Form 11 \ Reading Comprehension \ Semester II

The Roots of Complacency                   by Dr J. Allen Hynek

Something truly extraordinary happened not long ago in the Hudson River Valley just a few miles north of the New York City. Hundreds, and probably thousands, of astonished people looked up in the sky and saw they have never seen before.

It was enormous, awesome, and spectacular. It was seen not just once but many times over a period of more than three years. No one knew what it was. No one yet knows. 

Many people believe it was a spaceship from another world. Whatever it was, it was described by many competent, professional people as a startling series of brilliant lights, generally in the form of a V or a boomerang.

It moved slowly and silently and was easily as big as a football field – some witnesses said as big as three football fields. That would make it anywhere from 300 to 900 feet long, far larger than any aircraft manufactured in the United States or any other country. One witness said: “This was a flying city. It was not a small craft. It was huge.”

This mysterious unidentified flying object, or UFO, was also very close to the ground, no more than a few hundred feet in the air, and many people were able to get a good, long look at it.

It quickly became known as the “Westchester Boomerang” because so many early sightings of it took place in Westchester County. The sightings, however, spread to several nearby counties in New York State and Connecticut. Even so, most people still have never heard about it.

The American media has remained largely silent about this spectacular phenomenon, either from ignorance or, more likely, on purpose. Area newspapers, radio and television stations did carry stories, but there was little in the way of national coverage.

The United States has the most extensive, sophisticated, and freest mass communications system in the world. Trivial events are often flashed everywhere. Yet, news of this astounding happening was carried on only one network.

Could it possibly be that the whole thing never happened? Absolutely not. Hundreds of people, many of them highly educated professionals, have gone on record as saying that the Boomerang was undeniably very real to them. The great majority of people we interviewed had no previous interest in UFOs; they were taken completely by surprise. Many witnesses were separated geographically and were unknown to each other at the time of the sightings. Police records show that countless residents phoned their local police stations in concern, and police officers themselves witnessed this strange spectacle.

Something truly astonishing was happening, but those who are responsible for protecting us – the law enforcement agencies, state and federal governments, and the military – ignored it.

Hundreds of people living in the affluent suburbs within commuting distance of one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities were astonished, awestruck, and frightened by what they could only regard as a very bizarre event, yet the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which monitors the air lanes through which the boomerang-shaped object flew repeatedly, persisted in denying its existence. 

From the nations’ scientists, to whom these events should have been of breathtaking concern, nothing was heard. We find that shocking. Scientists are generally straightforward, plain-thinking men and women who deal in facts and calculations. Their day-to-day business is to make observations and conduct experiments, thereby learning about our world and universe. They are, or should be, imaginative and curious.

But no scientists showed any curiosity about the strange events in the Hudson Valley. Throughout the fifty or more years that the world has been aware of UFOs, most scientists have dismissed them out of hand. Just as they turn a deaf ear to the wild, fanciful stories of people who claim they have been taken to Venus and Mars, scientists also have failed to heed the serious reports of the hundreds of thousands of people who have seen inexplicable things in our skies.

It has been said that the most heinous offence a scientist can commit as a scientist is to declare to be true that which is not true. The Noble Prize-winning scientist who said this was referring to falsifying or inventing evidence, but he probably would agree that it is also a heinous offence for a scientist to declare that something does not exist when, in fact, it may, especially if he or she has not attempted to determine its validity.

It may be that UFOs pose a question that science cannot answer. However, we don’t believe this is the case. We – two scientists and an investigative reporter – believe there is an answer. But we will never know what it is until scientists accept the phenomenon of UFOs – something fascinating and bizarre, but very real – and begin to study it.