Monster, Machine... or an Owl ?

(can anyone provide attribution for this etching
allegedly from the SIM article referenced)

Was it a Monster-Owl... or a Machine?

by Alfred Lehmberg


Joe Nickell of the former partisan paranormal investigation group CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), now CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry), wrote what has passed for a "Flatwoods Monster" article, lo these many years, in the Nov/Dec. 2000 issue of the Skeptical Enquirer magazine. Nickell, an English teacher who once tipped Flatwoods waitresses with actual wooden nickels, claimed that the “monster” these witnesses had seen and reported under penalty of perjury... was actually a "barn owl." The waitresses, by report, were not amused.

Later on, noxious gasses reported produced by the monster would be excused as "Indian-summer" flower fumes or hallucinatory volcanic gasses... all of these things happening neither before nor since this singular night... no, and decidedly, no roc-sized owls, smelly flowers, or volcanic gasses... Besides! Generations of these people knew what a barn owl in a tree looked like... and their owls never lit up on their own, silently hovered around, or gave off toxic gasses.

"Owl" is the labored conclusion that this ostensible skeptic writer Nickell claimed in his article titled, "The Flatwoods UFO Monster." He wrote, "...And so a spooked barn owl in turn spooked the interlopers and a monster was born." Easy if unsupported dismissal of excitable kids and a hillbilly parent so effortlessly done, case closed, and excelsior! Onward to the next "skeptibunkery"! You can bet Dr. (immaterial) Nickell was just touching himself at his glibness.

In hubris-larded summation he would further state, "We may conclude (adapting an old adage) that if it looked like a barn owl, acted like a barn owl, and hissed, then it was most likely a barn owl." We might also conclude that what "looks, acts, and hisses" like an uninformed partisan hack may be as likely to be that hack. We digress.

Now follow this closely reader. It seems that Joe Nickell's skeptical "owl" conclusion was by NO means an original idea, at all. 

See, he was merely echoing the ludicrous conclusion offered by the USAF! They had concluded this when they attempted THEIR cover-up of the incident some 47 years earlier! 

Observe that in January of 1953, pioneer UFO researcher Major Donald Keyhoe spoke to USAF Senior Public Liaison, Albert Chop about the Flatwoods case. In Keyhoe's book, "Flying Saucers From Outer Space." Chop explained the following to Keyhoe, "The group did see two glowing eyes, probably those of a large owl perched on a limb. Underbrush below may have given the impression of a giant figure, and in their excitement they may have imagined the rest." Ok... though... how original does an English teacher have to be? ...And at least he reads... even as he doesn't give attribution.

Besides, if you look closer at Nickell's mawkish wording you will see that his "barn owl" conclusion was only speculative! He wrote, "it was most likely a barn owl." 

This is the same speculative "owl" conclusion as was made by Chop earlier in 1953 when he said the "glowing eyes" were "probably those of a large owl." Then Chop uses the speculative words, "may have given" and "they may have" in his conclusion about the "giant figure." Lots of room for license. 

Chop is quoted, "Underbrush below may have given the impression of a giant figure, and in their excitement they may have imagined the rest." Reexamine the speculative words used by these two men, "MOST LIKELY" and "PROBABLY" and "MAY HAVE GIVEN" in addition to, "MAY HAVE." Where would stuff like these qualifiers come from? Then, the following information clears some things up! 

Edward J. Ruppelt, the Chief of Project Blue Book in 1952, spoke to Major Keyhoe about UFO cover stories. Keyhoe covered all this in his book, "Aliens From Space." 

Ruppelt told Keyhoe, and get this... "We're ordered to hide sightings when possible, but if a strong report does get out, we have to publish a fast explanation—make up something to kill the report in a hurry. We must also ridicule the witness, especially if we can't figure a plausible answer." Captain Ruppelt's words here seem to have been the template for the Flatwoods case, especially when we remember the complicity of the local police to facilitate this "tamp-down" and about which we had written about earlier. 

What does the reader believe? Was the "Flatwoods Monster" an "owl," or was it an otherworldly mechanical space suit that resembled a hovercraft? Please leave your thoughts as they pertain to this ET air war, in the comments below.

Don't...

Please forgive this small presumption.

It's something more than mere assumption.

Remains I've drawn a sword I'll use.

Will I be "kind"? Be disabused.

.

I'm "nasty" with those too contentious, 

those so gleefully pretentious—

those professing "dead-lock nuts..." 

Their "truths," it's found, are "ifs and buts"! 

.

Reality's detracted from, 

and from what's "truthful," these will run—

a quick dismissal is their creed. 

When that is lost? They cease to be!

.

Existing of conflated coattails, 

blown around by moneyed main-sails, 

these dissolve or melt away 

to prices "fixed" ...that we must pay. 

These can't, per se, debate their *critics*, 

their "grinding axes" lack *specifics*, 

and they have bastardized what's *correct*—

while prosecuting disrespect.

.

These have a special axe to grind 

to cushion senses they contrive 

to justify unbrave contentions. 

See? They won't *see*... They lack dimension!

.

Yes!

I -- UFO's have peppered history!

II -- They EXIST!

III -- There IS a mystery!

IV -- Leaping in our skies are flown 

the enigmatic lights we've KNOWN!

.

...But our contentious skeptibunkies, 

braying, scorning—mocking flunkies... 

These will hoot, pronounce soft *phacts*, 

and from the truth, you bet, detract. 

All, I think, to keep you working, 

making babies, crying—hurting... 

...Still, they're REAL and would upset 

the "apple cart" ill *owned*, as yet.

.

Yes, we'd have the truth; condone it! 

We've paid for it in blood. We own it!  

