If you can–if you are within a day or so of Fort Bragg–pack up a suitcase, duffel bag, backpack, double-ply heavy duty trash bag, or your 1978 AMC Pacer (hey, I’m not judging you) and go to Rock Beyond Belief this Saturday. They need you there, and you want to be there. Y’know how so many people are saying “I wish I had gone to Reason Rally”, and others are saying “I’m so glad I went to Reason Rally”….yeah, well, this is your chance. Go.
If you can’t–because some of us really can’t–I want something else from you. See, the thing is, no matter how many people show up, I guarantee you there will be people who call Rock Beyond Belief a failure. If only because not all of the speakers were able to walk on water (but they will be able to walk on non-Newtonian fluids at Camp Quest!). If a million people show up, the question will be why such a small percentage of the planet was willing…
I want a million people to show up. That won’t happen. But if a million people show up, I want more than a million people who could not show up to show their support in another way. If you can’t show up, please, donate to the homeless veteran food drive (the button 3/4 down the page). If you can’t spare a lot of money, please donate a buck or two; I want numbers of donors. When someone points to “how few people showed up” (no matter how many show up, that will happen–it happened for the Reason Rally), I want to be able to point to the donations and say “yeah, but the people who couldn’t make it did this instead.” Clearly, the more you donate, the more can be done to help those who need it, so please, if you can give more, give more. But if you can’t give a bunch… give a little. And show your support in numbers. Because even if you give just one dollar, you’ve given infinitely more than someone who just gave a prayer.
Please. I am asking you. Specifically, you. You can help. You can make a real difference. You can be a hero. Or, at least, my hero.
Thank you. Go donate. Edit–don’t use this bottom link. Use the one just above, beginning with “donate…”, and look for the donation button. Sorry, but this last one is a bum link.
O.K.
Thanks, carpenterman–you have singlehandedly restored my faith in humankind.
Done.
you are my hero, Stacy.
Done. By the way, click on the “donate to the homeless veteran food drive” in the body of the text. The “go donate” link after thank you at the end doesn’t work right (at least for me).
There’s a link from this article, which goes here. My link has a session number so the second link might not work for you, but it should work from the article.
Can’t swing travel, but just donated.
Thanks for noting that not everyone can just drop things and attend. I was annoyed by PZ’s comment that “I’m sorry to say that if you missed it, oh, you should be burning with regret right now. Burning. Regret. Boy, did you make a mistake.”
I certainly can’t afford to go. Not the travel, not the time away. And if someone had handed me sufficient money to go to the reason rally, I would likely have used it to get some weekends off for my wife so we could have a few days as a family, instead of working shifts that don’t allow us to have time together with our children. Comments like PZs hurt. So thanks for acknowledging that not everyone is in a position to travel to these events – but most of us (including me) can spare something for a good cause.
Agreed, Epi–if I had had the time for Reason Rally, I didn’t have the bucks, and if I had had the money, I didn’t have the time. If I had had the time and the money… there are quite a few things on the “need” list before I get to the “want” list. And it will likely be that way for a while–at least until I get that MacArthur Genius Grant. Any day now.
Donated.
Done, and referenced your post.
Can’t spare much, but done!