Do you believe in UFOs? Or I guess I’m supposed to call them UAPs now – Unidentified Ariel Phenomena according to some, unidentified anomalous phenomena to others. But, they’re all the same thing.
The reason I asked that question is because it recently surprised me just how much of a connection the State of Ohio has had with things like UFOs, or outer space aliens, or other related subjects.
It has never been a secret that a bunch of people from Ohio are known for things associated with Outer Space. Sure, it was the home of Jerry Siegel who “created” one of the most famous outer space aliens that ever existed (Superman, in case you weren’t in the know) but we also have several guys who know about outer space because they’ve kind of been there … Neil Armstrong, first dude to walk on the moon; John Glenn, first dude to orbit the earth, Jim Lovell, dude who was the commander of Apollo 13; and Judith Resnik who wasn’t a dude but did go down in history as the first Jewish Female in outer space.
An Ohio State University researcher one day stumbled upon a radio signal from outer space that might not prove the existence of aliens but does give us a lot of things to think about. A massive military operation was held in Ohio that alternated between studying UFO reports and flat out denying their existence. Ohio even had one UFO sighting that became international news before going on to inspire (at least in part) one of the most iconic Stephen Spielberg blockbusters from the 1980s. (And yes, Steve is Ohio born, too.)
Has Ohio Gone Insane?
When it comes to UFOs, people seem to belong to one of three camps. Some people believe in aliens. Some people don’t. And there are a few of us who don’t know one way or the other. And, as I am sure you’d expect, most people think that anyone who isn’t in their camp has gone completely insane (and let’s face it – there are some out there who make that very easy to believe).
I’m not wanting to start that debate … personally, I agree with Carl Sagan who has said that if we are alone in the universe, it would be a terrible waste of space.
Most people tend to associate UFOs or UAPs only with extraterrestrial aliens but that’s not technically true. If there is something up the sky and nobody knows what it is – it’s a UFO or UAP. So, for example, when a Cleveland meteorologist saw a massive thing show up on his radar scans above the clouds, he rightfully called the thing a UFO. By the end of the day, however, it had been determined that what he was seeing was an unusually large number of migrating birds who had been caught off guard by recent climate change as well as an approaching storm over Lake Erie. So, in that instance, thank goodness it was hundreds of thousands of birds and not an alien aircraft about the size of Manhattan.
And, yes, sometimes we have no idea what’s going on in our own skies. Or, if someone knows, they’re not saying. If we’re testing a prototype drone that nobody knows we’ve got, then yes please keep it a secret. Other UFO or UAP sightings can be explained away by natural phenomena, or science experiments, or optical illusions of some sort – but not all.
The nature of the issue means that there are going to be conspiracy theories that pop up and never seem to go away even though they’ve been debunked more times than I can count. For example, Neil Armstrong helped NASA cover up the existence of Alien Spacecraft they encountered and filmed during their moon walk. (Which seems an odd conspiracy theory considering more people believe that Stankey Kubrick faked the moon landing and placed clues all over his movie The Shining so people could figure it out.) This has been proven false a few times, Neil has spoken about its ridiculousness several times, and yet the story continues to make its rounds.
A Divided People
There is no shortage of things that people like to disagree on: Chocolate or Vanilla. Coke Products or Pepsi. My Sports Team or Yours. Does Pineapple Belong On Pizza or No? And when we don’t have enough to divide us, we make stuff up: Is that dress White & Gold or Black & Blue.
Sometimes (usually) people take serious umbrage whenever they encounter someone with different beliefs. (I mean, how dare you take an issue on what I like on my pizza, and you’re criminally insane if you can’t see that dress was purple with yellow polka dots.)
Belief in UFOs … or, perhaps maybe better put … belief that UFOs or UAPs have anything to do with outer space aliens can take that division to extremes. This may be a reflection on our religious beliefs (the Bible doesn’t mention how God created a bunch of aliens a few thousand light years from earth) or our view on Science (there must be a rational explanation for this) or Psychological factors (I swear Aunt Irma was hallucinating when she saw Elvis piloting a flying saucer hovering over the Piggly Wiggly).
When two Air Force pilots spotted something in the air above Lake Erie, we know there has to be some explanation. They saw whatever it was, they have radar images, and we have cockpit recordings of them discussing it as they were seeing it. Even with all the technology available to the US military, nobody has the first clue as to what the guys were seeing. It was some kind of aircraft, it didn’t behave the way experienced pilots would expect, so, what was it?
Maybe it was aliens (shut up Giorgio Tsoukalos). Maybe it was something else. We just don’t know.
The people that believe in aliens want to offer this as proof that yes, we’re being “visited” by beings from outer space.
The people who don’t cry out that since you haven’t ever been able to prove that alien life exists, the explanation has to be something else.
I just want to know why we all can’t get along.
Where In Ohio Are The UFOs?
Today, there are several groups that collect and study information on UFO reports, because nobody can agree on how to process that information, what it means, or why it should be collected in the first place. The US Military (The United States Air Force) tried this for years, and kept going back and forth between saying they were taking UFO reports seriously to doing anything they could to debunk UFO reports and it wasn’t long before the Air Force started to look like a joke. (Sorry.)
I have looked at data from a number of sources and … how do I say this? … no matter which county you live in, if you’re scared of an alien invasion, you’re not safe anywhere.
There do seem to be slightly elevated levels in Ohio’s south-eastern counties and a lot of people who know more about this stuff than I do say that’s likely because there is less light pollution in that area than there is around cities. They also said that the numbers around Cincinnati and Dayton, Cleveland, and Columbus were higher than they would have expected, except these areas have a slightly higher than average number of airports, and along the shores of Lake Erie because people aren’t used to seeing Sea Planes and can mistake them for UFOs.
Personally, I think I can tell the difference between a UFO and an airplane, but I also know that if just the right circumstances present themselves, anything is possible. (For a brief moment, once, I mistook a parking lot for a UFO. In my defense, the parking lot was rather well lit up and halfway up the side of a mountain and it was in the dead of night … so if you ever find yourself driving to Boulder, Colorado on Route 36, just as you crest that last hill before town and you see a ring of lights kind of hovering over the ground – that’s just the NCAR Mesa Laboratory. Nothing to worry about.)
So, not sure what to say here. If you want to look for UFOs or UAPs in Ohio … it doesn’t really seem to matter where you are … just … look up.
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