Inevitable Alternatives
And Key Individuals
And Key Individuals
Many of us in a ufological C-list rank and file are dismissively
chided by the experienced and legitimate researchers in our community as
"armchair Ufologists": persons apart
from being taken seriously because we have not done any field research.
Klasskurtxians or Pelicanists, on the other hand, plus other ax-grinders... knee-jerk debunkers
by any stripe or name... accuse our alleged "woo-woo"
credulity and too eagerly impugned intellectual openness—a result, ironically, of doing that same field research—as that which is
reflexively and by definition dismissible. Our "unbiased," "fetterless,"
and wholly "credulous" investigation, these sneer, would then ultimately indicate to us that UFOs are
so much bunk...
Heavy sigh. Damned if
don't or do!
Upon conducting a small research of my own I discover,
rather predictably, the inevitable
alternative. Verily, my personal
experience reveals a path untold by
the preceding factions, whatever the provenance of their "aisle side"...
separating us, those individuals sincerely
curious and genuinely truth seeking...
from
the efficacious persons the aforementioned "rank and file" should read and watch
respectfully... ...and the immediately
preceding's polar antithesis: those who should be reviled, despised, and wholly
loathed for the intellectual cowards that they are, out of hand! I'll leave it to the reader who is who.
This writer observes that the former could be more encouraging to the flock they serve and that the latter are just unbravely and self-servingly wrong, in heart and mind... See? Your
individual "investigation," reader, can be positively taken
and to a degree the reader can determine themselves. Remember that the only ones who really needs
to be dissuaded or convinced as regards the ufological
"such and so" ...are the individual readers themselves. The individual is key!
It is not as unusual or as difficult as one might believe. Moreover, the results of ones personal analysis
may not prove to debunk UFOs, and
more importantly, the conjectured occupants of same... without regard to how this
*other* is manifested in a considered "real" or existential world. Flying saucers remain real, eh? Seven monstrous categories say so.
.
.
.
.
Provenance is not
the issue and may be misled conjecture anyway.
"Actuality" of the body's felt presence is the issue. Here and now. The moment.
That said, the former might provide a short if comprehensive syllabus outlining a process
whereby interested persons might more successfully perform their small
research. This is forgetting that the aforementioned can be accomplished merely
answering the questions who, what, where, how, when, and for the angle "why," when possible, to the best of ones ability. This has been done to a degree, true, but
suspect mainstream opposition is an implacable foe, and those initiatives are
frozen and scattered in that opposition's wind.
The latter? These can just settle in
with a nice steaming cup 'o "shut the f__k up." Where truth is told in a manner to be
understood? It will be believed.
As I said... I've performed such an individual "research." Oh, it's a grain of sand compared to Frank
Feschino's 20 year old, very assiduously documented and cited... then illustrated research regarding the 1950s
military UFO "Flap," to be sure, but it was a research, nonetheless.
It provided convincing personal
answers to... Who. What. When.
Where. How. And lastly, that angle with regard to a "Why,"
even outside the parameters of
diverse real persons observing a bona
fide UFO and then having the sacked stone to report it.
Here's what happened.
.
I was looking around in some old UFO Report text files late
last century that I had downloaded from a BBS. I'd come across an episode highlighting the
name of a small town within proverbial spittin' distance from me here in
southeast Alabama . I have promised the key person involved they
would not be implicated so I will not directly ID the town, just give you salient
details of it.
Several people in this small Alabama
town observed a UFO. I have the text of
the article concerning the whole incident plus other documentation, but there
is no requirement to believe this ol' ex soldier, I'm doing this for me,
remember. You're just welcome on the ride, is all. Buckle up and extinguish all smoking materials.
.
Anyway, intrigued by the proximity of this event, I called
the local town's newspaper to see if there was anything to the news article I'd
found in those text files—and wouldn't you just know it? There was!
In fact it was
quite a little tempest in a teapot, for all that, and I do not mean to
diminish it. Not at all, for what it
really was, reader, was a story about courage,
integrity, and standing up in the face of authority when it belittles you... or,
suggests that you are misrepresenting,
mistaken, or mentally ill... when it's you
compelled to make a report to lawful authority after observing the highly
strange!
The original story was, of course, doomed to go nowhere.
I suspect that there are stories like this happening all
over the United States ,
every day. These are stories dying as a result of being too close to
the "informational bone" and challenging of our "slack cultural
relevancy." Moreover, these stories
cannot easily be confirmed by the reader and are more easily filed away under
amusing occurrences, belittling their
importance for cause! Still, this was a
bona fide ufological tempest, close
by, even if it was in a teapot...
...Besides, I was between quarters at college. I had time, motive, and opportunity to play
investigator (folks, I'm no Hercule Perot); as I said, I called the editor at the
local paper.
