Name: Lee Parks
Where I live: Apple Valley, Calif.
Where and when I was born: Rockford, Ill., in 1969.
Family: Life partner Christie; father Howard; mother Carrie; sisters Becky and Sara; brother Lou.
Education: B.S. in speech communications from University of Utah; Curriculum for Living from Landmark Education.
Occupation: Motorcycle trainer and curriculum developer (Total Control Training, Inc.), motorcycle gear manufacturer (Lee Parks Design), book and magazine author (Total Control).
Military service: I was not in the military, but I am the son of a sailor and provide beginner through advanced motorcycle training to all branches of the military.
How I got where I am today: I’m fortunate to have had many professional and personal mentors who provided many opportunities to learn and encouraged me to be the best at what I do. MTXE: Mental Toughness, Extra Effort.
Where I’m headed: Changing the culture of motorcycle safety, globally.
Person in history I admire and why: Ayn Rand, because she lived a principled life on the ideals of personal responsibility and productive work, and considered mysticism as man’s greatest enemy.
A quotation I like: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd.
These are a few of my favorite things: Motorcycle and car racing, downhill mountain biking, skiing, singing, reading and writing philosophy, teaching, dark chocolate, dry cappuccinos.
These are not: Religion pushers, hypocrites, science deniers, bureaucrats making laws restricting fun because they don’t know how to have any.
My doubts about religion started: I was raised Jewish but when I was 7 (age of reason) and I realized that the stories in temple didn’t seem to make any sense, I instantly became an atheist.
Before I die: I want to write my magnum opus on philosophy, combining freethought, libertarianism and nonreligious Eastern philosophy.
Ways I promote freethought: Magazine and book writing, street epistemology, sharing freethought writings, local freethought group participation, proud Lifetime Member of FFRF.
I wish you’d have asked me: About my latest entrepreneurial venture creating a jewelry line around an atheist symbol I designed. It combines a symbolic compass and electron path into an “A,” representing the two primary branches of physics: Newtonian and particle. I figured a symbol of science is much more appropriate for wearing in public than a symbol of torture and death as Christians like to wear. It also allows atheists to “out” themselves without having to overtly say anything. I’m in the tooling stage right now and should have the first production pieces on sale by September.
