That's key. "UFO" doesn't mean "aliens" it means "we have no idea what the hell that is".

I saw one in when I was an exchange student in France in 1990. The next day all the newspapers and TV shows were mocking the Belgians because apparently about 1/3 of the country of Belgium had seen the same thing. I can tell you to this day what it looked like, how big it was, and how it moved through the sky. I have never seen anything like it before or since.

I don't know what to say about it; I'm not claiming I saw an alien spaceship, but I did see something in the sky that was not an airplane, satellite, or shooting star. It did not move in a way that could be explained by any run-of-the-mill object that might typically appear in the sky. Military? Quite possibly, but nobody bothered to identify what it was that I (and Belgium) saw that night, so there you have it -- Unidentified Flying Object. I've seen one.

Cuz really - we've managed to send people to the moon, and probes to Mars, and put lots and lots of satellites into orbit. So its obviously not outside the realm of possibility that beings on other planets can do the same. To them our rockets and satellites, assuming they ever got close enough, would qualify as UFOs. So, if your belief is that there may be sentient life on other planets, and they may have sent a probe, or a ship, to have a peek at our world - you might be right.

On the other hand a UFO can simply be something that flies, or appears in the sky, and isn't recognizable. Might be something of ours, or the Russians, or the Chinese, or some natural phenomenon. But again, not crazy.

Whether you can believe some, or all, of the stuff written about UFOs - that's another question. People make very poor eyewitnesses. They can be suggestible, hysterical, deluded, mistaken and under the influence of something-or-other, and some just see what they want to see.

There's all sorts of stuff we don't know, or know very little about, and there's nothing wrong with doing research and discussing possibilities. Ideas are great - after all the earth was once believed to be flat - but you want to base your belief on facts and common-sense thinking. A little Scully with your Mulder, let's say. And hey, if the locals think you're crazy maybe tone it down a little.

UFO's do not exist.

There are a lot of gullible people out there.

How would they power themselves? In science fiction movies, all the talk about "thrusters" People who have a basic understanding of science and physics know that you can't have some giant object zipping around and hovering silently with no heat or exhaust fumes. Give me a break.

The "governement" is made up of people just like you and me. Like my friend who works for the CIA - in high school he was the night manager at Hardees. He is just a regular guy. Human nature would never be able to keep such a cover-up secret for so long.

Why am I even bothering with this?

Yes.

Here's why I don't believe that UFO come from other planets. I don't disagree that people see things they don't understand in the sky.

1. There are billions of pictures and movies taken each year around the world of such unlikely things as planes crashing, dams breaking, comets shooting across the sky, and other vary rare events. But there is not one, clear, expert reviewed picture of a alien craft available. A lot like bigfoot in this regard.

2. Do you understand how big space is? There is no hope of us traveling outside of our solar system at the speeds we can reach. I grant that someday maybe we will be able to find a way around this. Perhaps aliens have super advanced technology or enormous lifetimes, but why would they travel so far and then make crop circles in Kansas and leave again? Doesn't sound like a likely scenario.

The LW wrote: I have become vocal about what I see as a grand coverup and the fact that most people come home from work, pop open a bottle of wine and go to sleep. People are given to snickering about UFOs without having given the matter a moment of their time. Isn’t that how most people vote? Blindly? Aren’t we just a nation of “sheeple” too busy to care about or investigate things we’d prefer to dismiss? Aren’t we sort of programmed to laugh about UFOs? I seem to be the only person in my circle of life who has given this matter any thought, and I am sure I am the subject of ridicule.

You write with the condescending zeal of a convert. You also sound obsessed. Ever see a little movie called Close Encounters? Remember the mashed potatoes?

Interesting that you mention UFOs and voting almost in the same breath. Is this really about our government with its multiple lies and cover-ups? You feel helpless to protest or fix the evils going on here, so you focus on an alien threat from beyond the galaxy?

You seem upset that nobody else recognizes the "truth" like you do. If you don't want to be the subject of ridicule, quit trying to make converts, study UFOs quietly, associate with like-minded people, and believe what you believe. Nobody likes to be told they're stupid because they don't think as you do.

Frankly, your anxiety about this "grand cover-up" would be better served by exposing the innumerable plots and schemes our earthly masters are foisting upon us. The reptilian aliens can take care of themselves.

And most "sheeple" are just trying to get by. You have no right to show such distain for people who work hard just to put bread on the table and who have no energy left to look up at the stars and wonder.