UFO Weirdness continued: a “New Sheriff in Town”

I can tell by the number of hits to my previous post (“UFOs: Why so weird?”) that this topic interests many of you. I have a little more to say.

The evidence we’ve been given to date on UFOs (or the more restrictive government term, UAPs, which stands for unidentified aerial phenomena) seems to straddle the line of credibility. Conspicuously so, if you ask me. But there was an interview with Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, after June’s unclassified report to Congress by the UAPTF (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force) that particularly caught my attention. I wanted to share it with you – except, I can’t find it anywhere.

I believe CNN.com was the source. I was able to watch the video a second time within a week of watching it the first time, both during July. I didn’t save the link, because having found it twice, I assumed I’d have no trouble finding it when it was time for me to write this post. I can only assume it was taken down.

So, I’m left to rely on my memory. I’ll do my best. If you know where this interview is, please feel free to tell me in the comments or via email (contact *at* dawntrowelljones.com). I’ll mention some others and provide their links. Mellon co-hosts a show on The History Channel titled Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation, which I don’t have access to.

For those who can read between the lines, and boy, that would mean just about anyone with a law degree and a whole host of others besides – in the missing interview, Mellon pretty much spelled out why reports of these UFOs/UAPs have been discredited and ignored all these years. I’d like to spell it out further.

As stated in many interviews, Christopher Mellon’s position is that we absolutely must find out what these UAPs are and who controls them, because the tic-tacs in particular behave as if they’re under intelligent control and the technology they exhibit is significantly beyond what we have (in a shared interview, former U.S. Navy Chief Master-at-Arms Sean Cahil goes so far as to say that they’re “100-1000 years” more advanced). Mellon, in the interview I can’t find, went on to say – and this is huge, given his status – that we wouldn’t want this technology to fall into the hands of our adversaries, for if that were to happen, obviously, there would be “a new sheriff in town.”

My initial reaction was, “Yeah, yeah, sure. ‘New sheriff.’ We wouldn’t want that.” But as I stepped away to go reheat my tea and pester my husband with what I’d just read, I froze for a second. The pieces fell into place. As stated in my last post, if UAPs are in fact what they appear to be (Occam’s razor says the simplest explanation that fits the data is usually the best, and Mellon more or less repeats this principle here), someone who isn’t “us” has superior technology. What’s more, that same someone has had this tech for quite some time. These kinds of sightings have been reported all over the world for decades. And yet, in all that time, our “adversary” (China, Russia, or whoever) has never used this tech to promote the well-being of its people or to advance its status. If China or Russia already had this technology, if Mellon is right, China or Russia would be the current “sheriff in town.” Right now.

Although Mellon did not state it explicitly in the missing interview, the implication could not have been lost on him. I don’t think it was lost on those who decided to pull that video, either. Some might argue that it was irresponsible of Mellon to be so plain (even if not perfectly plain), that doing so had the potential to trigger an Orson Welles-level panic if the general public understood what it meant. I say, it’s probably the sanest statement I’ve heard on the subject yet; it really goes to the heart of the matter, and why, without even the need for a conspiracy, officials and the public have been willing to let the investigation slide. Or outright suppress it. If the owner of this technology “would be” the new sheriff in town – if the tech exists – the owner IS the new sheriff in town. See what I mean? That’s what hit me as I was microwaving my tea.

I shared this with my husband, and we sort of looked at each other, as if to say, “How weird.”

Seriously, either I believe in the soundness of my argument or I don’t. Logic tells me I have a point, and it all hinges on whether these phenomena are what they appear to be, which is, tech that’s beyond us. So, if I can see that, and Christopher Mellon and Sean Cahil can see it, why don’t we know more than we do? Mellon calls our lack of investigation a “massive intelligence failure.” I agree.

Even with Ufologists, people who doggedly document and follow reports of UFOs, the questions they fail to ask have often astounded me. Bits and pieces of evidence left unvetted, just hanging there. If the evidence, now that we’re starting to seriously gather it, supports that we are not alone – given how humans think, the way we tend to ally ourselves with those who demonstrate the most power and grant them authority over us – we have a serious problem. And yet, for whatever reason, the new sheriff has not claimed the badge. What’s up? If “might is right” – and let’s be honest, many people think so – then, the best way to describe our ostrich-ness is to say we have collectively chosen to ignore this authority. And it is letting us.