Were not served, in fact ill-served, 

to be denied the truths observed.  

Had we some "truth," we'd, then, build true... 

avoid those "pitfalls" as construed, 

avoid perhaps, the forecast "planned..."  

...we'd have FOUNDATION, understand?!

.

Sceptic! Don't pretend your faux concern; 

you will come to live and learn—

at issue is the profiteering 

you enjoy while proudly sneering!

.

Don't think that you provide a service! 

Don't think that you provide for "calm"—be nervous! 

Don't pretend that fear's deterred 

in blandishments you purr—absurd!

.

Don't presume that you're correct—

you've been remiss you would detect—

or, kept your courage as a "guide," 

made progress, mattered... ...even tried!

.

Don't profess the "all-dodge rational"!

Don't contend that you're "professional." 

Do not think your *earned* degrees 

have brought you off your "callused knees"! 

Don't presume to "know the truth" 

and "sneer" or "gloat—pretend "aloof"!

.

Too, don't you dare to sully Occam!  

Your artless pretense: courage "run from"!  

You distort beyond the frame 

a meaning found that Occam's named, 

distorted to the nth degree: 

the simplest answer's "best," you see?

.

"Don't complicate hypothesis 

without some "need" is confidence, 

but it remains that "When in need," 

you complicate that thing, you see?  

"Occam" doesn't rule that out!  

That's what "Occam's" all about!

.

So, one refutes your bland pronouncements; 

one subsumes your trite announcements. 

You've betrayed our education—

warmed yourself in its ablation. 

You don't rate a second look. 

Your fire is "out," and you can't "cook"!

.

Look around, you're plainly comic! 

See beyond the pale—it's cosmic! 

Consider all the games you play 

to keep the "real deal" at bay!  

Concrescence looms; you're not absolved.  

This thing's the THING; we're ALL involved!

.

Admit that time and space are one, 

and both are "endless" (matchless!) *fun*. 

Admit it's we who happened here...

and "there" if near to what you fear. 

Space enough for us to *happen*—

good or bad, past understandin'...

.

What can happen, happens plainly, 

and cannot happen once, insanely. 

What occurs, occurs again!  

"Formality's achieved" my friend! 

.

We are not alone, in truth! 

To think we are? Be disabused!  

If you believe that we're "alone"? 

Then, you're a dunce, not Sherlock Holmes.  

I would have it more "forthcoming"—

so we could "plan," get "well," or something...

.

 ...Dismiss this as a nonplussed screed? 

Still and all it's what you need—

CSIcop's dull; sans circumspections. 

They're stopped at lightless intersections!

.

In the years preceding Christ, 

a couple past a thousand (thrice?), 

mere *humans* wrote of "asteroid belts... 

...'twixt Mars and Jupiter," Sitchin tells! 

Still, and in this long-gone time, 

they knew the colors, mass—made rhyme 

of Neptune and his twin Uranus... 

...how they knew? We can't explain it...

.

The Dogon knew a star they worshiped, 

Sirius, though twins in worship—

two dogs to follow at the heel 

of he who fought the "bull surreal". 

...We couldn't notice "double stars," 

given they're away too far! 

The Dogon knew that there were two. 

Now... how in hell'd they know that's true?

.

...The Sumer knew of Earth's precession! 

This fuels our justified obsession 

with enigma they don't cop to, 

investigate, or drop a nod to! 

See? ...Some ten-thousand years ago! 

How'd they know that that was so?

.

Embrace denial if it's there; 

betray our ethics; gape and stare! 

...But, don't pretend there's nothing to it! 

Mere science, by itself, can't do it!

.

What we've seen defines new pages; 

too, we've perceived forbidden ages!  

So, we can see the moving finger! 

Writing on the wall it lingers, 

pointing out the enigmatic 

for the not-so-autocratic. 

It's bigger than you're giving credit. 

...This bothers one... where one could let it...

.

Should it scare you—just a might—

...promote some sight with greater light; 

make you see the bigger picture—

grasp that time and space are richer... 

for the efforts you have made 

in work you've DONE, for what you've PAID!  

You deserve to know some truth, 

al dente, and so to the tooth, 

which elevates the spirit's progress 

on a path providing noblesse!

.

Yeah... I know as light comes up... 

...the more perceived the shadows got! 

But that's the future as ordained. 

We see the shadows! That's our gain! 

Darkness threatened, grasped and scratched, 

but from those shadows truth is snatched! 

Of course more darkness is perceived: 

the more the light comes up! Concede!

.

But we move forward and progress... 

or die by inches, I protest!

.

You deserve a clearer vision. 

You're betrayed!  They lack concision. 

Your potential's sapped and weakened... 

by those who dare to mock or cheapen... 

that which makes us what we are: 

self-aware... and made from stars!

.

lehmberg2002@gmail.com
www.AlienView.net

...Sentient and Self-aware Star-Stuff... is the suspicion.

• 
  

First, we were the "Jewel in God's crown" on a sol-system-centered if imperfect world—still favored by some—at the core of a series of crystal spheres suggested by the glad misogynist Aristotle.  ...Cutting edge at the time! Everything was neatly tied.

• 
  

Grudgingly, as time very tediously wound itself out in an all but wholly unnoticed acceleration... human entelechy is shunted to a series of planets and bolides third from a massive "coal burning" sun-furnace... the center of things, still!  Indeed, what could burn hotter than coal, it was thought!?

• 
  

Stunningly, the passage of time reveals the farther-removed suggestion that Sol is a star in a galaxy of stars! The galaxy is finally perceived as a kind of star itself... in an all but infinity of other galaxies! 

