One of the early, concrete steps in my path toward activism was a public access television show I hosted, and later co-produced, called Road to Reason, A Skeptic's Guide to the 21st Century. This weekly show was filmed at Fairfax Public Access (FPA) in northern Virginia and remains available on YouTube at RoadToReasonTV. This was a small operation with large ambitions, and while the four of us who started the show naturally had different views on the wide range of subjects discussed, we were unified in the belief that America needed to return to its secular roots before the sectarian politics of religious extremists crippled the future for everyone.
Our show started back in January of 2013, and like many newly minted activists, I had been driven to get involved by the malignant acts of George Junior (GW) and his facts-be-damned coterie of neo-con ideologues and Christian zealots who gleefully lied us into a war, shuttled protestors out of sight, experimented with subliminal messaging to manipulate voters, and took great pride in constructing an entirely fictitious, alternative reality to stand in place of the actual one. While efforts to whitewash that history continue apace, I would suggest that the double-talking Orange Jesus who has once again slithered from his gilded den to envenom our democracy, is hardly an anomaly for the modern day Republican Party.
Those are my opinions though. And I should point out that Road to Reason wasn't expressly about politics, except insofar as religious or pseudoscientific beliefs affected the law, judicial rulings, governmental leaders, and the body politic. We had number of goals. Encouraging scientific literacy and critical thinking. Destigmatizing atheism. Highlighting the societal benefits of a Humanist approach to life. And advocating for the Separation of Church from State, which mitigates the harm that the hyper-religious can inflict on the rest of us.
On a practical level, my commute to Fairfax was about two hours each way up and down i95, which eventually prompted me to step back from hosting the show so frequently. I still consider the time well spent, however, and am grateful for the experience, which brought me into the secular activist community. In that vein, I would like to offer my thanks to the staff and volunteers at FPA who made Road to Reason possible, and to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science for its generous support, financial and otherwise.
Along with myself, the founding members include:
- Paul Sheehan, Producer and Director of Road to Reason, better known as "Radio Paul" from his weekly radio rants
- Rick Wingrove, former head of Beltway Atheists and VA State Director of American Atheists
- Elisabeth Cornwell, an evolutionary psychologist and, at the time, the Executive Director of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science in the United States
A number of people volunteered their time and efforts over the several years the show ran. I think two in particular proved indispensable for their professionalism and integrity:
- David Tamayo, President of Hispanic American Freethinkers
- Larry Mendoza, a biosafety expert and former Virginia State Director for American Atheists
Thanks to everyone who was involved, and may all of us continue to do our part in defending our democratic institutions.