When you are in the deepest part of the valley, at the very bottom, your neck aches from looking up so often.

That is what the year 2001 was like. It started in an ordinary way and then the descent took place. People who watched their stocks go skyward soon learned that there are two directions - up and straight down. Those wonderful technology stocks made so many instant millionaires. The 40 year olds talking of retirement on an island in the South Pacific were brought suddenly back to Earth.

The term day trader became popular and then disappeared in a crash of reality and hard financial truth.

The faithful stayed at their altars of gain and watched the paper fortunes become just that - paper. Disbelief came slowly, almost like the loss of confidence that Santa Claus and the Easter bunny are not real.

On Sept. 11, the coup de gras was applied viciously and without any warning. It was a personal attack on the whole country and no one could hide from its fallout. Down and deeper into the abyss of fear and incomprehensibility the country plunged.

Pictures and biographies of young and old decent people who were killed, appeared in newspapers, television and the radio. Even three months later the faces and sad stories still haunt us, we, the living.

During the crisis, leaders emerged. Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, known as a hard-nosed martinet, became a force for kindness, understanding and a shoulder to lean on. The nation somehow understood what Rudy was saying and doing.

Our president, who was elected by the slimmest of margins, acted boldly and with obvious courage. His speech on national television welded the nation into one purpose. He commenced the war against evil and religious insanity and his approval ratings soared into the high 80's.

The bottom of the valley is dark and dank but slowly that famous "light at the end of the tunnel" appeared. Sunshine slowly filtered through the darkness and that also famous "ray of hope" appeared as the year 2002 drew closer.

We expect a lot from the year 2002. We expect an end to the fear of an ignorant and brutal enemy of mankind. We hope he will be found and neutralized forever.

We also expect the American economy and its magnificent brainpower will rise from the ashes of Ground Zero and surge again to the heavens.

The American people are good, kind and also optimistic. Let us all pray, in our own way, that 2002, that funny, symmetrical palindromic number, will raise us out of the doldrums and again push us into the radiant sunshine.