• 
  

Humility demands that Centering ourselves in all of this seems, at best, just ludicrous—a pompous hubris unearned!  Still, one wonders how we're still not getting it, you know?  We've always had it so wrong. Smart money says we have it wrong, still.

• 
  

Recently we *discover* that we are not really even inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy, at all... but of some small errant dwarf galaxy idly inhaled by the Milky Way.  See what I mean?

• 
  

Forgetting this awesome similarity across scale of an evolving sense of being without ... location... one must wonder where we are, really, given how unlikely it is that one can be two places at once as their hubris would dictate and we have learned... when one's not even THERE, at all?

• 
  

...Doubt what is doubtable. Believe what is believable. Think what you will.  It's a start.

Restore John Ford!

.

The "Monster" was a "Machine"! Feschino was Right.

Frank C. Feschino, Jr. Flatwoods Researcher and Author

The "Monster" was a "Machine" 

and Feschino was Right.

by Alfred Lehmberg 

For decades now, Flatwoods author Frank Feschino has been criticized, sans all support or justification, for changing the very appearance of the original 1952 Flatwoods Monster! This was the "skirt-wearing" and "claw-waving" TV show drawing forever "popular" on the internet. The upshot is that it was HE who had no justification for "turning it into" the very historically described, and correct, metallic figure. These fatuous criticisms of Feschino's work are but silly and untethered risibles of the ludicrously uninformed. Posted.

Original, and inaccurate
"We The People." rendering

So? Here you go "armchair" investigators, "clueless" critics, and "noisome" naysayers! Let's have some real history about the so-called "monster," a history we only know as a result, solely the reader is reminded, of illustrator/researcher Frank Feschino's deep-drill due diligence investigations... and his dogged on-site inquiry! Resolved, readers! We "have the meat," the receipts, and some effusive citations! 

Posted! Feschino's correct illustrations are only based on the Flatwoods records that were largely lost, and so ignored, over hoary time! Feschino, one discovers, spent the aforementioned decades we've alluded to investigating this incident, working with the actual eyewitnesses, and he composed drawings and paintings with these eyewitnesses—forensically aspiring to the truth of the matter! That was his training! Indubitably, he has become THE authority and subject matter expert on this close encounter case! 

The reader will be reminded that, in reality, this incident involved a huge entity reported as encountering a group of hapless civilians after its damaged craft went down in Flatwoods on September 12, 1952. We also remind the reader that the craft damage was ostensibly a result of presidential orders to shoot UFOs down, that whole summer!

The constant reader will recall that, back in that September 12 of 1952, A. Lee Stewart, Jr. was the co-owner, publisher, and lead reporter of the "Braxton County Democrat," a newspaper in Sutton, West Virginia. On the night when the "Flatwoods Monster" incident occurred, eyewitness Mrs. May contacted police authorities about her encounter, but they were unable to respond to her call for assistance! Strange flying things (UFOs!) had all the area's cops out of the office and on the road doing... different things!

A videotaped A. Lee Stewart,
the first official on the scene at Flatwoods.
Feschino has video of MANY of the principles!

As a result, Mr. Stewart, a photojournalist who worked with the police on various cases, was sent out on their behalf! This was a regular occurrence. A community pillar, Stewart was always on call for this type of civic duty. 

On that night, Stewart was actually the first person of authority to reach the accosted May home! This was just after the encounter happened! He arrived to pandemonium! Indeed, during an interview with Feschino he stated, "It was sheer turmoil"!

Upon his arrival, Stewart would even lead an armed posse onto the Fisher Farm where the incident occurred! He coaxed the two oldest and visibly shaken boys onto the farm to the site of their encounter. One of the boys, whimpering like a pup, had to have Stewart's hand on his neck to encourage him along! The boys were scared truly spitless! 

Stewart would analyze the encounter site area in a newsman investigative mode. He told Frank, "We just spotlighted around because not one of us was inclined to hunt for something we didn't know what it was in the dark. We decided we would go back to the Mays. We were on the mountain probably thirty to forty minutes."

Additionally, Stewart was also the first person to interview all of the eyewitnesses, still shaken and highly upset, that weekend! He also had the separately interrogated boys draw pictures of the figure they saw.

Stewart was almost abusive in his interrogation of the boys. He wanted early confirmation if the affair was an unclever ruse, just to quell any unnecessary hubbub. The boys and adult witnesses; however, held firm. Indeed, Stewart was unsettled by how shocked and terrified they all were. In closing, there was no quelling of the hubbub. That hubbub would only be exacerbated.

Stewart would also break the "monster" story to "The Charleston Gazette" newspaper in an article dated September 14, 1952, "Did It Ride Meteor?—Boys Spot Appalling Creature Near Flatwoods, Link It To Passage of Fiery Object in Skies." Mr. Stewart was also credited with the story and a byline, "Special to the Gazette." In this article, the "Flatwoods Monster" was actually referred to as an "appalling creature," as "this thing, and as "the object."

It gets better! In a "Monday Morning, September 15, 1952" follow-up article, Stewart reported additional information. He gave the accurate and true appearance of the so-called "monster" for the first time. The article, "Braxton Monster Left Skid Tracks Where he Landed," also named the "monster" for the first time as "The Phantom of Flatwoods." Stewart reported the following information, according to Mrs. Kathleen May. In that article he reported the monster's appearance" as follows, it "Wore a suit of green armor. Looked like a mechanical man" and "Was 10-feet tall, four feet wide. Had a blood-red face." The reader may have noticed this early use of the word... "mechanical."

Stewart also reported the figure, "Sported a black, spade-like cowl, which extended a foot or more above the head." This was the first public announcement of what the so-called "monster" was said to have looked like. Even though this information was made available to the public through the press on September 15, 1952, many people were unaware of that particular article. This might explain how our clever critics, naysayers, and so-called investigators... missed it.

