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From: Stig Agermose <stig.agermose@post.cybercity.dk>
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 08:53:59 +0200
Fwd Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2000 21:03:48 -0400
Subject: UpDate:  UFO Question Pulls Politics Back To Earth

Source: Detroit Free Press,

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/des4_20000804.htm

Stig

***

Desiree Cooper: UFO question pulls politics back to Earth

August 4, 2000

*

IT'S A SHAME that our interest in the presidential race centers
more on what damage each candidate can do rather than on how
they can move the country forward.

"What will happen to Roe vs. Wade?" some ask of a George W. Bush
presidency.

"What will happen to business under a president who's a nut
about the environment?" others ask of Al Gore.

"What will happen to the supposedly classified documents about
UFOs?" others ask of both.

Huh?

That's the burning question Peter Robbins, a 53-year-old
UFOlogist, former art instructor and theater manager is asking
of the presidential candidates. To date, none has dignified his
question, save a short acknowledgement from the Libertarian
candidate for president and a terse letter from the now-defunct
Bill Bradley campaign.

Undaunted, Robbins followed up his Dec. 8 communication with
more letters to the Gore campaign this spring, challenging him
to declassify government documents relating to UFOs should he
become president.

You're wondering whether Robbins is serious. It turns out, he's
serious as a Mars attack.


UFOs and eroding democracy


Robbins claims there are classified papers verifying military
encounters with mysterious flying objects. He's documented one
such encounter in "Left at East Gate" (Marlowe & Co., $15.95), a
book that details an alleged government cover-up (including U.S.
intelligence) of a UFO incident in rural England. That kind of
secrecy, Robbins said, is destructive to democracy -- an issue
that extends beyond the question of UFOs.

"But," I protested, "do you really expect the presidential
candidates to address UFOs instead of education and health
insurance?"

"This isn't just about UFOs," Robbins explained. "People are
sick of being told that their feelings, their experiences are
not valid -- or that information regarding what they intuitively
know to be true is 'classified.' "

Robbins said that UFOs are a metaphor for things most
politicians won't talk about, from sex to death. And it's a
metaphor for less tangible, but widely held, beliefs in things
like near-death experiences.

According to a report from the National Science Foundation,
about half of all Americans believe in extrasensory perception,
up to one-half believe in UFOs and 20 percent to 50 percent
believe in ghosts. But politicians separate themselves from life
as everyday people experience it, Robbins said. And that,
coupled with excessive secrecy and hypocrisy, erodes the
electorate's faith in democracy.


Close encounters with truth


Hmm ...If politicians were willing to get to the bottom of the
existence of UFOs, what other issues would they be willing to
entertain? Could they explore why so many Americans still feel
nervous about their economic futures in this era of
unprecedented prosperity? Why Congress is battling over the
estate tax when most parents can't afford to give their kids a
college education? Why more American children and teens were
killed by gunfire in the last 20 years than the total number of
American soldiers killed in Vietnam? Why many voters could not
care less about cyberspace, because in their virtual reality
they have no transportation, affordable housing, health care or
a job making a living wage?

Perhaps if politicians could stifle their giggles long enough to
answer Robbins' questions, they might find the time to answer
mine, too.

And wouldn't that be out of this world?

*

Contact DESIREE COOPER at 313-222-6625 or cooper@freepress.com.

All content © copyright 2000 Detroit Free Press and may not be
republished without permission.