Are We Ready for Close Encounters?

When President Barack Obama was first inaugurated, he promised an era of openness and transparency. At first glance, it seemed like a positive concept only leading to peace and less about secrets from the American people. If anyone has learned from the past, this doesn't always hold true. When Susan Kepner was state senator for New Hampshire, she was hesitant on such exposure since she felt people "can be reactionary to information and act before they think it all out." To make her point clear, she went on to use the war in Iraq as an example. The allegation of weapons of mass destruction "got people to go charging in after them." Could this happen if UFO files were to get leaked out?

I usually watch the morning news as part of my daily morning routine. This time it was a little bit different. Yesterday morning, there was a news report on President Obama's administration currently being under discussion to disclose UFO files. As expected, the news didn't give me much information so I decided to go on a quest for more knowledge.

Searching under various keywords, I came up with thousands of results from conspiracy forums and websites. As a freelance writer, these were unreliable sources and all I wanted was a news article. The closest I came to was an article on the Honolulu Exopolitics Examiner dated January 22,2009 written by Michael Salla, Ph.D. The article included exceptionally detailed information, one marking the day after inauguration where President Obama had already signed two executive orders and issued three memorandum. In one of the memorandum, he ordered the following:

"... all members of his administration to operate under principles of openness, transparency and of engaging citizens with their government. To implement these principles and make them concrete, the Memorandum on Transparency instructs three senior officials to produce an Open Government Directive within 120 days directing specific actions to implement the principles in the Memorandum. And the Memorandum on FOIA instructs the Attorney General to in that same time period issue new guidelines to the government implementing those same principles of openness and transparency in the FOIA context."

As a reference, FOIA stands for Freedom of Information Act and was originally signed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. Due to the events of September 11th, former president Bush limited access to government documents. Now that President Obama is in power, such former president's orders have been revoked.

Included in Salla's article was a video of Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta giving a speech on October 22, 2002 about UFO disclosure. He is quoted as saying "I think it's time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark on the question of government investigations of UFOs." But do YOU, the public, think it's time to disclose this information?

I always think about the cliche curiosity killed the cat when it comes to topics on UFOs. Are we ready to uncover the truth and are we being honest with ourselves when we're giddy just thinking about viewing extraterrestrial images? As this story progresses, it'll be a real test of our curiosity and if this instinct in human nature makes or breaks us. Stay tuned.