Shortly after, the "The Phantom of Flatwoods" story hit the (U.P.) news wire service! Articles began to appear in various newspapers on Monday, September 15, 1952. Overnight, the incident became a hot news story around the country and the world... but these United Press articles failed to mention the "mechanical man" description of the "Phantom of Flatwoods"! 

Just days later the "North American Newspaper Alliance" syndicate contacted biologist, zoologist, and noted author Ivan T. Sanderson about this UFO incident. They asked Sanderson to go to Flatwoods, WV. to investigate the story. In short order, he left New York for Flatwoods with his assistant in tow to evaluate the strange tale. 

Ivan T. Sanderson

Upon arriving in Flatwoods late that Friday morning, September 19, 1952, they both went to the Fisher Farm where the encounter occurred and they inspected the area. Additionally, Sanderson also met and interviewed five of the boys who saw the "Flatwoods Monster." Though, he did not meet with Mrs. May, A. Lee Stewart, Jr., or Gene Lemon. These principals had already left Braxton County and were away on a trip to New York! They would be interviewed there for the "We The People" talk show later that night.

It would be on that Friday night, September 19, 1952, that the history of the "monster" of Flatwoods was distorted and corrupted! The monster was incorrectly (even dismissively and unbelievably!) portrayed on that live nationally televised TV talk show!

Before the TV show aired, as we've mentioned in previous articles, a sketch artist interviewed the two primary witnesses and drew an illustration of the "monster." The problem was that this artist had misinterpreted their descriptions of it and so muffed its depiction! 

This tall structure, which, "Wore a suit of green armor" and was said to have "Looked like a mechanical man" ...was incorrectly illustrated by the TV artist! He actually drew the figure as a ridiculous "monster" entity wearing an equally ridiculous ensemble topped with a pointed cloth hood, covered with a tunic-style top, wearing a pleated dress, and having bony arms and claws! This incorrect drawing was the image of the "monster" that was to be remembered by the public for many years to come.

On the following day back in Flatwoods, Saturday, September 20, 1952, Ivan Sanderson and his assistant continued their investigation. They were joined by some other researchers Sanderson had called in, as well as some locals who assisted them in their Flatwoods investigation. 

They also looked into other areas of Braxton County where additional UFOs were sighted on September 12, and then interviewed many of those witnesses. Sanderson and his assistant would depart Braxton County late that Saturday night, and then drive to Charleston, WV to investigate other September 12 sightings that had been reported in the press there as well. 

On the next day, Sunday, September 21, they interviewed many UFO witnesses and spent the entire day in Charleston. The two men then departed Charleston at 4:30 pm and drove, for reasons undisclosed, to Washington, DC. They arrived on Monday morning, September 22, completed THAT business... then returned home to New York.

As a result of his investigation and interviews with the boy witnesses and their drawings, Ivan T. Sanderson realized the figure they saw on the farm was not a "monster." He would publish his findings.

On September 25, 1952, "The Pittsburgh Press" newspaper ran the story about Sanderson's Braxton County UFO investigation, which was datelined, "SUTTON, W. Va. Sept.24." In this "North American Newspaper Alliance" article Sanderson concluded the following about the "Flatwoods Monster." 

The "critics," "naysayers," and contrary "investigators" might take an opportunity to gird their flaccid loins. A hugely respected Sanderson stated it "was not a man or a monster. It was some sort of machine like a diving bell." The reader may have noticed the use of the word, "machine."

Yes, Mr. Sanderson states very early in the history of this affair that the so-called "monster" was actually a "machine." With regard to the "black, spade-like cowl, which extended a foot or more above the head," this was mentioned in Stewart's article ten days earlier. 

Sanderson would add that it had, "a circular transparent window in front of it." This black cowl was actually an outer helmet that encased a red inner helmet. A. Lee Stewart's article accurately described the giant figure, "[looking] like a mechanical man," and likewise, Sanderson had said, "It was some sort of machine like a diving bell." Sanderson was correct in his assessment that it "was not a man, or a monster," which matched Stewart's original description.

Taken from the full article...

Even though this factual information was made available to the public by the press, not many people were aware of this information and believed the Flatwoods entity to be a West Virginia "monster" folklore story. Fast forward many years later, Illustrator Frank Feschino, Jr. would investigate the "Flatwoods Monster" incident and research it for decades. 

He worked with the actual witnesses as was pointed out. He wanted to know what the giant "monster" actually looked like so he could illustrate it. Feschino interviewed witnesses Fred May and Kathleen May and was told by them that the 1952 "We The People" drawing was absolutely wrong. 

Fred May told Feschino , "The overall body was metallic, not cloth" and further added, "The figure was made of metal." Feschino  asked Mrs. May, "Did it look cloth-like or metallic?" She answered, "No! It looked more metallic." Fred May also stated, "It was mechanical; it was not alive. Maybe inside the thing—there could have been something that was alive." He concluded, "What I saw was either a small spaceship or suit of some kind. Something it was wearing. It was mechanical." Feschino also learned from Sanderson's research that the color of the figure's metal body was "aluminum in color." The "suit of green armor" as described by Mrs. May and reported by Stewart was likely a reflection of the nearby tree foliage and bushes.

Feschino then went to work and with the assistance of the witnesses began to work on a series of illustrations. Feschino, a "Paier School of Art" trained forensic illustrator and graduate (and a much better artist than the 1952 TV artist) did several illustrations that more accurately portrayed the true likeness of the so-called "monster." As a result, the West Virginia "monster" folklore story and its INACCURATE image has now been cast aside and the public can see the true image of the "Flatwoods Monster." 

