By now, we’ve already seen a number of attempts at gaining UFO disclosure through the popular “We the People” petitions offered by at the White House website. Early attempts at garnering public interest in UFO and extraterrestrial disclosure were spearheaded by Stephen Basset of the Paradigm Research Group, and though this earliest attempt did manage to garner the required number of signatures to recieve a response, many felt the official White House statement had been dismissive, if not dodgy (that wasn’t necessarily our take on the matter, however).
At present, another lesser-known petition is within days of expiring, having received a negligible 187 signatures.
Titled, “Provide The Public An Honest Explanation Into The 2008 Sighting of an Unknown Aerial Object Above Stephenville, Texas,” the latest petition seeks to address the famous case of UFOs seen over Stephenville, Texas back in early 2008. “Radar data confirms Unidentified Aerial Objects were flying above Stephenville, Texas on January 8th, 2008,” the petition reads,” The witnesses were experienced pilots, law enforcement, and dozens of citizens. To this date they still have not been given a full explanation.” Furthermore, the wording of the petition makes use of the story that “unknown flying objects were on a direct course to President Bush’s Crawford ranch” around the time of the sighting, which “did not have required transponders, and exhibited strange flight characteristics beyond civilian or military aircraft.”
There is obviously a lot of passion about this subject among members of the UFO community, and surely there are more than a few hundred disclosure advocates out there with serious interest in getting commentary from government officials on the matter. So why do these petitions continue to fail, despite the obvious interest they must gain from supporters?
Here are a few possible reasons why the efforts have continued to be so remarkably dismal regarding disclosure petitions:
- Some of the petitions have repeatedly used key terms like “extraterrestrial” that are sure to guarantee a negative response from responding officials (here’s more on why that’s the case).
- Many argue that only the first attempt, which did manage to gain enough signatures, bore potential for driving enough public interest toward a viable attempt at disclosure; interest dwindled by the time subsequent petitions were offered.
- On a more depressing front, many people are just lazy, and likely aren’t willing to endure the signup process required at Whitehouse.gov prior to signing (this requirs only the entry of a name and an email address, if I remember correctly). Others still may simply wait behind, assuming others will sign instead and that no action is required on their part.
The lack of public interest has even drawn calls for adding a Powerball lottery in order to drive enough interest in getting people active in the signup process. But setting all tongue-in-cheek suggestions aside, what might really help would be an active campaign that involves appearances on various radio programs, podcasts, blogs, and magazines willing to help disseminate information. Unfortunately, while social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are of course helpful (perhaps invaluable) in terms of getting such information to the public at large, occasionally a more coordinated effort is required, in order to insure that public awareness reaches its maximum.
It should be noted, however, that the majority of the aforementioned sentiments should be taken primarily as a matter of principle, rather than being some guarantee of success for the next hopeful attempt at garnering information from the U.S. Government about UFOs… after all, what many weekend web-surfers with interest in UFOs fail to recognize is that disclosure is–and has been–occurring all around the world as we speak… though it seems to be a more gradual process than most would like to see. By clicking here, one can view the multitude of different UFO documents made available by various government agencies around the world. Indeed, it seems that something is going on, after all… and that there’s probably more information already “out there” than many folks realize.
Ah, but then again, petitioning the government does have a romantic sort of appeal, doesn’t it? Maybe folks aren’t sending serious petitions to the White House with hope of learning anything new at all; after all, as the old saying goes, the best part of the journey isn’t reaching the destination… it’s what transpires along the way.
by 
As long has the language and terms of this phenomenon remain frozen in Roswell, you cited a prime example of the lunacy to suggest that using the same methodology over and over again will produce different results.
My own sentiments re. the failed petitions can be read here. I probably overdid it on the cynical side, but I was rather disappointed at the time 🙁
Micah:
Two issues spring to mind, when it comes to this (Good post, by the way!):
1. The general public, as much as many in the UFO community might like to think otherwise, just do not care, and do not want to care, about UFOs. So many people in this field don’t realize that the average person isn’t interested in getting to the heart of the UFO puzzle. The community should focus more on getting the answers, because frankly, the public could not care less, unless there is an official revelation and an alien body (or live alien) produced for the world to see.
