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I'm a fellow Texan (expatriated in Maryland for
12 years) who knows how big-hearted Texans can be, so I've a suggestion that may
seem foolish at first sight (but should prove otherwise, in the long
term):
You seek corporate donor(s)
to provide "Z-rex" for the Smithsonian. Please consider this: If
you would announce publicly that you will forego all (above your corporate
expenses related thereto) of what would otherwise be your profit in this
account, if sponsor(s) will just pay the actual owners' share of your asking
price (and if that happens), Jim, that would be "a thousand stars in your
crown". Few persons in life ever get or take the chance to set
such an example. Surely it would create a goodwill toward you and
Fossilnet that money could never buy -- to say nothing of a solid basis for
professional respectability by institutions to which, in the future, Fossilnet
might turn for investment capital.
Not only that, but it would
make you feel mighty, mighty good, "deep down", as my sweet Texan
mother used to say, especially if you can do it just because it's the right
thing to do.
Furthermore, I think such a
magnanimous gesture on your part would virtually
assure a corporate gift of the purchase amount to the Smithsonian (helped along
by proper media attention). Heck, you mighty even make the front of TIME
or NEWSWEEK. :-) Whatever, you'd certainly win the applause of all
fellow Texans, millions of Americans, and even of many paleontologists,
worldwide.
Do this, and you will
personify the epitome of the largess for which the best of Texans are
known. I know you've got it in you. Find it. It is a priceless
treasure.
Thanks for listening, and, by
the way, sniff a few of those Texas bluebonnets for every expatriate when they
explode over the Texas hill country this Spring. Your contribution as
proposed above would be like the near-intoxicating aroma of Texas bluebonnets:
Never to be forgotten. Always loved.
Ray Stanford
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