Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here UFOs | Paranormal | Area 51 People | Places | Random Top 100 | What's New Catalog | New Books Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Our Bookstore is OPEN Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1999 -> Jun -> Here

From: Dr. Virgilio Sanchez-Ocejo <ufomiami@bellsouth.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:14:47 -0700
Fwd Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 01:08:28 -0400
Subject: Re: 'The Roots Of Complacency'


Introduction

Toward the end of his life, Dr. J. Allen Hynek was a frequent
visitor to my home, the last of such visits taking place from
August 20 to August 31. 1985, when  he finally left to have his
first surgery on September 5, 1985.  After that his health
declined rapidly and unfortunately he died on April 27, 1986.

During his visits, Dr. Hynek did quite a bit of work using my
computer which was quite similar to his own at home. At that
time, his interest was centered on the Hudson Valley sightings

Time marched on, and after Dr. Hynek passed away, the work was
completed by Bob Pratt and published in book form in 1987, under
the title 'Night Siege'.

One day, revising my diskettes, I found a file labeled
'Imbrogno' which I did not recognize, When I opened it, it was a
paper intended to be the Preface of the book, that undoubtedly
by error Allen had saved on one of my diskettes (on  August 30,
1985, just the day before he left my home).  It is a remarkable
piece, and once you read it it will be easy to understand why it
was not used as initially intended.  I think the time has come
to release it through the internet so every one will see what Dr.
Hynek's thoughts about these remarkable sightings really were.
I strongly suggest that you compare 'The Roots Of Complacency'
(as Hynek himself titled it) with the version that appeared in
'Night Siege'.

Dr. Willy Smith UNICAT PROJECT June 1999

----------------------------------------------------------------


The Roots Of Complacency
by
Dr. J. Allen Hynek

Something truly astonishing happened....  Not far from New York
City, along the Hudson Valley, as hundreds of astonished people
looked up, many driving along the Taconic Parkway, they saw
something no one had ever seen before.

Some called it a "Space-ship from outer space" (for want of
anything better) but it was generally described by numbers of
competent, professional persons as startlingly brilliant lights,
in the form of a "V", or Boomerang, silent, slowly-moving, and
very large close-by object.  It has often popularly been called
the "Westchester (County) Boomerang".

The world has never known about this, even though the event
happened not once but several times, and over the course of
several years.  To all intents and purposes, this was a
non-event.  The media across the world has remained dumb.  Local
papers, radios and TV's, it is true, did momentarily carry spots
along with the daily news, but there the news just vanished.

How is it possible that in the United States, where even trivial
events are often flashed across the world, only one TV and radio
network carried an account of this utterly astounding event?
Far, far lesser stories are spewen forth across the world!

Could it possibly be that the whole thing just never happened?
No: many times there was good, but extremely local, media
coverage; many hundreds have personally attesteds to us, and to
many others, that the "Westchester Boomerang" was most
undeniably, very truly real to them.  Furthermore, many
witnesses at a given time, were geographically separate, and
unknown to each other.  Cars along the Taconic Parkway, a well
traveled highway, stopped, and passengers looked in amazement,
many frightened and bewildered at the spectacle.

Police department "blotters" proved that many calls came to
several local police stations, and we have tape recordings of a
number of the police involved.  The Boomerang was undeniably
real; it was not a chimera!

Yes, something truly and astonishing transpired, but was no one
"minding the store", was everyone asleep at the switch?  What
about law enforcement agencies (whose duty is certainly to alert
and assist when something amazing is afoot; what about civilian
and military personnel?

When hundreds of largely professional, affluent people, in
suburban areas, are astonished, awestruck, and many frightened
by what they could only regard as a very bizarre event, would
this not at least warrant and bring forth some comment from the
nation's media? And what about law officers, government
officials and... what of the FAA which supposedly monitors the
airwaves over which the "Boomerang" repeatedly flew, and thus
constituted a serious hazards, especially over the Taconic
Parkway.

And what of scientists, to whom these events should have been of
breathtaking scientific concern?  But nothing...except, oh yes,
a writer so inept at his task that not once did he checked, even
briefly, the voluminous tapes and other material amassed by the
present authors: a remarkable example of investigative
reporting.

His conclusion: the Boomerang was caused by nothing more than a
flight of small planes flying in formation, a totally untenable
conclusion in view of the facts.

How, it would appear that we really have TWO astounding stories,
rather than just one... different but related... and equally
incomprehensible: the story of the low-flying luminous Boomerang
(in itself which could rank high in the annals of science
fiction... if it were science fiction! ) and the second, a
totally unaccountable dereliction of duty (and there seem to be
no other word for it), a complete superb and indifference to
accountability.

It was a malady which appeared to plunge all who encountered it,
EXCEPT the witnesses, into a deadly stupor.  Such a malady, or
perhaps a virulent virus of apathy and indifference to duty,
could immobilize cities and a whole country.  Of course, we
don't know what the Boomerang was really about for:

---the Police and other law enforcement officers were derelict
and failed in their duty to assist the many who called for fear
and danger, as well as in awe and wonder.

---the FAA utterly failed to be concerned for air safety, flight
rules, navigation lights, when told that some utterly strange
and possibly menacing object was cruising close over streets and
house.

---the Military was derelict by not attending to public safety
and matters of National Defense (the country could have been
subtely invaded!)

---the Scientists failed to uphold their "Hippocratic" oath of
science: they were derelict in following the quest in following
an outstanding mystery.