Mr. Stewart and Mr. Sanderson's accurate reportage of the story from the very beginning had been long-forgotten, but it was verified years later by Frank Feschino's follow-up investigation. The illustrations Feschino did working with the actual eyewitnesses shows how inaccurate the original drawing was, thus making the story convoluted, which turned the "Flatwoods Monster" into a silly and forgettable folklore tale. 

Feschino also interviewed Colonel Dale Leavitt, the commander of the West Virginia National Guard. This was a military person who received a phone call from Washington, D.C. the night of the cosmic kerfuffle! The Air Force had ordered Colonel Leavitt to the farm, told him to cordon it off, investigate the site, and collect soil samples and any debris. 

Leavitt and about 50 armed troops taken from a larger force deployed to the farm. He's been ordered to collect soil samples, some debris, and also found a strange oil-like substance. This "oil" had leaked from the "mechanical" monster near the tree of the encounter site. 

Leavitt stated, "It just sat down. It just sat down under a limb." He added, "Where it sat, it had some 'oil' coming out. Whatever it was." He told Feschino, "I got some of this oil, the little bits of this and that [debris] to see what it was and I never did know what it was." 

Feschino asked, "Now this oily substance that was on the ground, did you have to take samples of that also?" He replied, "I did, I did, and took dirt and leaves and some of the wood." ...What became of these samples we wonder?

At this point, it was apparent that this so-called "monster" was actually some kind of a machine, a mechanical apparatus resembling a small spaceship that was capable of hovering. Furthermore, this machine also seemed to be damaged and was leaking oil! Leavitt told Feschino, "Well, there was something here that could fly backward or anywhere it wanted to go, as long as it didn't tear up its equipment." Monsters are in need of what kinds of "equipment" we wonder anew?

Yes reader, Frank Feschino, Jr. was right all along! Critics, naysayers, and so-called investigators? These can pound experiential sand.

Buy the book!

A postscript on our erstwhile critics, naysayers, and investigators... Interest is fine and more research is admirable, even desired. Feschino is likely confident that "new" and "groundbreaking" research would only bear his contentions and assertions about air war with UFOs out. ...But therein lies the rub. "Critics" will "hear" things and "read" things apart from Feschino about the Flatwoods affair... as a passing interest non-consuming and of little import. Then these will produce forgettable assertions based inadequately on Feschino's uncredited work to prosecute whatever raises the boats in their personal harbor... but, these boats are not factually based, easily take on water, sink, and are forgotten... uninteresting, non-consuming, and of little import.

Consider that it is a fact that the summer of 1952 mirrored a world spike in UFO activity, that these UFOs were regularly impinging on protected air space in the United States, and that President Truman ordered the Air Force to shoot these UFOs down! Further... that there were many sorties of state-of-the-art jets launched against these UFOs... where the loss of men and equipment occurred in what one top official described as "lurid duels with death..."

These considerations have NOT been of "passing interest," "non-consuming," or "of little import" to Frank Feschino. To the contrary, Feschino, truly the soberest and sanest person this writer (who once commanded a military service academy) has ever known, has made this affair his life's work. Indeed, Feschino has made this still ongoing research his all-consuming occupation for well over twenty years, making no small sacrifices in that pursuit, and has produced for his effort a well-supported work that is so astonishing that if it was up the reader's nose they'd feel bootheels on their f'n chins.

No... Feschino was the one on watch and making his seminal report. Everyone else slept in, missed breakfast, and are making it up as they go along. Their boats? We'd made it clear they don't float.

Everyone Who Votes Young, Is!

Stating the unpleasant obvious
in a manner told to be understood constructively
and then believing, consequently,
how it CAN be constructively believed.

Everyone Who Votes Young, Is! 

by Alfred Lehmberg

Seems the kids turned out in droves in 2022 to rescue our Democracy from bigoted Nazis, rich-old (and self-identifying!) white men, and the otherwise entirely untoward fascist MAGA imbeciles and earnest deplorables, eh? Yeah, "half" of America is dumb as a bag of broken hammers ever voting against its own best interests, and while these broken souls may be deserving of some civil rights, some common respect, and some small consideration, that cannot include putting them in charge of anything, ever! That right has been well and truly abdicated! Stupid. Has had. It's run!

• 
  

No? Check Congress for the comedy stylings of a youth-betraying "Lala Bobo" & "Empty G," just to start! Remains, real victory was snatched from the jaws of "unblinking betrayal" in 2020, as is highly unusual, from the sexually bigoted, fulsomely fascist, and wholly psychotic "right"! No lipstick for pigs!

• 
  

...One wonders in speculations ahead if it won't be the kids who stand as the ones to actually "bring the efficacious saucers down"! Well, them and our Black women! Such is the irony that this nation would be a true fascist hell, but for them! Yes! We'll go there. Truth shall not be knowingly denied! End of this digression.

• 
  

Astonishingly, to continue, but not ignoring the "silver lining" for the massive "clouds" looming, it seems like it could still be a great time to be alive... to this citizen, at any rate, as this still well-privileged lower middle-class crow flies with some savings, a military pension, and Social Security. Sincerely, couldn't this still be a time of huge potential for a great time, for most of us, one must realize... and must be in a period of general wealth like there has NEVER been... and on the cusp of a true first-category civilization, OURS if our "reach" can but equal our "grasp" ...and we aspire to that! If we tax billionaires from all existence! ...Maybe a too well-maligned George Soros could be absolved...

