The UFO UpDates List this week has an ongoing 'thread' titled 'Validating The Ramey Memo' and this thread of course refers to the picture taken of General Ramey and Major Jesse Marcel posed with the remains of a weather balloon for a press conference attempting to downplay the original press release from the Air Force stating they had captured a flying saucer near a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico, back in 1947.

In the picture, General Ramey is holding a memo that some are claiming is the smoking gun of Roswell because they believe they have enhanced the image enough to be able to read the words from the document. The further claim is that when enhanced, it is possible to read the words "flying disk" and "bodies" on the memo thereby validating that there has definitely been a cover-up regarding what the Air Force really found in July of 1947.

Now, I've taken a hard look at these enhanced images and I must admit, the memo might be showing the words flying disk and bodies, however, the naysayers of this smoking gun state that we are simply reading what we want to read and not what is truly there. In otherwords, we are interpreting the image to fit what we believe to be true about the Roswell UFO event, and they might be right. The problem that I have with the Ramey Memo is that it confuses the issue because both sides have valid arguments and it sometimes moves attention from the real question about Roswell and the simple, single fact cannot be changed that the United States Air Force publicly lied to the people - and they did it on more than one occasion. The other problem with this 'smoking gun' is that we're examining the wrong image. Instead of trying to decipher what the memo says from a picture of it, we should be asking to see the actual memo that is probably hidden away in some file cabinet somewhere.

The problem in ufology is that we do not have in our possession what has been jokingly referred to on this program as an Alien Ashtray or Coaster. In other words, we do not have an artifact that somebody can point to and say, "there, see, that has come from a UFO and there can be absolutely no doubt whatsoever of its origin." Or, "do we have something like that?"

What we all have to remember is that if we believe that governments are covering up information about UFOs and alien visitors, it only stands to reason that they would hide or destroy anything and everything remotely associated with either UFOs or aliens. Given this simple thought process, it stands to reason that we will never get to see or hold an object that has come from a UFO until governments are ready to share that information with us. And they won't share that information with us until they are ready to do so, or there's such an outcry from the people that they really have no choice.

Once again, it is time for ufologists to switch their focus away from simply investigating cases and gathering evidence that, we cannot fail to realise, is only circumstantial. Once again, it's time to focus on convincing governments of the world to open up and tell us about what they have or do not have. Once again, it is time to ask the men and women in government who represent our interests to ask some questions. Some tough questions about what has been withheld from us. This type of movement simply has to come from the grass roots and it means that if you are really interested in finding out what the truth is, then send an e-mail or a letter to your local government representative... the guy or gal you voted for, and tell them you are interested and you would like them to ask about the subject on your behalf. If you don't get a reply, send another letter or e-mail and keep sending them until somebody gives you a response.

It's time that governments are made to answer the question and for us to make sure that nobody is giggling when it is asked. And that question simply is, "What do you know about UFOs and/or alien lifeforms visiting our planet?"

But that's just my take on it!