Every few years I pull these letters out, and having discussed their origin in blog entries of old, I'll just direct first-time readers to the search engine above, where one may simply type in the word, Hanley. Instantly displayed before you will be several blog entries dealing with the letters.
I thought it appropriate to dig up the past today because the government finally released something of an updated UFO, oops, UAP report -- the unclassified version, unfortunately, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.
While many researchers have come forward to provide thoughtful commentary on the report, perhaps the best that can be said is that the government has at last shed snotty innuendo, negatively-toned bureaucratic legalese and abstruse talk-down language in favor of simply admitting that there's something real out there, up there and (gasp!) unexplained. Whew! There, was that so bad? It's finally been said, and it didn't hurt a bit, did it? Far as I can tell, people aren't rushing outdoors to engage in panic in the streets now that we are assured, in the timeworn words of the many who warned us years ago: UFOs are real.
Sadly, I am dismayed to now hear the occasional former military officer or current government official make light of the "ufologists" who, in their minds, did not give the subject credibility over the years. Really? Without UFO investigators and researchers gleaned from all walks of life and documenting the reality of the UFO/UAP for decades, the New Arrivals who breezed on in and act as if they are Columbus discovering the New World would remain clueless to the extent of the phenomenon.
I'm no scientist, but merely as somebody who has had a hand or two in this strange business for decades (though I admit to being woefully out of touch with a large body of information these days) I have had no reason to go bonkers over exotic theories suggesting that the UFO is well understood any better by government brains than by the man or woman on the street. I think we are collectively baffled internationally. Do we engage in reverse UFO technology and propulsion offered by or taken from extraterrestrials? Again, I suspect we remain mostly in the dark, be we military engineers or people on the street. As on prior occasions, I will defer to Charles Fort, remove his tongue from his cheek and suggest we may indeed be somebody else's "property" in so many ways.
Heck yes, I wish the UFO "abduction" phenomenon had been mentioned in the new assessment, but delicious cases such as the Pascagoula incident obviously did not fit in with what seemed a definite military aircraft/UAP theme. Excluded also was the elephant in the room known as something akin to electromagnetic effects associated with UFOs, aircraft, automobiles, power plants and the like. You know, stuff that really might scare the hell out of Just Plain Folk.
Then again, we out here who are consistently denied truth in detail are not receiving the CLASSIFIED version, are we?
My letters shown here are 45 years old. I'll say almost half a century old just to add drama. Ouch. For those who think official UFO reporting and tracking started in 2004, I have news for them: Congressman Jim Hanley knew about UFOs in the 1960s, when important UFO activity seemed rampant, and he wasn't alone as a congressional member.
Am I disappointed that nothing further developed following the congressman's recommendation? Yes and no. Yes because I had ideas and would have been comfortable in a public information setting -- and no because maybe a Carter Era UFO project would have fizzled, relegating me to attend to other duties, such as driving President Carter's mother, "Miss Lillian" to supermarkets in Georgia, or maybe helping Carter's frequently outrageous brother produce his "Billy Beer." I don't know, perhaps I would have been assigned the task of finding and neutralizing the "killer rabbit" alleged to have chased Carter's boat, or of conquering the "malaise" Carter believed had taken the nation hostage as the country entered a terrible era of inflation. Would I have later joined the President as he volunteered with Habitat for Humanity? Yes, of course -- if I could just help build prison cells to hold corrupt government bureaucrats.
So who cares if Frank Moore's secretary couldn't spell "liaison?" How I miss those days of typed letters, when spelling error gremlins occupied a place in society to muck up the very best of intentions.
But the fun's over until the next official go-around, so I'll stuff these time-expired letters back into some unobtrusive crevice while the debate rages on. As UAP inquiries continue with a seemingly new and improved era of government concern behind them, one thing remains consistent: The phenomenon itself will stubbornly refuse to answer questions posed by the highest of authorities. No self-respecting enigma gives up its secrets easily. Whether we the public will ever be fully informed regarding the deepest of the deep, of course, remains to be seen.
