Dejected by the mainstream,
I know some folk who listened twice,
- John Velez has more good neighbor potential than James Dobson, Newt Gingrich, or Glenn Beck—combined, which does not seem such a hard sell on its face until the irony is considered! How is it that three mainstream stalwarts of cultural pulchritude are so handily bested by an aging hippie, fusion percussionist, artist, and former poppy addict? But "bested" is an "obvious," reader. Verily. John towers above these three, on any level and at all indices.
- ...It remains, though, that he's gonna have to come down here to live! Somebody stole my camera (a half-frame Olympus Pen F) on a visit to his city in 1973, and STILL it pays! I want my camera, bag, and lenses back, New York!
- Long ago on SDI (07-08-06), John Velez—uncomplicated acceptor of sincere hugs from complete strangers—was sadly underrepresented and sorely missed in a ufological free-form fray that was the 400th iteration of that, damn-it, cutting edge program... penetrating program, finally, efficaciously enduring program, forgetting of course "missed" program... it's gone now with the late Errol Bruce Knapp...
- John was compelled, instead, to practice the timeless art of that almost mystical entity know as a New York City Cab Driver. Otherwise his appearance on the program would have been a rare treat.
- ...Think of the cab-driving "ghost of Christmas past" in Bill Murray's "Scrooged." Pretty damned magical, and what a driver. Tran-spatial ... Inter-temporal ... Multi-Dimensional. A cool ride by any name and at any speed!
- See... ...John was ufological before ufological was *cool*... ...before the ufology became a focal point, not for mal-impassioned net-loons, public whack-oids, and insincere crystal-squeezers rushing in to fill the knowledge void facilitated by a corrupt and duplicitous main-stream society... [don't get me started] ...but the gassy avians, scurrilous skeptibunkies, and conflicted klasskurtxians, these institutionalized and inculcated by that same society... to undercut and marginalize UFOs and the inquiry into them. This writer says true.
- John is/was a worthy combatant in the aforementioned struggle. Only, if ufology was ham and eggs, John was the ham. Eggs are a survivable investment. Ham is a sacrifice of the irreplaceable.
- Moreover, John Velez is one of those persons who at great personal cost, as has always been the way of it, helped to ensure, along with significant others, that a ufology, against all odds and despite *learned* dismissals, *furious* derisions, and *reflex* denials... of fatuous radio "Shock Jocks" and others already alluded to... ...endures still.
- That's right. Endures still. Thank you, Mr. Velez, for helping to facilitate this... ... this concrescence of eventual disclosure looming before us all unrecognized, if looming still... our intuited improvement by the acknowledgment of same ...howsoever "it" manifests itself in the very near term.
- Thank you John.
- Thank you John.
- Thank you John! Truth serves, and verily!