Close Encounters of the Modern Kind

As if it wasn't enough to have to deal with security checks, removal of shoes and endless delays and problems with air travel, now it appears we have to contend with UFOs as well. About a week ago, dozens of people at Chicago's O'hare Airport were stunned to see what appeared to be a large silver disk floating in the air above the airport. Witnesses claim that the object made no noise and displayed no lights but then suddenly lifted off into the cloud deck and left a sizeable hole in the clouds. Many were stunned and couldn't believe what they saw. I suppose if Congressman Kucinich had been there perhaps there would have been some reason to understand and agree with the claim but in this case the FAA immediately discounted all claims of a UFO and declared that it was nothing more than normal air traffic.

Speaking of Kucinich, it seems like UFOs are getting a lot more press these days. Recent attempts by organizations in the US and elsewhere are attempting to lend creedence to the belief in UFOs. These groups are not your normal every day groups that have a stigma attached to them. What stigma would that be? Well the same stigma that is associated with single 45-year-old guys (and girls) who still live with their parents in the basement while endlessly collecting action figures and watching re-runs of the X-Files. In this case, some of the groups are comprised of respected former military pilots and government officials who claim to have encountered UFOs and are calling upon the US government to investigate these claims in greater detail.

I think it's a worthwhile cause and worth investigating but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. At least not from the government's standpoint. If we approach it logically, we can safely say that most government officials (if not all) are simply working to get re-elected at the end of each term. They will back programs and projects that will help guarantee that re-election will take place. They'll fund programs for national security, national defense, education, and healthcare (or sometimes they won't) but funding research into UFOs? I don't think that's going to happen for a long while. It's not that there isn't an air of importance on this topic, on the contrary, besides Kucinich, former Presidents Reagan and Carter have both also claimed to have seen UFOs. Now maybe not everyone will be so quick to laugh and pass judgement on Kucinich.

Still, there are many people out there who wonder why we should fund something so vast when we have tons of problems at home already. These are the same people that argue that the space program is a waste of money as well. Now being a staunch supporter of the space program and space exploration in general, I disagree wholeheartedly. I think that space exploration and the discovery of new life and new worlds out there go hand in hand. The research that can be conducted or the new sources of energy that can be found out in space can pay huge dividends for us back here on Earth. If we don't at least explore the opportunity or see what possibilities exist out there, we'll never make any progress and the naysayers to these efforts will be proven right.

Most people have fanciful ideas of what a UFO encounter will be like. They have visions of movies like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial". Who knows if it will actually be like that. Perhaps the life we encounter out there in the cosmos will be far more advanced than us. So much so that to them we are but an image of what their world was like thousands of years before. Perhaps that's why the come and visit us the way they apparently do. On a whim and fleetingly. Perhaps they want to see what their civilization was like prior to advancing to their current state. Still, I can't imagine what they hope to learn by occasionally abducting Iowa farmers or visiting an airport like Chicago's O'hare. Whatever it is, I at least find it humorous to think that O'Hare is truly so busy that even a UFO gets delayed in landing.