HOW DO I KNOW?
BECAUSE I - AM ONE.
The planet I
came from exists in a time warp, in another space-time continuum, with a world
population of just over two billion people.
Our citizens adjusted to the end of a massive world war. The economy was returning, but prices for
necessities were still high. A quart of
milk costs twenty-five cents, a loaf of bread is fifteen cents, and gas is
almost a quarter a gallon.
Men controlled our world – white men.
As directed
by the Bible, men were the head of the family and women were mothers and
housewives. Men smoke and drink alcohol
for relaxation. Male life expectancy was nearly sixty years. Unlike your world men didn't wear shorts and sneakers, men wore long pants and leather shoes; feet tend to
sweat in leather shoes leaving men with stinky feet. There were numerous products available for
foot odor.
We were advancing in technology. We had long
been able to use a telephone with the aid of a telephone operator. In some cities, phones were automated and could be
dialed for direct connection. Of
course, we could mail letters for the price of a three-cent stamp, and our
recipient will receive the letter in five or six days. An airmail stamp will cut the delivery time
to three days.
Transportation
for us was train, bus, or automobile.
Automobiles require constant tune-ups and were difficult to start in the
winter. Flat tires and blowouts were common, but everyone who drove was proficient in changing a tire.
Our world
had no television and family entertainment was centered around radios. We could listened to news, mysteries, comedies,
and even children’s programs.
Air
conditioning didn't exist. We had fans to cool us, and in summertime
we slept with our windows open. At
night, in the summer, we sat on our front porch and spoke to our neighbors as
they strolled by.
Technology was advancing. We had commercial air for
those who could afford it, and our planes could fly over one hundred miles per hour
and to almost ten thousand feet without oxygen.
The military was experimenting with rockets and there was talk of sending man to the moon. It concerned me that a military project
developed an atomic bomb that killed two hundred and fifty thousand civilians
That was the
world of my childhood. Now I find myself
in your world. I have been transported through
a wormhole. through time and space. It seems to have happened very fast.
Over eight
billion people populate your world, and the number increases exponentially.
The
technology of this new world is mind-blowing, and I struggle to keep up,
Otherwise, this world is as fucked-up as the one I inhabited.
Instead
of overt racial animosity, there is political animosity;
the natural
environment is much worse, your air is bad, your water is polluted, and few unspoiled
wilderness areas still exist;
hunger, war, and poverty are tolerated by
your government and citizens;
there is a massive financial gap between the haves and have-nots;
the availability of guns has turned your country into a war zone, where even children are not safe in schools;
extreme fundamentalist religious cults
still influence public discourse; ignorance still abides.
The human
beings of my world seeded your world. Though
quantum leaps in technology would have you perceived as an advanced
civilization in my world, your humanity has not changed. You still share 98 percent of your DNA with lower
primates, which inserts its dominance.
Yes. I am an
alien from another world. Everyone who
looks at me can tell that I am an alien, and identify others just like me.
By the way,
flying saucers don’t exist.
the
Ol’Buzzard
