What have -
Ric Gillespie
Elgen Long
Fred Goerner
David Billings
Colin Cobb
Mike Campbell
Carol Linn Dow
Richard (Dick) Spink
...and I'm sure I'm leaving a few off (you fill in the blanks)
- got in common?
Passion and Earhart.
What IS this phenomenon that causes people to go after the story of this lost aviatrix Earhart with a conviction and energy that are suggestive of a race for a front seat for the second coming - for decades on end?
Just thought I'd ask.
Gillespie I can read pretty well since I'm enjoying TIGHAR's site as I write this. Admittedly, I've followed him a lot closer than the rest - and of course most would realize I'm a Gardner fan anyway (bias also admitted). My take on Ric is that he absolutely knows that Earhart wound up on Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner for anyone who's not been here enough to know that) but it takes a life's work to get the rest of us to understand that.

I'm glad he seems to see it that way - ever tried to follow someone who had no sense of direction?

Despite more trials of spirit than I care to even think about, he never tires or waivers in his zeal to clinch this Niku reef landing hypothesis - no mountain is too high, rocky or slippery - just keep working one's way up the slope and proof will come.
Goerner's been around maybe the longest. T'was his book that got my attention in the first place - in the seventh grade (about 1970...). My take on Goerner is... well, that he absolutely knew what happened to Earhart. He truly piqued my interest.
Ah, every one of these actually seems to be certain of what happened to Earhart. Many often get around to telling us why the others are wrong, which is a whole chapter unto itself in this consideration of phenomenon or enigma.
It doesn't end there, to wit - the followings by all kinds of nice folks of the general public (and some not so much at times

). Those who tend to stick around for a while and chase the various arguments with positives and negatives on what they believe happened tend to exhibit a fair degree of conviction themselves, or at least enthusiasm.
No decent person likes it when a popular figure just drops out of sight. I guess it's human nature - we like to find 'closure' and give someone a proper burial. But as beliefs take root, what becomes striking is the utter conviction many of those have for what they believe happened. What is more striking is how utterly convinced some of those are about the wrongness of others in their beliefs.
Then there are the weenies - which I think I am among. Enthusiast - can't get enough said sometimes (at least as we see it

); at our best we try to contribute to the serious effort of researching the possibilities - it's a great sleuthing effort. At our worst we get convinced of some belief that we cannot fail in some detail of this - just like the poor guy spending his last $20 on lotto tickets because he's got a sure-fire method (with 5 days to go to payday). Doncha see it? That latched-onto detail is just the very thing that will prove Earhart's fate once and for all... yah.
It is utterly flabbergasting when I back off a few feet and gaze at the whole thing. What causes such a frenetic clamor?
Winds aloft. Overcast. Undercast. Shadows on the sea. Bad radio handling. Lost antenna. Big sky, bigger ocean. Scattered islands. 24 hours of fuel - or was it really only 20 or so?
Pick your take on what they had to do with where the flight ended up.
Japanese. Marshalls. Sai Pan. Tokyo Rose.
Irene Bolam.
Take your pick on what you believe (Bolam rightly sued and won - she's not Earhart).
OK, I think there's something extra-interesting about 'suitcase' and 'closet', 'sounds like NYC', etc. and Betty Klenck-Brown, and some other points. I also think there's something to the navy's initial interest in Gardner - and probably some good reasons why, if they were there, that the fliers were not in evidence at that place a week after the flyover... but my interest and belief in those possibilities are not the story here - the WHY of it is -
And my WHY is dwarfed by those who write books about their convicted efforts at trying to solve the mystery. Moreso by the attending clamor - just what IS this thing -
Is Earhart driving it all somehow? Poe got flowers on his birthday for a very long time. Hoffa still gets a rise out of some. There are others - but show me one that drives this kind of spirit for the chase.
Earhart was said to hold some interest for the clairvoyant - is she reaching from beyond to get us into this? If she is, I wish she'd drop a few clues...

That raises the specter of more seers than I could begin to name - "she lies in a watery place" - no kidding! Can you tell us
where? Never get an answer to that one...
But what
is it that does this search - this yearning, this thing - something that seemingly will not fade but grows more intense as the years slip by - this phenomena? Or is it truly more of an...
enigma?