Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Wednesday, July 26, 2023: a truly historic day. I never thought I’d live to see it.
I watched the UFO hearings in real time and was astonished by what I saw and heard, even though, on a purely informational level, most of what was said by the three witnesses was already quite familiar. However, none of it had ever been said under oath, sworn under penalty of perjury, in a formal congressional hearing in which pointed and intelligent questions were being respectfully addressed by apparently interested and well-informed members of congress of both political parties; parties that have otherwise acted as warring tribes. It seemed to me that, after this day, there was no going back to the old days of obfuscation, evasion, and deception. A most significant and irreversible shift in the UFO narrative and discussion had taken place.
I had originally intended to post something much sooner and closer to the event and my immediate, enthusiastic response to it; but, for various reasons, I have been delayed until now. In hindsight, I’m exceedingly grateful for all the serendipitous delays, because while the felt sense of historic importance has not faded, certain events since then—such as the petulant and disingenuous Kirkpatrick LinkedIn letter, and the various other crude ad hominem attacks on David Grusch, including the most recent discreditable attempt to smear him by releasing his medical information—afford a greater perspective on and appreciation for that fateful day.
It was Nietzsche who pointed out that the full significance of historical events, including and especially the most momentous ones, takes time to unfold, just as it takes time for the light of the sun to reach the earth. “Hot takes” may be useful as snapshots and reaction pieces, but they are insufficient for analysis. To be a bit further out and away from the heat of the moment is to heed Hegel’s advice: “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk.” We know more and see better and more clearly when we look in the rearview mirror.
Speaking of the past, I’ve been fascinated by UFOs ever since I can remember. I was ten years old in 1967 when I heard author John Fuller on an all-night night radio program discussing his new book, The Interrupted Journey, on the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case. That and other discussions ignited my passion to know.
I would devour many books on the subject over the years, but my patience with Ufology would wax and wane. Often I would grow frustrated with a hall of mirrors where there seemed to be no possibility—or at least no realistic hope—of ever getting to the truth of the matter. Here I’m referring not to the elements of high strangeness and absurdity, or the other ways in which the Phenomenon challenges our conventional understandings of nature, reality, and our place in the cosmos, but to the periodic eruptions of seemingly interminable controversies over the authenticity of documents, data, and researchers; the vituperative personal attacks amid the shadowy underside of an otherwise indispensable inquiry into the forbidden and the taboo.
What David Grusch has confirmed, both by his testimony and by the irrationally hostile responses to it—all the scurrilous personal attacks that don’t touch the truth of his claims, but thereby only serve to reinforce them—is that, all along, it has been the coterie of Secret Keepers of our own government, along with their associated, interested private partners, who have been making it difficult if not impossible to sift the epistemological wheat from the chaff. These cohorts were actively and deliberately misinforming, disinforming, and obfuscating, not to mention misleading Congress and preventing it from performing its duly constituted tasks of oversight and lawful appropriation. Legitimate concerns for national security aside, the bulk of the Secret Keepers’ efforts have been directed by suspect motivations that have deprived us all of information and knowledge that is rightfully ours, not theirs.
Winston Churchill famously said—and I’m paraphrasing here—in war, the truth must sometimes be protected by a bodyguard of lies. David Grusch understood that we have come to a turning point in our evolution where the truth can protect itself, and the bodyguard is only out for itself and no longer serves the truth. Thus he wisely exposed the bodyguard for what it is. He is a true American hero and a patriot. The truth will win out.
I stand with David Grusch.