July 7th marked the 66th Anniversary of the Roswell UFO sightings. July 8th, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record announced that the RAAF had "captured a flying saucer".
How did I celebrate this momentous event in our nation's history? By playing the Roswell Google Doodle, of course!
Was the "object" that crash-landed on the New Mexico ranch a UFO? Was it a weather balloon? I don't know--- and I won't profess to know. I think the mistake (if there actually was a mistake) was when the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer, Walter Haut, stated that the group had recovered a "flying disk." This was later amended by the Commanding General, Roger Ramey--- the group had recovered a "weather balloon."
How did I celebrate this momentous event in our nation's history? By playing the Roswell Google Doodle, of course!
Was the "object" that crash-landed on the New Mexico ranch a UFO? Was it a weather balloon? I don't know--- and I won't profess to know. I think the mistake (if there actually was a mistake) was when the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer, Walter Haut, stated that the group had recovered a "flying disk." This was later amended by the Commanding General, Roger Ramey--- the group had recovered a "weather balloon."
Flying disk? Weather balloon?--- Didn't matter what they changed the story to, the martian seed was already planted.... The imagination of the country was already mutating.
It don't take nothin' for an eager imagination to spiral out of control....
Give it 30 yrs, let the words "government cover-up" be spoken by one of the original site's retrieval group, and you've got a full-scale conspiracy---complete with abductions, anal probes, and little-green-man-autopsies.
I'm not saying those "abductees" didn't experience anything, the mind is a powerful and puzzling thing. Let a couple of people swear to their alien abduction, let them get their 15-minutes, let others want (albeit, sub-consciously) to get their 15-minutes. Suddenly you've got a mess of mass hysteria...emphasis on MASS.
--------Interesting Fact:
Ray Bradbury and his family lived in Roswell for a short time, some 27 yrs before the sighting. At the age of 3, Bradbury wasn't in much of a position to be affected by the city. But, let the burgeoning author hear of the event, let said author remember that he was once connected to that city, and suddenly you have fodder for a life-time in letters. Bradbury's Martian Chronicles released only 3 years after the 1947 Roswell sightings.
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Do I believe aliens exist? Yes, I find it scarily improbable that there isn't SOME planet, SOMEwhere, with SOME life on it. It would be too egocentric, too human-centric a thought to assume there's nothing out in the universe that could rival our intellect and existence.
Do I believe aliens abduct humans to do "probes" and other research? I don't know. Probably not, though, you never can tell. But, just because we'd take any opportunity to cut open an unknown specimen, just to see how it works, doesn't mean an alien race would do the same to us if they stumble upon our planet.
Whether true or false, whether a cover-up or a mistake, no one can argue that the events that happened in Roswell, New Mexico 66 years ago haven't impacted the history and ultimately, the future of this country.
To borrow Mr. Bradbury's words, "It is good to renew one's wonder...space travel has made children of us all!"
I wonder, how drastically different the world today might be if not for the fascination/obsession with Alien life beyond our tiny corner of the infinite universe......
his family originally landed in roswell and acclimated to earth the events of july 1947 were just the last of the movers ;)
ReplyDeleteShhhh..... you weren't 'apposed to tell people that!
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