Bottom line: in the missing interview, Christopher Mellon, with his impressive credentials, seems to be arguing that we shouldn’t let our adversaries have first access to the advanced technology exhibited by these UAPs. If the true owner – the “new sheriff in town” – doesn’t want the job, whoever gets hold of this new tech first, however that comes about, will likely get the job. Mellon’s not worried about our adversaries having it now (because, as I’ve pointed out, they probably don’t or they’d be using it to advantage; either way, it’d be too late). He’s worried about them getting it, ahead of us.

If the U.S. desires a particular outcome, it must articulate this outcome to itself. This is called policy. If the U.S. is wishy washy about its goals, it will get wishy washy results.

However, I find it hard to believe that high-caliber scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson (at top of page), with all their collective learning and accomplishments, would waste their intellectual lives trying to prove indirectly the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligent life if proof has already found us. Of course, their efforts would remain valid if the “new sheriffs” are some version of us – and this new version has never encountered alien life or intelligent alien life. SETI’s efforts would still be in demand. But you better bet they’d be chomping at the bit for access to any new technology that might aid their search. See what I mean? They have their own passions, these scientists, and they’re very smart. And don’t you suppose they would have noticed these UFOs by now, doing what UFOs do so blatantly, in plain sight? Wouldn’t SETI latch onto that? I don’t think they’d be able to keep quiet about it. They’d clamor for access. But being a laughing stock ends careers and reputations, which can wipe out a lifetime of accomplishments. Even lives. It’s a powerful though imperfect deterrent – just ask Copernicus, Darwin, or Bruno. All said, it’s easy to see why Tyson might be impatient with what he considers a few blurry tic-tac images. He needs better evidence before he can accept the most extraordinary of explanations. (Mellon addresses this, says we probably have better evidence, but it’s classified.)

I’m not ready to believe all this. Like Tyson, I need more proof than what I’ve been given. But I am caught in a bit of a logical quandary here. Something is going on.

Laughing, I said to my husband, what about our lives would change if there’s a new sheriff? I’ve experienced a lot of change in my life. Why not more?

If the owner of this superior tech doesn’t want to be sheriff, what’s the problem with that? Well, if next month the UAP pilots landed on the White House lawn and said, “Jig’s up. Here we are. Here’s a space elevator, a cure for cancer, cheap power, a space station on the Moon with artificial gravity, and our latest atmospheric scrubbers to help with your little pollution problem” – how would we feel about ourselves?

Infantile, that’s how. Pride is no small matter.

But how would the average middle or lower-class person’s life change? I don’t think it would change much, at least not in the short term. I mean, would my mother, now 78, at long last be cured of rheumatoid arthritis and able to walk again? I’d love that. She would, too. But sadly, I don’t think so. Innovations in one scientific area often affect others, true, that’s one of the reasons why even without all the UFO hoopla, I’m very much in favor of Mars colonization. My point is, if aliens can cure disease as well as they can make and fly UFOs, wonderful, but then what do we do with all the people? Some would have to leave. One result necessarily follows the other. This is no joke, and it is in fact already an issue. Who goes and who stays, when the time comes? What a mess.

What a huge mess. So, if we really are looking at advanced tech beyond any of ours, and nobody behind it is saying, “I want to be sheriff!”, then maybe we ought to sit tight for a bit and see what happens. Looks like that’s what we’ve been doing.

Oh, but that can last only if the owners of said tech don’t keep thumbing their noses at us saying, “Haha! You can’t catch me! Try to catch me! You can’t! Haha!” They do need to cut that out.

In the short term, I conclude that there would be at least one change for me if a new, hands-off sheriff stepped forward. I told my husband this. I’d probably write different stories. I write speculative fiction, and with the sci-fi end of it, I look at possible futures. My projections are built upon the present. If my present were to change drastically (I’m talking about psychologically, because like most of us, I don’t have much power), my projections about the future would shift as well. I’d participate with other authors in creating a new mythos to reflect a new reality, as a form of grappling with the situation, healing, and learning from it. Humanity may be on the verge of finding out it’s no longer the #1 species on this planet. We have nowhere near enough proof yet, but logic points to “maybe.” Maybe we’ll get a crash course in superior tech an order of magnitude above what we have (“100 to 1000 years” ahead). If so, pockets of political power the world over may crumble. Others will rise. Nothing new, there. But if aliens (or whoever they are) wanted to take over the place, don’t you think they would have done so by now? I’m not sure chaos is what we’re looking at here. Something else.

It strikes me as surreal that I was able to write this post with a straight face.