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"UFOs-You Decide"
by Jon Mastars
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At one time or another, we've all looked into the skies and have seen things that aren't there. Maybe you saw an ice cream cone or pirate ship in the clouds or a great hunter or woman sitting on her throne in the stars. But many people look into the skies and see objects that can not be identified by any "normal" standards. We call these Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs.
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Are these secret government aircraft, the product of one too many beers and an overactive imagination, or alien spacecraft? Have extra-terrestrial life forms visited our planet? Until a flying saucer lands on the White House lawn in front of a dozen reporters and an alien emerges to shake the President's hand, you'll have to be content with examining the evidence and deciding for yourself whether or not UFOs exist. |
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On June 23, 1947 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a railroad engineer saw 10 UFOs in the sky. He described them as "shiny, disc-shaped objects." This was the beginning of a long string of UFO sightings in the USA and around the world in 1947, reported by civilian and military alike, dozens of separate events during the year that the term "flying saucer" (by Kenneth Arnold of Washington state) became a part of our language. The most famous report, however, occurred on JULY 3, 1947 when a rancher in Roswell, New Mexico came across what he believed to be the wreckage of a crashed alien spaceship, and days later four alien bodies were discovered a few miles away.
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- 34% of Americans believe Aliens have visited earth
- 80% believe the U.S. government knows more about Aliens that it admits
- 22% believe Aliens have been in contact with human beings
- 17% believe Aliens have abducted human beings to observe them
- 13% believe beings from other planets have been in contact with the US Government.
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People all over the world in all walks of life have reported to have seen UFOs, and yet most descriptions are nothing alike. Photographic evidence seems to contradict itself in the variety of shapes and details. Is this any reason to discount every UFO sighting? Maybe not. I've seen many different sizes and shapes of airplanes, rockets, and space ships that have been manufactured here on Earth. Does this variation in design nullify their existence? |
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Some famous believers:
In October of 1969, future president Jimmy Carter witnessed a flying saucer: "It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon.. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky." (1976 quote to reporters)
the Prime Minister of the West Indies island of Grenada, Sir Eric Gairy said to the UN while campaigning for UFO studies: "We've passed the stage now whether or not these things exist. I think it is accepted that these things do exist. I think we now want to know the nature, the origin and the intent of these saucers." (October 15, 1978)
Future president Gerald R. Ford asked Congress to consider a "full blown" investigation of unidentified flying objects. Several hundred persons have reported seeing mysterious lights in Mr. Ford's home state of Michigan "I can assure you there is interest and I suspect public concern over the sightings. If swamp gas caused the lights, USAF should have no hesitancy in explaining that to a committee." (March 26, 1966)
Jackie Gleason was an avowed believer in UFOs and even got involved in some spaced-out exploits with his friend President Richard Nixon. Jackie took with the then President in 1973 to Homestead AFB in Florida to see what see says were bodies of four dead space aliens recovered by the Air Force.
President Ronald Reagan talked about the possibility of Earth uniting against a threat by "a power from outer space." There is an unconfirmed story that before he became Governor of California, Ron and Nancy had a UFO sighting on a highway near Hollywood.
Taken from a 1947 memo from J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, "it has been established that the flying disks are not the result of any Army or Navy experiments, the matter is of interest to the FBI. "
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Some supposed photographs of flying saucers have been proven to be fakes. Some are obviously not real even to the untrained eye. So should we then assume that all photographs are faked? Magicians use slight-of-hand to distract our attention away from what is really happening while they perform their illusions. Is our own government or other institutions flooding us with misinformation and obvious fakes to distract us from the real evidence? It is easy to discredit a theory once their red herrings have marred the truth.
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I've never seen a UFO. But I believe that life exists outside of our planet. It just doesn't make any sense that in the large universe our planet is the only that has developed and sustained life. I think it is vanity to assume that these alien beings look or think anything like we do, or that they would choose to visit or contact us. But if we became aware of an extra-terrestrial society, I know that our governments would devote plenty of time and resources to spying on them and keeping tabs on their development to see if they were a threat to our existence. Maybe there are other life forms in the universe that are more technologically advances than our own and are simply keeping tabs on us. |
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