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"If I could just go from church to church to talk about this, I'd be willing to get in a car and do it because I believe it is at the forefront of God's heart. It's our chance to stand up and really make an impact for Christ as He would if He were here."
- Margaret Becker
MQ: Do you have any projects or concerns that you'd like to?
MB: There have been many studies about generational differences, and the up and coming generation - your generation. You guys, unlike baby-boomers who are doers by writing checks, you guys are doers by doers. When I'm speaking to people in your generation about, "Hey, there are children in Africa, who have been orphaned by aids, and literally have nothing - I mean nothing. They are sitting on a clump of dirt with nothing and they'll not be able to move. My generation would write a check, your generation is, "Give me a ticket, I'll go over there, and I'll build something for that kid." There's actually a guy who waits on me in a restaurant here in town, and we got to talking and I was like, "Why are you waiting here? Are you a student" or whatever? He said, "No, actually I have a full time job. But I support missionaries and since I can't be there, I think my reasonable service portion is to work here so I can make more money so it can go to them." That's a 'doer.' The orange fund is a fund that I have cofounded with World Vision and it's specifically directed at doers. It's a liquid fund and what I mean by that, it's not child sponsorship although that's the mainstay and I encourage everyone to sponsor a child, but what it is a sum that can be applied to emergency situations, that can be applied to immediate needs that doesn't necessarily have to go through corporate structure - all these ups and downs before it gets there. It's immediately geared towards doers because it's not like I'm looking for a check, although a check would be fine, but I'm looking for people who can creatively raise awareness about the pandemic that it's taking place in Africa right now. I'm looking for people who can creatively look at their world and go, "What do I have here that I can turn into awareness, cash, or advocacy on behalf of these people who are incredibly bereft. And I believe those answers lie with the youngest up and coming generation right now. I believe that the people who are just about turning adult, the young adults are going to literally shock us with their creativity, their knowledge, their technology - and their application of all of the above to change the world and to help those that need help. And so the orange fund is a way to do that. It's worldvision.org and click on the orange fund link. Or you can go to my site, and click on the orange fund link. Mine is margaretbecker.com or maggieb.com. But I'm telling you it's one way....if you have an old mac that's worth a thousand dollars because it's the first mac, give it to me because I want to auction it off on ebay. I'm looking for stuff like that. Give me interesting things. Give me your support, give me your soul on this matter because as I believe as Christians, especially, we'll be held responsible.
MQ: What's your view on the internet and the download/piracy issue?
MB: I'm conflicted about it. I recognize it's really easy. I recognize that up until recently, it was more of 
a matter of convenience more than anything else for people. But now with iTunes, my conflicted state has settled down a bit because you can go get these songs - it's incredibly easy to get them from iTunes. 99 cents, once you put in your credit card, they have it forever, with your permission. It's so easy now to actually pay for it, that I'm saying, "It's time to get in line guys." I understand why people have an idea - especially the younger kids - that they don't even have a concept that it's against the law, but you have to understand that as someone that toured for years - my tours never paid for themselves. The only way I was able to get out there and bring that music, was by dipping into royalties. That means, that if I didn't get paid for the usages on my songs, which is my reasonable...that's like trademarks, we pay someone who invented a seat, a door, or a car, we pay somone who copyrighted that - a song is no different. It's intellectual property.
If I personally didn't get paid for that, I never would have been able to go out one time, to perform my music. So what people don't understand about what they're doing is, if you like that music, and you pirate it - you're probably never going to see that artist. Because that artist can't get out there without you paying for that music. That's just reality. So what you're doing then is creating nameless, faceless, 'no live' element, music - industry here by pirating. And honestly, from what you're paying - a few cents per song - that's what's getting back to that artist. If they're lucky, they might be getting two cents on a song. So ask yourself next time you download, "Is this worth 2 cents to me?" It probably is, so go pay the 99 and let them get their 2 cents. It's not going to kill you.
I went into my record company after pirating was at its height, and they had a sales chart. Because my demographics skewed younger than most of the other artists on that label, my sales chart showed - as what was going through the actual retail outlets - it showed a huge crash. Yet, I knew it wasn't a literal crash. And I said, "What happened?" And he said, "Well, you know what, here's your problem. 
You appealed to your younger demographic and they're ripping you off and that's all I can tell you..." because the concerts, nothing else was down, except through the retail outlets. And that's when it hit me, "My gosh, that's horrible!" Because then the record companies see there is nothing we can do to control that ... and unfortunately that affects you. So what do I do....people love me to death!
all: laughing
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