An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Mr. Dawkins,

I am writing to tell you what an evil man you are. First you start this wonderful organization called the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science to promote, well, reason and science. And then you write a book which sounds like it will be an extremely interesting read - The God Delusion. Finally, you schedule a book tour but YOU NEGLECTED TO SCHEDULE AN APPEARANCE WITHIN EVEN A FEW HUNDRED MILES OF ME HERE IN MADISON, WISCONSIN.

You see Mr. Dawkins, Wisconsin is afflicted with folks who should be urged to use their faculties of reason. Ours is a very rural state and so we have many small communities that do not value science or, indeed, anything else in our schools' cirricula. Sports is all that matters in these areas. We also have people like gubernatorial candidate Mark Green who seeks to cripple stem cell research because he thinks that a tiny group of cells is actually a cognizant person with a soul. And then there's folks like Thomas Reeves who, while intelligent, discards all reason and instead sounds like a broken record as all he can manage is to repeat how much better society was when he was a youth.

So, please, please Mr. Dawkins, please come on up to the Land of Cheese at some point on your tour. I'll even assemble a welcome basket for you. I'd throw in some of our magnificent cheese, a six-pack (OK, twelver) of great Wisconsin beer, and whatever other local treasures I can find. Oh, and please bring your lovely wife along too. I'd like to have the chance to inveigle her into having her picture taken with me as I my Doctor Who scarf.

If you don't make it to Wisconsin, I swear I will not buy your book until it's released in softcover.

Sincerely,
Palmer