• 
  

• 
  

...With NO thanks, and this writer repeats "NO Thanks" to that rabid and authoritarian "right" only celebrating the sociopathic individual at the clear expense of a well-abused aggregate society, or? Yes... we shall entertain some MAGA talking points here, "points" unable to withstand the smallest honest scrutiny, but... that alleged antithesis of a rabid right and showcased as even remotely legitimate in a legacy media sellin' reverse mortgages and boner pills! This:

• 
  

We present the, at this point, impossibly rare ANTIFA (who only comes out to celebrate when fascists come out to celebrate it must be noted!) or, that so-called "anarchist" (?) "left," of myth and MAGA manufacture... whoever these persons are (brown, green, or purple M&Ms presumably!), but bogeymen of some mythic left-wing socialist/communist "conspiracy" extremists of errant right-wing conjecture... entirely GOP manufactured to divide and confuse... all these, none-the-less, "leftists," somehow persecuting the individual on the societal stake for the aggregate—but not helping to cop to the new reality?  Blame on both sides? Uh-uh. NO!

• 
  

Sorry! None of that can exist in any dimensional existentiality in a constructive and sensible manner! It never has!  No. There is but one side of sane, sentient, and sensibly secular persons... and then... there is the psychotic, senseless, and toxically insensible sectarian, the other side. That's the choice sans the smallest of minuscule hyperboles. 

• 
  

What is the new reality required of needs and for cause? It is this. It is that "both-sides," blamed, patient reader, is a craven lie of but ONE side! The rabid side. See, Hitler was... wrong. Indiana Jones, Captain America, and every good guy in Star Wars cannot be in arrears.

• 
  

Truly, there is but ONE sentient side... and THAT "side's" mawkish antithesis? Prepare yourself, reader! Bald and unblinking truth follows! THAT "side" is but a fulminating people-cancer of political hypocrisy, color supremacy, reptilian corpocracy, social mendacity, institutional bigotry, glaring incompetency, fascistic autocracy, toxic misogyny, and irreligious apostasy! We'd mentioned lipstick and pigs! 

• 
  

No. The MAGA GOP is a scurvy warren of foreign and domestic enemies, enemies hardwired to senseless violence as baseless as it is destructive! Why, these rabid cultists even want a fascistic KING with the same divine rights of old... that bane of the Constitutional Framers!! These are the good guys?! We digress!

• 
  

More societal reality? Well, prepare for a hard turn. The "child" is the "parent" to the "adult"! That's gonna be true at all levels and indices, and a fact known for many thousands of years! 

• 
  

Cutting to the chase? We start to treat the kids as we would individually be treated, ourselves! To start! We are not doing that! This writer taught for a time in what passes for Public schools in America, and knows.

• 
  

Consider the current teacher shortage! This puts us off to a disparaged start in sub-standard schools this citizen has actually attempted to teach in, drawing righteous societal blood right off the proverbial bat! The writer has experienced that of which he speaks!

• 
  

Those children on the cutting edge of this... "experience"? Discover that with regards to their number and furiously unthinking production of same—less numerical humanity may be assuredly more! For Christ's sake, humanity! Put an f'n sock on it! Humanity does not have to be a cancer on this planet, too.

• 
  

Lastly, understand that their world is more vital to them than is your world. Their perception is the reality! We can improve that which is perceived! "School" is the best place to start. The sectarian can have no part in this State function where the secular must hold sway... frankly, because... at this point? The sectarian teaches only scienceless division and baseless hatred. 

• 
  

Lipstick. Pigs.

• 
  

Pre-forming first impressions about young human beings won't respect your inability to make a good one yourself or mistake another one. One can only be genuine! There's no profit in the reflexive ridicule of their nascent and naive inexperiences.  To them, passion burns hotter, if not brighter, than your own...

• 
  

Their world is filled with singular challenges, imminent threats, and anxious priorities we have forgotten, or repressed, as abused (so distracted) adults.  Evolving Adults aspiring to a certain "non-distraction," we can discover that even as all things known can be new again (!!!), we achieve but a fraction of what first-time experiencers experience, or make, of their first encounter with their reality!  

• 
  

"First" encounters with that initial "felt presence of the moment." Delicious! Then, it's not about you. It's about them because they're the ones coming up. That's going to be hard to remember when you really believe you have something to tell them... ya gotta have a solid "why" and you have to have a genuine way to transfer that. 

• 
  

See, it's up to us to provide the bridge and relevance to them... a bridge to our presently very contrived, mal-defined, and very situational "adult" reality... whatever the hell that is! Though...We can MODEL a more sane and sentient reality, ... and the aforementioned "separation of Church and State" guarantees the rights and efficacious QUALITIES of each! 

• 
  

Secular State. Sectarian Church. Ne'er the twain to intercourse or it's madness and misogyny! Where has it, NOT?!

• 
  

Too, about our largely psychotic realities imposed on our youth, ours is a situation t'would repel them if they only knew, and resent upon finding out! They have suspicions! This person, did! Their confirmation was an astonishment to this writer suddenly understanding why the revolution first starts  on the college campus... cited truth is freeing...

• 
  

Ous easy mendacity and dissonant hypocrisy repels the informed... us, now, when we're forced to remember... it did this writer... unencumbered, now, by that "cowl of cognitive dissonance" self-imposed... or in other words, rejected: convenient rationalizations required to buffer us from the truths we would deny... god, but we have sucked as a species... and so then must seem to suck into the foreseeable future? 

• 
  

There are consequences for groking the primary histories (first exposed to this retired soldier at the Defense Race Relations Institute in 1972) of things learned upon returning late in life to an accredited university in serious pursuit of a quality teaching credential. Tilt!

