Okay, here's my problem with this...
First of all, what we're looking at is the concentration of resources into one central repository. While it might seem like a good idea at first, given that we have experts who can use the resources wisely, (and no insult is intended; given what Randi has to work with, it's nothing short of incredible what the JREF has been able to do, particularly given the demands made), the problem is that once it goes to that central repository, it will be used at that point, for the purposes deemed urgent by those experts. This means that if you want to start a summer camp to help kids develop critical thinking skills, it takes a back seat to, say, a legal challenge brought up by anyone from Uri Gellar to the homeopaths. (Not so farfetched: Gellar has sued Randi in the past, and if he thought he'd get away with it, he'd try that stunt again.)
Secondly, it almost, almost, runs counter to the goals stated by Randi and the board, which was to expand critical thinking, and to encourage inquiry into not only the paranormal, but the world at large. Yes, the JREF needs funds to continue its work, but we need more emphasis on LOCAL activities, which bring JREF down to the community level. If all politics is local, so is all education, and there needs to be some sort of program to develop speakers, teachers, researchers, who work in local communities, who can continue what James Randi has begun.
Let me put it another way, one which will irritate the hell out of Rebecca: I can only drive 583 miles per day at 55 MPH legally. I can haul one load, period.
Add another truck, and you're adding one more load, and another 583 miles, for 1,166. Considering I earn my living per mile, that's a nice chunk of change.
Consider what a fleet of rigs pulls in.
This is the point: You want to build, for lack of a better term, a fleet of Randis, all out there promoting the idea of critical thinking, or skeptical inquiry, of rationality. It's great to listen to Christopher Hitchens. It's better when you can develop a broad-based understanding of his theories and beliefs, get others to expand on it, and get it out to the public. And while the idea of "franchising" this can lead to a high degree of intellectual schlock, (look at what it did for hamburgers!), if it's done right, with an eye towards intellectual excellence instead of market share, you have the opportunity to not only create a very deep impact on a society, but a very broad based one which will cross international boundaries, and which could conceivably begin to break some barriers which currently exist, ones which counterreligious zealotry have failed to crack.
I realize I'm just a busted up mutt trucker, but I worked in radio for several years, and I have sales experience. I've never been too proud for any job that paid a just wage and which I could at least attempt to do well. Your goal isn't simply to get the message out, but to get it heard. And while Marshall MacLuhan's infamous quote gets a lot of play these day, that "the medium is the message," it's easy to forget that the more media savvy people become, the more they want to see what the message really is. If all people are getting is sizzle, they're eventually going to realize there ain't gonna be no steak, and there's no reason to hang around.
If JREF, or any other organization, for that matter, is simply going to be a little haven for certain "elites," if there's no place for the average person to get into the fight, then in reality, there's less and less reason to contribute and to stay. This is something people deal with day in and day out at work, this sort of cliquishness. If they have to deal with it in other areas of their lives, they're eventually going to ask why, and they're going to leave.
But take another road on this one: what if you can build people in local communities who can speak to the facts, who can explain this fight, who can encourage others to get into it? What if we could encourage others to do what Robert Lancaster has done, or what so many others are doing? If your goal is to encourage people to get off their tuchas, and to get informed, to learn what's really going on in the world, why would you limit yourself to one or two people rolling up their sleeves and coming out fighting? I hate to break it to you, but we are outnumbered, and we're outgunned. When Ghost Whisperer is one of the most popular programs on TV, when people tune in to watch Uri Gellar rather than spit when his name is mentioned, when Britain actually considers setting up hospitals and licensing homeopaths, when actual lives are at stake, you cannot forsake any weapon at your disposal.
And quite frankly, when I see Nyar, when I see jj, when I see Athon, and so many others gone from here, people I respect and miss deeply, gone because of just that sort of thing, I have to wonder why I'm here at all, myself.
I don't have money. In spite of every effort, I may wind up losing my house. I owe too many people too much, and for all my efforts, it may come to nothing. The help I really need I can't get.
That's life. Hard, sad, true. That does not mean I don't want to contribute, nor does it mean I cannot contribute. I spent a significant part of my weekend in Coachella arguing with other drivers about why school prayer is wrong, and why separation of church and state is a wise idea. I may not have won any friends, but I think I got some folks to thinking. (And when you spend 11 hours behind the wheel, you get lots of time to think, even if you do have satellite radio.)
This is not just James Randi's fight. It's ours. If James Randi's the only one to do the fighting, it ends when he dies. And that's not worth thinking about. That's a diminution of what he's tried to acheive, and ultimately, it's an insult to him, and those who chose to stand with him.
I finally, after 25 years, got my mind back. There are people who don't like that. Tough. If they were so damned worried about my "salvation," they should have told me the truth in the first place. There were enough who knew the truth, and they chose to hide it. Screw them.
I'm watching as my nation is nosediving into the pseudoreligious compost, heading for Hell with declarations that God is on our side, neglecting the very notion of what might happen if the evangelicals are wrong. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines, it's time to come out fangs bared, kicking @$$, taking names, and making no excuses. I'll go where I'm needed, and where I'll be put to work. The cost of sitting on the sidelines is too great.
