Is the Truth Really Out There?

                                  

Here is an interesting ice breaker when you meet someone new at a party. "So, have you ever seen a UFO?". There would be a very good chance that person would make a quick exit to the bathroom or the front door. Or, you might get an answer that would floor you - you might get a "Yes, let me tell you about it".

First a bit of disclosure. It is estimated that 5% of all Americans (the percentage is similar to Canadians) have seen "something". I am one of those people who have seen "something". My experience happened three years ago this next Thanksgiving. We had finished Thanksgiving dinner and my youngest daughter had a evening shift at a group home in another suburb. My son-in-law and I gave her a ride to her job and then came home through Champlin and Anoka. Darkness had fallen and while starting to cross the bridge over the Mississippi River, I saw what I thought were three helicopters coming up from the point where the Mississippi and Rum River join. I even asked my son-in-law if he thought it was odd that helicopters would be going though a drill on Thanksgiving evening. As we continued to watch them ascend, it became clear these were not helicopters at all - they were three strobing lights in the shape of a large triangle. When we got to the other side of the bridge we pulled off and continued to watch these lights until they disappeared.

Truthfully, I would have preferred that this had never happened as it was unsettling. It helped my son-in-law was with me so I would not have doubted my sanity after seeing it. I also would have preferred being able to quickly explain it away. However, at the end of the day, there was no explanation. What we saw was "unidentified" and that is where it stops. Anything beyond that would just be conjecture.

A few weeks after our experience, my son-in-law and I were interviewed by Minnesota MUFON (Mutual UFO Network). It was a very interesting interview as we learned much more than we told. The man who interviewed us had a day job, and did this part time. However in that part time he has interviewed a myriad of people with a myriad of experiences. He told us some of what he has heard has "made his skin crawl". All he knew was this - putting mass hysteria aside, SOMETHING is going on and many people who live in and around the Twin Cities have experienced it.

It is not just "kooks" that have an experience. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he saw a UFO while he was the Governor of Georgia. For about ten minutes, he and a group of others watched some weird lights in the sky that seemed to approach them then recede. Carter mentioned the sighting a few times on the campaign trail, and when he was sent a UFO sighting report by a research organisation, agreed to fill it out. While campaigning to become President, Carter promised to reveal all the U.S. government’s UFO secrets if he was elected. He was; but no secrets emerged.

Carter’s successor in the White House, Ronald Reagan, also allegedly saw a UFO while he was the Governor of California. Reagan was travelling in a small plane when he noticed a strange light which seemed to be following the aircraft. The light accelerated a little ahead and, at Reagan’s suggestion, his plane pursued it for a few minutes before it zoomed away vertically at tremendous speed.

Reagan developed an obsession with extra-terrestrials and mentioned them frequently in his speeches. Once, in a speech to the UN, he even said that the United States and the Soviet Union might be forced to make common cause if Earth faced an extra-terrestrial invasion.

Dennis Kucinich "saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent and observing him, it hovered for about 10 minutes or so and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend."

Now I will be the first to admit there are countless urban legends and myths that live in the UFO community. Most pictures which are taken are fuzzy or distant.  With the lack of hard evidence or disclosure by our government, it is much easier to be a sceptic than a believer.

I did have one other experience years prior to the one I had in Anoka which was every bit at impactful. I was down in Pensacola doing two weeks of Navy training. I had rented a house trailer on Mustin Beach located on the Air Station. On evening, my roommate and I were invited to the trailer next to us for a beer. A First Class Petty Officer was staying is this trailer and taking the same training we were. She was single, and decided it would be fun to bring her Mom down with her to experience the wonderful Pensacola beaches.

It was pitch black outside when we were done with our visit and getting ready to head back to our trailer. I made a joke that I hoped we didn't get abducted by a UFO before we got in our door. It was as if you could hear a pin drop. This Petty Officer, who was in her thirties and had a very high level clearance broke the silence by saying "My Mother and I have seen a UFO up close". For the next 20 minutes she and her Mother described the night a light descended over the farm across the meadow from where they lived in rural MD. Police and neighbors were called and they all gathered to see this strange and unexplained sight. Shortly after the police arrived it ascended at a high rate of speed and it never came back. No police report, no story in the newspaper, nothing.

When we got back to our trailer, I asked the man I was rooming with (another First Class Petty Officer with a high clearance) what he thought of that story. I told him I wondered what could have been gained by both of them making this story up. He then told me his own story from 20 years prior when camping in the Boundary Waters. After he gotten into his tent and darkness had fallen, he was not quite asleep when for about two seconds, night turned into day. He had never seen a brighter light that came right through his tent. Sleep never came for the rest of the night as he lay there, shaking and wondering what just happened.

Now I don't know what everyone is seeing. I don't know if these flying "whatevers" are a top secret programs such as the long rumored Aurora or TR-3B. Don't know. I to know this - something is being seen, something that cannot be explained. I don't know if Roswell was true, if Hanger 18 is true, or if we have dead aliens at Groom Lake.  I don't know if what is being seen is the result of mass hysteria, swamp gas or one HUGE practical joke.

In the series "The X Files" the tag line was "the truth is out there". The truth might be out there, but is might be in here also. If our government know the truth, we should be told; we should demand the truth. Some say if the truth is told it would not only cause panic, but also invalidate governments and religion. I don't think so. Contrary to the famous movie line, "we can handle the truth". No more lies, no more cover ups, no more ridicule. Just the truth and nothing but the truth.