• 
  

...But that's our problem, a problem withering away into the startlingly obvious when confronted at last by the generic, real-time, and non-genuflecting "genuine," eh? You know, "reality" that curls your short hair! That's where the kids are, eh?  ...And how can we expect them to reach out willingly to our lurid prosecutions, especially currently, of our "adult" distractions, hypocrisies, mendaciousnesses, dissatisfactions, hatreds, inefficiencies, unnecessary obsolescences, and even cultural betrayals? How, indeed!

• 
  

For the mercurial reader, then, consider this an "absence-of-love" poem composed in the under-appreciated traditions of one Theodore Sturgeon. ...Sire once or not at all... give it back!  Siring, again the writer asks, "do we do our kids a favor to turn them into us?"

• 
  

Though, leave us not retreat too reflexively into those wounded "frowny pouties," pouties facilitating those seemingly obligatory cheap-shot recriminations of some stupid wounded backlash. ROFL!  Let us look, instead, into a MIRROR for that first assumption of blame... or the "reason" for that first "thrown stone." First? Do, as one would be done.

• 
  

Admitted! None of us has the deadlock nut on the aggregate craziness, and one performs a public disservice, one can presume, to suggest that one does, eh? We're, all of us, grains of sand on a backwater beach concerning adjacent entelechies and their view of things, perhaps: a view reflected fractally across a vast range of various universal entelechies... if speciated self-awareness recapitulates in the same fractal expression of, seemingly, everything else... anyway!  Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny everywhere else, after all... right? Another fractal expression...

• 
  

Still, one "grain of sand" on the backwater, as mentioned above, "beach" only presumes to instruct another, eh?

• 
  

The late Terence McKenna nailed it. One must aspire to be their own Guru, and should be where one can winnow that out... or what's the point? Is it true? Is it real? Does it ascend? Does it find that greater darkness out of which our more constructive novelties are snatched or winnowed?

• 
  

...Any and all expressed opprobrium, of course, goes to your garden variety Shermer-smirker or hypo-literate, if rabidly homocentric, faux-skeptical klasskurtxian skeptibunky [tm].  These know who they are, don't get it, and we don't care.  These can pack sand and broken glass passed a prolapsing pore, eh?

• 
  

To close with the poetic: 

MAGA is abject regression, 

has codified its glad repressions

—then abrogating all progression—

provides for needless deep depressions!

• 
  

There! There's your latest from the responsible void, aspiring to the genuine and undoing entropy where one can!

ÆL

Sans You, Individually Speaking

"...we are the Alone, in flight to the alone..."

It's about the individual, 

and the progress that is made... 

their pursuit of efficacious satisfaction! 

See, "one" goes further than the group, 

in fact, defines their group's pretension 

given "practices" of "mob-think"...

its "inaction."  

It's the Shamanistic pathway 

of "the cat who walks alone," 

where few will dare to tread 

as "edges" glare!  

...Though "edges" are required 

in pursuit of group survival, 

so perhaps some small respect 

might then be shared.

.

 ...And in no way will it matter 

that she suffers for her task, 

or he greases cosmic gears 

that tear his eyes. 

Their art is oft rejected... 

as are hurdles many fear... 

...but elevates us best... 

we find in time. 

They'd follow different rhythms 

quite ignoring the indifference 

that their "people" have preferred 

and so conspired...

...We, all but, touch the "face of God," 

but most avoid that "darkness," 

if from which... 

any novelty's inspired...

.

Still, that satisfaction's missing 

from the short-sight of our ways 

as we rape our mother planet 

for the "comforts" she can pay.

 

We count on some to point this out 

from where they're walking "lead"!  

From where they'd "light the darkness," 

at some peril; we proceed. 

.

Shamans suffer ostracism 

which is sure to come their way 

(for no good deed can go, 

perforce, unpunished); 

they are left to their devices 

they have made up on their own, 

and they stay a little lonely, if astonished!  

.

...And much provides astonishment, 

new vistas yawn and gape; 

new "ideas" stun the senses and the mind!!!  "Unnerving introspection" 

action's "strength of will" and more, 

as the "cosmic riddle" beckons... 

...our humility... one finds!

.

They only want what's righteous 

for the spirit's celebration! 

They want to look beyond 

the "common pale"! 

They want an "elevation" 

but they want to know its "price." 

They want to know these secrets... 

and prevail. 

They want to know of UFOs, 

and question small "grey" men—

or the "Reptoids," ...big-eyed "Nordics"... 

...come what may!  

The future is inexorable, 

and it bears down like a "train"; 

our Shamans pay the ticket price... 

so we don't miss the "plane"!

.

These perform their innovations 

for the novelty inspired. 

These perform for our advancement, 

and they should only be admired...

.

...These could ask the seeming "space-folk" 

to show us "limits" we were facing... 

most are foolish... if contrived and self-imposed. 

This *other's* real existence

is admitted by the "high-domes," 

but they won't admit they're "here"; 

they're indisposed.

.

UFOs are REAL, friend. 

You'd see them if you looked—

if you pulled some scabrous scales from your eyes! 

Though to rail at the scales 

is to suffer, not, your sin, 

as it's you who's disrespected and deprived.

.

The "evidence" is massive, 

but it's picked apart by "thugs," 

and hidden by the "liars,

 cheats, and thieves"... 

...by "those we pay to govern"

 who betray their public trust, 

so's to line "psychotic pockets" 

with disease!

.

It is these who suck the power 

from the marrow of your bones, 

as they warp your sensibility 

to make you think... that we're alone...

.

Some would know the truth that *is*

—though heaven cracks and falls—

or all our staid conventions 

fall apart!

...  

If the heavens shatter quickly 

then it GOT its just desserts; 

it was empty of all meaning 

from the start!

  .

Too, one shan't dismiss the "faithful's" need: 

this heaven that they crave, 

it's the "nail" instabilities require. 