---the media, well, where were they?  Truly derelict always avid
news hounds, rushing to their typewriters or microphones to rush
the news to the world (good, bad and trivial), but where were
they?  Hardly any of the 50 States heard the Boomerang story.

Why?  Utterly indifferent and apathetic?  If so, why?

Of the two stories, that of the Boomerang if by far the more
directly told.  Bizarre and fantastic though it may be (and is)
it merely need competent retelling. The facts are on record.
From the hundreds of cassette tapes in the thousands of
statements made by witnesses, the Boomerang is a matter of
record.  But the second story, well, that is another matter.

This story is not at all directly told.  Here there are no
cassette tapes, no clear cut descriptions, and no policeman, no
scientist, no military man, no media person, no FAA has recorded
why they were derelict.  We can only infer, as one might infer
from the pages of history.  We can only deduce and play
detective.  And we must try, for this second story, more truly a
puzzle, could be of utmost importance to finding out how we, as
humans, act under stress, trauma. and fear..... for the
Boomerang had all of these!

The puzzle has far more parts than the tale of the Boomerang..
It is, indeed, a part of a continuing story of mankind's
pioneering search for adventure and meeting, but repeatedly
dashed and frustrated by those who cannot look to the heights of
the pioneer: by the "it will never fly" or "it can't be done"
mentalities.  These who always must say that "since it can't be
done, there is no need to even thinking about it or even talking
about it.

Therein lies the spawning ground of indifference, of apathy, and
to dereliction of duty.

All those who didn't follow through on the Boomerang event were
not willfully derelict: they were merely the thousands of "it
will never fly" and "it can't be done" and so there is no need
to think about it.  The corollary is: "Since it can't be done,
whatever said had been done, were simply deluded... they must
have been mistaken, and so no need to look into it further".  It
is the failure to seek for the light of the tunnel because there
could 't be a light.

Intellectual adventure is sterile when there is continual
inability to seek answer to challenges, to seek ways out of the
tunnel of indifference.  In the story of the Boomerang, the FAA,
the media, scientists, politicians, the military.... all may
momentarity touch upon the mystery, but suddenly it appeared
that apathy saps further energy to incentive, and in its stead
is a great desire nothing... it becomes a hotbed of inertia... a
great desire to do nothing, fobbing it all off in the guise of a
handy solution, like "planes in formation".

It is not as from a seeming direct desire to be in duty, but it
is more as though the call for duty has vanished, or as though
some bad fairy had administered a sleeping potion, an apathy
draught.

How else might one hold that otherwise responsible law
enforcement, FAA, military, the media etc. would renege on their
duties?

There is a more realistic answer than calling upon some bad
fairy (though it would certainly fit the facts) and that is that
it all lies in our human (mental) nature.  A psychologist would
express it more professionally, but it simply amounts to the
fact that the human mind has definite limits for acceptance and
accountability. In the history of science this syndrome has been
seen many times and in many ages.  For instance, how often has
it occurred that totally revolutionary ideas, so novel at first
as to be utterly negleted or discarded... a form of apathy and
total indifference.

As a homely analogy, one might say that such a totally novel
idea "overheats the mental human circuits" and the fuse blows
(or the circuit-breaker cuts out) as a protective device for the
mind.  The time is not yet right for the age and the new idea
might just as well not been there in the first place.  Mankind
was not yet able to handle it.

Thus when mankind is presented with a totally bizarre, shocking,
traumatic event (the Boomerang?) a mental circuit cuts out.
Instead of a challenge for action, there is a dead battery.
This is, of course, well known in individual cases of amnesia
in, for eample, "shell shock": could it be that a collective
amnesia or apathy can come into play?  If so, might it be
possible that collectively people can react traumatically, as to
the Westchester Boornerang, to a collective amnesia, whether
they are policemen, media people, the FAA etc.?

Whatever be the case, the effect is real.  Many instances in
history.... and the Boomerang is its most recent and spectacular
example... when the breaking point of the collective mind
occurs, it must openly disregard patent evidence of the senses:
it can no longer encompass them within their normal borders.

The Holocaust perpetrated by Hitler in WW II is another sample:
people simply refused to accept, and were indifferent to the
evidence, because their minds couldn't bring themselves to
accept that such a Holocaust could possibly be, despite ample
evidence.  It was also a "mental circuit breaker" a general
apathy and a will to indifference.

The Boomerang and the Holocaust are but striking samples of what
happens when the collective mind willfully disregards evidence
when "it can't take it". The entire modern UFO syndrome is
another: here we have utterly ample evidence of the global
nature of the UFO phenomenon.   Thousands of instances and over
many countries the evidence for the UFO phenomenon is clear, but
those in position of policy and authority (FAA, educators,
scientists etc) are deaf or purposely obtuse.  Apathy goes hand
in hand with the ability to accept even the most inane answers,
anything whatever, just to stave off the necessity to think.

So we cannot at the moment expect to do little about the wealth
of material collected on the Westchester Boomerang (or for the
much more abundant wealth of UFO material). The circuits are
closed; apathy holds sway. But history has shown that in time
the information and questions dam breaks, sometimes
cataclysmically, and later, why, low and behold, the pundits by
a complete irrational turn of fact, will say, "oh, we knew this
all the time!".

Editor's note:

As detailed in 'Night Siege', the first incident was reported on
December 31, 1982, and the sightings continued until the date of
publication of the book, with a concentration of incidents
during the summer of 1984.

Virgilio Sanchez-Ocejo
Miami UFO Reporter
For more on Dr. Hynek visit:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1341/index.html