So the world is once again abuzz with flying saucers and aliens. Some serious people are weighing in this time, though. A recent Congressional hearing, rare because it was professional, respectful and bipartisan, dealt with the possible presence of alien spacecraft and “biologics” in the possession of the government.

Two pilots and an intelligence officer testified. I’ll leave the grandstanding, demands for information and other big deal complaints in the hands of bigger owls than me. I’d only like to zero in on one aspect of all this, which has resonance in our little part of Alabama: Transparency.

Government transparency is the center of this whirlwind of noise and furor. Most people who hate government sing one of two songs. One group is convinced government controls everything, manipulating the levers of power to keep all information secret. Others believe government can’t keep any secrets, much less secrets going back to 1947 and the alleged spacecraft crash incident in Roswell, New Mexico. For most normal people, curiosity is the driving factor. Normal people just want to know what their government is doing for them and their future. Here’s why all this transparency is important to us.

Sure, aliens who possess astounding physical capabilities, whose aircraft can turn on a right angle at Mach 1, whose presence is here, then vanished, might be important to know about. Why? Science. If there are such capabilities, we earthlings should know about them. We should make these technologies available to world scientists. Why?

A society that fearlessly advances scientific investigation can make great strides in making our world, and perhaps other worlds, happier. With abilities to overcome known limitations on air and space travel we might discover greater regions of our own and further galaxies. If someone reached us, where did they come from? What brought them here? Who are they? These type questions have carried us great distances throughout history. Great institutions of education have fearlessly asked questions about all that is human, all that is worldly. We in Limestone County must begin by believing that one of our own children might be the discoverer, or joint discoverer, of such wonders. To do so, they need to have access to all our collective wisdom.

Our young people need access to all types of literature. Aerospace engineers I’ve known began their enthusiasm reading Jules Verne, a French author. This dreamer wrote “From the Earth to the Moon” in the 19th Century. Science in Asia took a giant step forward when a medical doctor could examine a human body and not point to parts of a female statue to examine a real patient. Alfred Russel Wallace concluded, while sick in 1855 in the Dutch East Indies during his study of rare birds, that creatures adapt to their environments. A learned Belgian priest and theoretical physicist Georges Lemaître theorized galaxies expand, which Edwin Hubble later observed and confirmed.

None of this could happen if humanity was afraid. We cannot lock ourselves away because others might get and use something new against us. We cannot be held back by ideology, the fear that our preconceptions might be challenged. We have a brain that itself is barely known. What a wonderful world of discovery awaits our younger fellow countians.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist, loaded the airwaves with insults against weak, fearful America when he read about our panicked reaction to Orson Wells’ 1937 radio production of “War of the Worlds.” German newspapers carried full page articles ridiculing how decadent, cowardly Americans armed themselves against the imaginary invasion by aliens. What Goebbels didn’t do is look around. His own country was literally at the same time forcing real Jewish scientists, artists and entrepreneurs out of Germany. The expelled Germans, such as Albert Einstein, came to America and brought us much scientific understanding which led to technological wonders. We might also mention they brought almost the lion’s share of talent to the Hollywood’s 1930s dream factory. What great contributions came from people feared and persecuted by others.

Transparency without fear brings us new ideas that can help us all. It makes for better science, more honest government, helpful libraries, and advanced schools. Rational, open government can assure most of this. What is needed as well is a moral compass so that our inventions serve to help people, not harm them. To do any of this we must first know what’s happening. I greatly appreciate, as most Owls do, the stated goal of the witness testifying to the Congressional committee. He wanted to make it easier for any person to tell what he knows about such unidentified aerial phenomena. Why not a formal channel for such reports? Not bad for a beginning. Not bad for science, nor for us.