August 30, 2003,

 Today marks one year since the founding of this expansive and expanding publication. The first annum of a magazine's lifetime is always wrought with uncertainty, even for a non-profit organization. Will the magazine attract needed readership and thus serve its purpose? Will external contributions flow to amplify its volume? And, most importantly, will its editors invest the diligence necessary to perpetuate the endeavor into a condition of stability, formidability, and widespread awareness?

 Thus far, The Rational Argumentator has progressed amply to enable an answer in the affirmative. During the year of its existence, TRA has expanded to 17 issues, 205 features (including articles, poetry, and musical compositions), and has attracted 8135 visits from thorough-thinking intellectuals throughout the world. Its mailing list currently encompasses 49 subscribers, and its articles have been employed on such noted on-line forums as Objective Medicine, Enter Stage Right, The Free Republic, Wikipedia, and SoloHQ.   

 While rightfully priding itself on these accomplishments, The Rational Argumentator must not relent in pursuing its objective: to facilitate the spread of objective, rational, Western values throughout the minds of individuals and therefore to accelerate the advent of the new intellectual Renaissance, "which we all," recognizes our founding Manifesto, "interacting with the producers on their terms, will be able to reap the fruits of."

TRA shall continue to produce in tempo the political, ethical, and aesthetic theories which shall serve as the guiding lights of the New Renaissance, but this ideological creation is only a part of the endeavor. The Rational Argumentator's second task, in its radical recognition of the integration of theory and practice, is the establishment of a network of communication for men of Reason who desire an alternative to statism, post-modernism, and mysticism. The necessary means for the implementation of this objective are twofold: technology and publicity.

 Since its cumbersome beginnings on the then unfamiliar GeoCities Page Builder, TRA has improved colossally in its format, visual appeal, and editing speed. Its editors have developed with it to fathom the time-conserving devices which the prudent application of technology can bring about. Nevertheless, the publication is far from immaculate in both its appearance and in the time consumed by its development. It is our aspiration to elevate the former to the greatest possible level of convenience and accessibility, while making optimal use of the latter to develop ideas, instead of engaging in lengthy rote mechanical adjustments.

 Any reader's suggestion as to how to ameliorate the site or to render its creation a matter of greater swiftness will be welcomed with the utmost gratitude; we at TRA recognize that man is neither omniscient nor infallible, that his present habits are not the epitome of efficiency, but that he is capable of prodigious improvement if guided by the integrity and autonomy of his mind, as well as the recognition of a rational contribution when he encounters one. We shall present public recognition to any party whose suggestions or contributions elevate the technical facets of the site. For this purpose, The Rational Argumentator announces the Henry Ford Award, named after a man whose staunchly individualistic spirit and meticulous reason had brought about the most gargantuan leap in the history of production, the assembly line. The first winner of this award is a man who had decisively advanced the publication's communication network by suggesting and developing a registration form for the TRA mailing list. His subsequent interactions with The Rational Argumentator have also acquainted its editors with the ability to post pages other than those created with GeoCities Page Builder, as well as a soon-to-be-published registration form for the Laissez-Faire Game. Additionally, he has contributed to the site's ideological content by publishing the insightful commentary, "The Hazing Incident: Veiled Martyrdom."  Mr. Luke Edelman, President of Edelman Technologies, can claim rightful credit for profound progress in the form and content of TRA.

 The second winner of the Henry Ford Award is Mr. Brian Watkins, a member of the NitroDesigns website design firm (http://www.nitrodesigns.com) who had introduced TRA to the opportunity to create custom logos and buttons for free, which have already begun to amplify the formidability of our publication.

 The Henry Ford Awards shall be featured on a special page, with the name of each recipient and a description of his/her contribution(s) to The Rational Argumentator.

The second facet of the communication objective, publicity, necessitates the attraction of a yet greater volume of readership to The Rational Argumentator. It is our aim that every man interested in championing the principles of Reason, Rights, and Progress, become aware of TRA's existence and the particular ideas contained within it. One of the primary means of accomplishing this is posting links and pertinent information on sites external to The Rational Argumentator, which would guide readers toward it. G. Stolyarov II and Edmund Daleford hereby also give permission and encouragement to non-commercially reprint all articles on TRA on other online media outlets. This proliferation of our material shall not go unrewarded; upon our written notification of a permanent link to TRA posted on another site, the responsible party shall receive the Johannes Gutenberg Award, in the name of the man whose invention laid the foundation for an unprecedented propagation of ideas, including those which had secured the accomplishments of the Renaissance. Once again, any other functional publicity suggestions will be warmly greeted and likewise rewarded.

 We anticipate that the second year of The Rational Argumentator shall be even more abundant than the first, and shall serve as the origin for an ever widening ideological network that will rightly reward all of its participants.

 Sincerely,

G. Stolyarov II, Editor-in-Chief
Edmund Daleford, Vice-Editor-in-Chief