Report, Damn It! And Do It Like This!

At the  McMinnville UFO Festival in Oregon last spring, the Bales brothers gave a simple, yet on the edge of your seat presentation about their giant triangle sighting in Idaho. During the Q & A one man chided the brothers for not being more involved in UFO research. He expected them to be sudden experts, with a mission and message of spiritual alien based insight. An astoundingly arrogant and condescending comment to make. After a slight pause, one of the brothers, who looked a bit confused at the comment, simply said "We're here, aren't we?"


Peter Davenport, who provides us with a much needed database of UFO reports, is perennially irritated at people who won't "take ten minutes" to write a UFO report in "black ink on white paper." His frustration is understandable, but not everyone feels comfortable putting such experiences down on paper. Treating UFO witnesses like stupid school children discourages people from making UFO reports.


I've been involved in a few local UFO minded groups through the years. The seeds of such gatherings are simple: people getting together to talk about UFOs. The purpose of these groups is  to have people with experiences to share with others,  but I've found there isn't much honesty happening in these groups. Because as soon as you have the "leaders" of such groups state what will, and what will not, be accepted, you are being dishonest. Telling witnesses to keep things positive -- in other words, don't talk about the scary, negative parts of your experience -- is a type of control. Creating a forum of only what you want to hear, in the form you want to hear it, is being dishonest. It sets up false forums of data; if you are continuously rejecting accounts you don't like based on your biases, you're not after genuine UFO experiences.


None of these methods consider the individual's experience. We listen and decide they're too negative, or not spiritual enough, or not literate enough, or are too lazy because they won't write something down, or . . .


And maybe they are some of those things, sometimes. Maybe some witnesses are too lazy or incompetent to write a report. Maybe the witness is still experiencing trauma from their encounter and are stuck, for the time being, in a dark place. Maybe their paranoia and fears, their nervousness and confusion, is part of the process and where they need to be for awhile. Making witnesses feel bad, lazy or stupid -- or crazy because they're depressed or anxious -- pushes them away.


All we can expect from people who have decided to come forward in whatever small way with their UFO experience is honesty. Negative, positive, spiritual, literate, sloppy, bad spellers, -- doesn't much matter, if they are being honest.

Notes
BOA interview: Tim Binnall interviews Peter Davenport
http://www.binnallofamerica.com/boaa12.9.9.html

Peter Davenport: National UFO Reporting Center
http://www.nuforc.org

McMinnville, Oregon's UFO Fest.com: annual UFO Festival in May
http://www.ufofest.com/ufofest07/

Yakima UFO Hot Spot

Pretty straightforward reporting from the local news in Washington state.

Is Peter Davenport Pooped?

Billy Cox reports that Peter Davenport, of the NUFORC, might be fed up. Fed up with bozos making prank calls to his hotline, fed up with apparent idiots who can't write a decent UFO report or take five minutes to do so; they'd rather call and tell Davenport about it. He's tired, he's fed up, he's disgusted. He's sick of not getting paid, of getting requests from others who make money by interviewing him. He's furious and tired of the "charlatans" in UFO world.

(I will say that many people are nervous, paranoid, sheepish, embarrassed, scared, etc. and writing down, in their own words, a UFO report is too much for them to deal with. It's not due to a lack of caring that many do not write, either by hand, or in an email, a UFO report. It's an unease, a paranoia, etc. that gets them. They don't want it traced back to them. (Of course, a phone call could be tracked, or tapped . . .) Years ago I didn't respond to a request from an alleged group of, as they described themselves, "ex-military" UFO researchers who wanted me to detail my triangle sighting. I just got an uncomfortable feeling and so, didn't pursue it. It isn't all just ignorant, lazy slobs who are unwilling to write down their UFO sightings.)

Can't blame him. He's been providing a much appreciated service for all of us for years now, and with his own money; so much for all those uber-skeptoids who insist that UFO people are in it for the money.

So, Davenport is fed up with the "American people." Okay. So am I, with a lot of them, for different reasons. That's another story however. I called Davenport once to report a sighting, and what I got was a very rude individual who kept trying to put words in my mouth, and got mad at me because my husband wouldn't come on the phone and talk to him. I also met Davenport at the McMinnville UFO Fest last May, and a more pompous, truly laughable yet highly annoying rude twit I've never come across.

While I don't appreciate being treated so rudely or bored to tears at a panel discussion on UFOs, or, as he would have it, the American Way, which is drilling the oceans for energy sources, Davenport does provide a valuable service we can't lose.


We choose to do what we choose to do for various reasons. I don't think anyone can blame Davenport for his feeling the way he does; I don't. It's too bad there are jerks out there who think making prank calls is funny, or that his work isn't important to the powers that be.

But that's the reality. If Davenport takes a break, or quits outright forever and forever, that'd be a shame. And if he does quit outright forever and ever, maybe someone else will take it up.

It's not all the "American people's fault" however. It's a combination of several factors; his attitude, expectations, the infrastructure, the UFO phenomena itself, and thinking that something like 80% of UFO researchers and witnesses are full of crap. At some point, there is some truth to the philosophy that like attracts like.

Well, despite his pompous arrogance and rah-rah America right wing conservatism, Davenport's done us a good thing.