life from other planets in the early part of the 21st century. Not to say that we haven't already had contact, its' just that mankind will formally be made aware of them. I believe that certain world governments have been in contact with other intelligent life not from this planet for quite sometime.

That leads to the conclusion I believe that mankind has begun an awakening that will lead them to the understanding that is is mankind's inhumanity to mankind that creates the problems in the world, and by understanding this, will begin to heal itself for a better world.