Over the years, there have been times when UFOs were in and out of the news. The 60s had the first couple that said they were abducted by aliens. The reports have waxed and waned and seem to appear in clusters only to die down again. The one thing that seemed constant, though, was the government trying to explain away the stories. They would claim that sightings were weather balloons, or optical illusions, or cloud formations. One of my personal favorite explanations was “swamp gas.” Even as a kid, it sounded ridiculous and laughable. If you told your friends that you saw a UFO, they’d chuckle and make fun of you — but it seems things have changed.
Today, we have been hearing testimony from people who have been in positions of authority. The video documentaries and TV shows about aliens have multiplied. Congress has been looking into reports of how the government has covered up information. UFOs even have a new name — Unidentified Arial Phenomenon or UAPs. For the life of me, I don’t know what difference that makes. If it’s a flying saucer, it’s a flying saucer. If it’s a kid with a kite, it’s still what it is. I’ve never seen anything that’s really convinced me, but I don’t see how a universe so large can only have one tiny planet with intelligent life. The thing that really interests me, though, is not whether they exist or not. It’s the way people in control have manipulated the story.
Project Blue Book was a program by the Air Force in 1952. Most people today have heard of it. They were to investigate reports of UFOs and the project lasted until 1969. Their final word was that these objects weren’t a threat, they weren’t beyond our known science, and that there was absolutely no evidence that they were extraterrestrial, so they ended the project. What many people don’t know, however, is that in 1948 there was an Air Force program called Project Sign. The first report was said to indicate that flying saucers were real and that they were most likely from other planets! That project was quickly replaced by Project Grudge which said that these objects were all natural phenomenon. Seems to me they went to a lot of trouble to say that these things weren’t real. Add to that the usual attempts to make the person reporting such things as either after money, fame, or just plain crazy. As Shakespeare said, “The lady doth protest too much!” They’re just trying too hard — which makes one think they’re trying to hide something. The government appears to be pretty good at hiding things, too. They’ve had enough practice. Maybe somewhere they have a warehouse full of mutilated cows and samples of crop circles.
So, in the end, I guess we’ll just have to wait for the little green men to land in our own backyard and start running around vaporizing things for us to know for sure. And it does have to be our own backyard, because if they landed in Yankee Stadium we’d just assume it’s an advertising stunt. One thing is true about us humans – we have been lied to so much, especially by our own government, that we just don’t believe anything anymore. As for me, I believe I’ll have a cold glass of iced tea in the backyard and wait for the little dudes to show up. Would I be really surprised either way? Nah. But in the meantime, I’ll have my camera ready just in case.
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