It turned out the fellow I reached was a talkative sort, and imagine any chief of a small town American rag;
a hamster couldn't pass gas in his
town without him knowing about it!
He talked about the
witness, at last, and I am actually a little chagrined to report... that "X" (the person of provenance
in the affair) was a long-standing and respected-pillar-of-the-community type further showing historical stability
with a responsible job in State government!
.
The Editor went on: apparently "X" was driving
with a friend at night and had seen a UFO in the sky, a banana shaped object
spinning like a crazed boomerang or dervish! The object (...not a bird, bolide, booster, or
balloon...) had swooped back and forth in front of their moving car while utilizing
unfeasible speeds and impossible direction changes... and then it just disappeared!
The editor added, further, that there were other reports
that night from other credible witnesses at similar times. Multiple
sightings of the UFO would be reported along a path which could be traced on a
map!
.
Then the editor talked a short time about the rest of the
story... regarding an amusingly satisfying related situation precipitating some police embarrassment
over their not taking "X"'s UFO report seriously enough when "X" made it! A-ha!
Apparently, the
police had mildly ridiculed "X" about the incident, and "X"
went through the small-town roof as a
result. The tempest escalated to a reported melee at the county police level, but with the mayor of the effected town
brought into tow, "X" secured a complete
retraction of the ridicule and a
public apology from the police officers involved. This elicited more newspaper
coverage, in turn, and a cartoon was produced illustrating the chagrined police
chief being dragged down the street by a UFO, saying into a cell phone words to
the effect that he had every future intention
of taking UFO reports seriously!
See, reader? You
don't have to stand pat for a load of
crap from a smirking authority!
.
Well, "Great Story," and I thought that was the
end of it, but then he abruptly added that if I "wanted" (!!!) I
could talk to "X" myself, and here is "X"'s home phone number! I asked him—after I got the number—how he
could do that, and he said that "X" did not say not to. Ok! Works for me!
.
Well, I called "X", got a machine—left my tale of
explanation, credentials, number, and sincerity ... I even said "don't
feel bad" if you don't return the call.
I got no return call; embarrassed, I have to report I hoped
"X" felt bad...
.
I waited a couple of weeks; I didn't want to be the *obnoxious*
media—if I wasn't getting paid for it!—and I was just getting ripe to phone
back and see if the message was even received...
when "X" finally returned my call!
.
"X" wanted to know "how in hell" I got
the number! I ratted the editor out (he
didn't say not to! [g].), then countered with a barrage of apology, quick assurances
of sincerity, and that I would make no trouble. "X" cooled out.
After making me promise that I would not identify "X," "X" confirmed a large, crazily
wheeling boomerang shape that zipped hither and yon in front of them like
something "X" had never before seen! "X" said it was a
CRAFT!
Additionally, there is something that you have to understand about "X," "X" lives right in the middle of
some of the most intensively flown uncontrolled airspace in the known universe,
and has lived there the whole of a respected life.
Anyone who has heard of Fort
Rucker , home of Army Aviation,
knows that the World comes to Fort Rucker
to fly helicopters, day, night and all-weather.
"X" had cut teeth on aircraft of all types and knew the
difference 'twixt something identified
and something "NOT," in her
familiar Alabama Skies.
"X" went on to say that the police apology story
was overblown; it didn't happen as stridently as the editor had said, but that
it was irritating not to be
taken seriously by someone who's salary
"X" helped to pay.
God bless
"X", eh?
.
Closing, "X" expressed appreciation if I could
provide no further bother on this
subject, as it was kind of
embarrassing—but that I seemed like a good sport, and I had "done America
so proud in the (first) Gulf war..."...
I had to allow that I spent the duration of that war at Fort
Rucker itself, teaching the men and
women preparing to participate themselves
how to fly in combat. "X" said
that that was OK, I'd done my part—my whole point being that this person was a credentialed, reliable, and respectable
person. Moreover, this was a person able
to communicate to me that something incredible was, in fact, witnessed by that
credible person, and that real UFO's are existent to one more person I know. For
me, incredible!
See? Quality persons
all over the world are having these encounters regularly, reader! Not happening to you, you can bet that it is
happening to someone around you...
perhaps even to someone close to
you.
Eyes peeled for such, you can investigate same! Yes! ...Perform a valuable research, and tell the story.
Moreover, you don't have to swallow crap from authority when
you do the brave thing and report an
anomaly. Consider, a small bravery now precludes, perhaps, that consummate bravery required later on! Live on your feet or die on your knees!
Lastly, the result of your courage will
be an ability to hold your head up in a substantively understanding way with
the honored "big dogs" of ufology, plus, avail yourself the corresponding pleasure of serving up the "steaming cup" alluded to
earlier for those *others* wholly
deserving it! You'll also get a leg up
on the future accelerating inexorably towards you... regardless, but that's a
story for another issue.
Less is more, eh? Read
on.