2. I have always been of the opinion that Disclosure, and anything that smacks of it, is nothing but wishful thinking. If (as I believe there is) there is a big secret about the UFO issue, and if (as I believe there is) there is a non-human intelligence behind it, and it has been successfully hidden by the Government for decades, then the idea that the Government is going to come cleam just because a bunch of people send in petitions is laughable in the extreme, a classic case of wishful thinking, and on the part of those who think it will work, plain delusion. It should be clear to the research community – by now – that those holding the secrets are not going to reveal them, and certainly not because the UFO community demands they do. A new, alternative tactic is needed. I don’t know what that is, but I do know that petitions are as useless as waving placards outside the White House.
Hey gents,
Excellent commentary… Bruce: You remember what they say the definition of “insanity” is? Maybe we’re seeing that kind of repetition here too, my friend.
RPJ: I feel like your cynicism is warranted, however, since there is so much obvious cultural overload present here, and thus, as Mr. Redfern just put it, the entire mess tends to be ignored by a public that, in all likelihood, just doesn’t really care.
Nick: Right on, as usual, Mr. Redfern. So what should the new tactic be? Maybe this year at the Paradigm Symposium, we’ll have a chance to get together with Bill Birnes and a few other experts and brainstorm. Let’s make 2012 our year, my friends!
What new tactic there should be? Well… this is something that reminds me of the time I joined a march to protest against insecurity in Mexico. Many people showed there to express their discontent at the authorities, even though we all realized that the march would not achieve much in terms of actually changing things.
I really believe that in the back of our heads we all *knew* what the real answer was to force the government’s hand: if all the people that went to the march had pledged to refuse to pay taxes in protest, THEN you’d see politicians finally getting nervous!
…Of course, it’s easier said than done, ain’t it? Every society has a different breaking point.
Who knows? Maybe if there was a massive UFO flap that actually affected the personal lives of many people directly. Like thousands of families reporting their children mysteriously disappearing or something, THEN you’d see the kind of public outrage needed for this sort of things.
Because in the end this was not about getting answers. And it actually goes beyond the UFO issue.
Nick, you beat me to the punch! I want to add my own (frustrated) amusement at the idea of disclosure via petition, and add a few points to what Nick so aptly said.
First, why does anyone think “the government” knows much more of substance, than what has been disseminated to the public? (By the way, the use of “government” as a catch-all for anything official and/or clandestine irks me; it’s too often used without an iota of specificity as to who or what. Besides, there are too many forces at play that have little to do with an official government) Let’s assume this administration decides that disclosure is an outrance; does anyone truly believe that we would get significant data, in the sense of adding novel information to current lore? I don’t, and neither should anyone that ponders the known history of UFOs and governments. This brings me to point two…
2) Why on terra-firma does anyone think those in the White House have access to earth-shattering information? Are you kidding? In my opinion, somehwere in the WH or Pentagon archives, there are “warehouses” of info on UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon), but a dearth of documentation concerning alien bodies and technology. I don’t think the really “juicy” information, concerning tech and biological evidence are centralized anywhere, which brings me to my last point…
3) This is a complicated issue. There are so many players both in and out of the government, big and small. How much do the big aerospace corporations such as Lockheed and Boeing know? Are such corporations tied in with the known top-secret military bases (e.g. at Area 51)? What units within the military are used to carry out recovery operations? What cladestine organizations are used to spread disinfo? Tracing disinfo ideas back to their sources is likely a difficult proposition, and to make the task more cumbersome, the individuals near the bottom of the disinfo ladder might not even know that they are being used as such.
See.. it’s all too complicated; the web which comprises the entirety of UFO/Alien knowledge, even if only considering those “players” who are indigenous to earth, is probably beyond what most of us think of, when using the word “GINORMOUS”. And it’s reasonable to think only a few individuals or (small) groups on this planet, have a clear view of that web (if not a clear understanding)
And finally, who would believe the truth, even if he or she were unceremouniously “smacked” with it? I’m quite sure that the truth of our existence and history , as it pertains to extraterrestrials, is beyond.. just beyond.