Though, their faith is turned against them (!) 

to "machines" for their control... 

and in no way of the "spirit" they'd desire.

.

It is foolish to presume 

that we will stay within our "womb," 

and ignore the deep expanse 

of time and space! 

To presume that *they* are here... 

is common sense of rare refinement, 

and a steadfast change in course 

for our whole race! 

.

This won't be hammered down to suit 

mere "skeptibunky clowns"—

cretins who won't see beyond their noses... 

One presumes that path one seeks 

is quite apart from them, 

a path that's ever upward... has been chosen.

.

It's our future way up there 

which stares from space, and is unblinking! 

Still, MOST would turn their backs on it, 

to ape a coward's thinking? 

.

...And NO! One shall not waver, 

revealing error and missteps... 

One shall not suffer Christians 

phony bows and aped "distress"!

.

 ...And NO, you are no coward! 

You are bravery unrestricted! 

You are talent, strength, and passion... unconfined! 

 Slipping bonds so binding, 

unremitting and confining, 

you might win your freedom's bounty you would find! 

.

And changing is the thing, the course to bounty

—seeking balance—

you deserve for "heating water," doing work... 

See, there IS an "I" in team... 

(...or no weak "link" defining "chain"!); 

you're more than mewling servant to some jerk!

.

It's your will... that must be turned; 

See, it's you who must "buy in."  

"...'Not provide' for 'their' support..." 

which is all you do, my friend!  

.

Sans you they cannot profit, see?  

Sans you they crash and fall; 

sans you they're only flailing!  

...Chance to hear them wail and bawl!  

.

So, NO! You are no shirker, 

though you'll make a grievance known! 

It's you who is the shaman! 

...It's been YOU, and you alone*! 

lehmberg2002@gmail.com
www.AlienView.net

*You know who you are... Sure, you may be small by yourself, but when you don't show up? It matters. Enough of you not buying in? Control shifts to you!

.,¸¸,.»§«,¸¸,.·´¯`·.,¸¸,.»§«***»§«,¸¸,.·´¯`·.,¸¸,.»§«·.,¸¸,.

...We are "the alone, in flight to the alone" as has been observed by our more mellifluous and sonorous bards... it remains, we can perceive this for ourselves. Also remaining?

• 
  

...But for you, and your effort: society crumbles slightly or a lot, but it crumbles, verily. God, shall not... cannot be depended upon. 

• 
  

God's will. That baseless faith strains credulity, defines an incredulous, and defies any test! It wasn't God running up the stairs of the Twin Towers! It was human beings, friends and neighbors: the only salvation human beings can ever have! Ourselves! 

• 
  

Consequently?

• 
  

You deserve individual respect, reward, and a certain "forthcoming-ness" (Social Security & Medicare?)—for your very valuable labor, intellectual and especially otherwise, and for your functionally virtuous team-building—a "forthcoming-ness" that is likely NOT coming your way for keeping humanity on the beam. Why valuable?

• 
  

... Valuable because you are the first responder in a very real way! This may be from pickin' up butter at the store for the family to running up those burning stairs we mentioned earlier. See, your expenditure of energy is bona fide "mind over matter" at the grassroots level! "Stuff gets done in the real world"... when you contribute. Useful stuff gets manufactured—almost out of thin air. "The man" doesn't make that... YOU do!

• 
  

Persons 300 years ago would have perceived only magic with regard to the things YOU can do almost entirely without effort! Verily, if you own a cell phone (and have the necessary energizing cash!) you have the "philosopher's stone" of all alchemic myth! This was that magical alchemical device able to feed, clothe, and house you—even transport you anywhere on the planet and manipulate inert matter into high-tech articles of further magic usefulness at your will... that's your cell phone, another manufactured thing able to do comparative magic. 

• 
  

I'm glad no one was waitin' around for THIS writer to invent all our stuff... more of that aforementioned salvation a result of humanity's beneficence? God didn't invent a polio vaccine or a quantum computer... and if we destroy ourselves with all this stuff? That will be on us, too.

•  

It occurs to me that Alien technologies could put a nice spin on all of the preceding for this conjectured individual: yourself. You're due a little more "magic"... More of the "efficacious satisfaction," more novelty... that we have alluded to... here, is warranted. "Happiness" and the "pursuit of same"... the game!

• 
  

 Cheaper power, greener manufacturing, an expanded quality of extended life, plus a safe and efficient transportation of advanced propulsion... hither and yon. ...Especially "yon," eh?

• 
  

Perceive all this aggregate, sullen, and wholly disrespectful treatment by the system presently "employing" you, otherwise! Are the crippling denials of all these suggested individual empowerments and technological liberties perhaps only a ... control mechanism of unethical design... a control mechanism lavishly benefiting the "few"—hijackers of our cultural systems, means and mainstreams—at the expense of the abused "many," and giving those aforementioned systems, means, and mainstreams their power, ironically enough, in the first place? The Stone won't operate effectively without cash fuel...  

• 
  

Where is the fairness?  Show me the respect tendered! How is this not merely a base tyranny?! Used? One should be paid!

• 
  

Why don't they respect you? ...Because... and listen close 'cause this is key: ...because then they have to pay you, eh? Moreover, it's why they won't do anything about "overpopulation"... even exacerbate it! 

• 
  

..."Overpopulation" provides for more to choose from in an abused and exacerbated mass of hungry persons... those "willing" who'll "do it for less"... (Romney's wet dream)... ...though it is sad 30,000 kids starve to death on the planet every day to make this program work...

• 
  

 I know not what course others may take, mine changes, largely, regardless.

• 
  

Restore John Ford!

ÆL