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LENNON, HAWKING, FRIEDMAN ACCUSE GOVERNMENT OF MISHANDLING UFOS?

By Frank Thomas Croisdale

"There's UFOs over New York, and I ain't too surprised." -- John Lennon, from the song "Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These."

You're either a believer or you're not. There's no gray area; it's as black and white as a group of zebras playing a game of dominoes. Some of us believe in the existence of advanced cultures of beings from other planets and some of us don't. For those in the "believe" ledger, the past year has been a doozy for evidence that we're not alone in this vast universe.

Most recently, the skies over China have seen more possible extraterrestrial action than the bar scene in "Star Wars." On July 9 and July 11, some sort of flying entity was seen for miles in the skies above Hangzhou. Whatever was up there appeared to be made of pure energy and cut a swath of light so wide and long that flights were grounded at nearby Xiaoshan Airport.

Due to the advent of video-sharing sites like YouTube, there is an abundance of footage available, each shot by different folks and each showing a different angle of the same spacecraft. While that doesn't do anything to bolster the proof of aliens, it does go a long way to quash the concerns of those who would suggest the whole thing is a hoax.

Some of the photos and video of the Hangzhou UFO depict what appears to be a rectangular red spacecraft atop the impossible energy source. The July sightings are hardly the first for China. In 2006, there were multiple photos and videos taken of a revolving spacecraft that seemed to disappear from the sky after igniting at warp speed.

Earlier this year, in China and other countries such as England, Spain and Columbia, there were numerous reports of a pyramid-shaped UFO hovering in the daytime skies. In the videos posted from these sightings, there is often a smaller diamond-shaped entity that seems to originate from, then swirl around, the larger pyramid figure.

It is important to note here that the term UFO is one that we can all agree upon. Many have come to equate it with extraterrestrial life, but that is an overstepping of bounds. It is in no way a synonym for "spaceship." It is precisely what the letters of the acronym stand for -- an unidentified flying object. UFOs can, and have often been proven to, be as innocuous a thing as a weather balloon, a shooting star or sunspots playing tricks on the eyes.

Now, more and more folks are starting to question whether we are out here alone. If not, are we safe from whatever else may share the cosmos with us?

Count famed British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking among them. Hawking recently said that courting alien interaction might not be such a good idea. He likened the outreach to beings from outer space to Columbus discovering North America. You know, it turned out well for most everyone except the trusting Native Americans, who lost just about everything in the deal.

Hawking believes that our planet, with its abundance of natural resources, would be just the type of treasure trove sought by plundering pirates from other planets. Hawking suggested that we should not seek contact with aliens, but rather do our damnedest to hide. One problem with that -- we have routinely beamed out "we are here" radio transmissions to the cosmos for decades.

The question is, has anyone or anything heard our primitive cry?

Stanton Friedman has a simple answer to that question -- yes.

The acclaimed nuclear physicist -- who has worked for GE, GM and Westinghouse over a long and varied career -- believes in alien life and also believes that the government is purposely keeping the citizenry in the dark on the matter.

"Some UFOs are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft, and this is the biggest story of the millennium," Friedman recently told AOL News. "After 53 years of investigation, I'm convinced we're dealing here with a cosmic Watergate."

Friedman believes that the government has been covering up close encounters of the third kind all the way back to the Roswell, N.M., incident of 1947. In July of that year, there was a crash outside the small town. The initial official reports said that a flying saucer had crashed. They were quickly amended to state that nothing more than a weather balloon had come plummeting back down to Earth.

Friedman claims to have interviewed military personnel who were involved with the Roswell investigation and says they admitted to him that a spacecraft and dead alien bodies were a part of the crash site.

UFO sightings are not just in other locales than our own, either. Late last year, many people noticed something strange hovering over the Horseshoe Falls right here in Niagara Falls. There are multiple videos of whatever it was posted on YouTube.

The Niagara UFO appears to be triangular shaped with a shooting star-like energy source. When the spotlights from one of the local casinos circled around, it would reflect off the UFO and flash a bright blue. The object was unmoving and stayed in the same spot for more than an hour.

What was it? There has been no official explanation offered from authorities on either side of the border. That is what bothers believers in alien life. They theorize that the government makes no statement because they know what is out there and believe that widespread panic would ensue if the common man became aware of how un-alone we really are.

Friedman has a theory as to the motivation behind governments for such behavior:

"I don't know of any government on this planet that wants its citizens to owe their primary allegiance to the planet. Nationalism is the only game in town."

Whether UFOs are beings from other planets or more plausibly explained phenomena is a topic that has been and will continue to be hotly debated. What is known is that the past eight months have seen more sightings than in any time in history. Maybe it is just coincidence, and maybe we will soon find out if Hawking's warning came a day late and a dollar short.

Friedman, at least, is confident that if aliens are out there, mankind should understand that we are part of a fabric far bigger than ourselves:

"Now is probably the time to say, yes, we're part of a galactic neighborhood; unfortunately, we're not the big shots in the neighborhood."


Frank Thomas Croisdale is a contributing editor at the Niagara Falls Reporter and author of "Buffalo Soul Lifters." He has worked in the local tourism industry for many years. You can write him at nfreporter@roadrunner.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com July 20, 2010