Chapter One – Slippery Slope – Return of the Forgotten One (Sci Fi)

For years now, thousands of people had been coming into the country illegally from Zoor’s neighboring border, Bartonia.  The Government had laws against it, but they had not been enforcing them. Now, the situation was dire, and the provinces closest to the border were beginning to take things into their own hands.

If the Newcomers wanted to come into Zoor so badly, then it is only right that their movements should be tracked. So some thought. The Newcomers should be issued an electronic surveillance bracelet. They should be counted. They should be controlled. Their access to education and health care should be decided upon by the Government. It was a slippery slope.

Usually, the people of Zoor would have thought that barbaric, but in the tough times that had hit the planet over the last 50 years – basically non-stop war and greed – many people in Zoor saw jobs being taken by the Newcomers, and services their tax dollars were paying for being given free to these “border-crashers.”

The Government already had practice in this regard. Already, the Government had begun issuing the surveillance bracelets (“tags”) to prisoners of war, and to war contractors and to soldiers. Over 10 million people in Zoor had been catalogued and “tagged” – and now for Zoor citizens to go into or out of their own country, required being tagged, as well. It was a slippery slope.

These tags contained everything needed for one to operate in modern Zoor. All of this was done, of course, to keep the people of Zoor safe from terrorists. Though small, the bracelet contained birth and family information, tax and employment records, financial records, law enforcement records, health records, an iris scan, 12 rolled fingerprints, numerous pictures of his/her face, and any  identifying marks, and the most critical element – the unique DNA of that individual. The bracelets were different colors, though no one knew for certain if the colors meant something or not.

Through a newer technology, called RFID, an area could be scanned and a list of all of the people tagged in that area could come up on a computer screen (showing their whereabouts and their identifying data.) You know, like items are managed and monitored in large retail stores. It was a slippery slope.

Many people across Zoor had become sick – some from known causes, others from hidden causes. Mining was everywhere. Each province seemed to be mining for their own survival, regardless of the health and environmental fall out.

Costs were soaring. Money was devalued. Many people  did not have basic care. Many could not find natural foods, only synthetic nano-foods, and clean water was scarce. Part of the food supply – the seafood – had been wiped out by massive oil spills. Not a good situation.

So, the Government had come to the rescue and developed a brand new Plan to take care of the populace: From the time each baby was born in Zoor until the time they died, the Government would furnish their health care and food. What a deal. And, of course, a surveillance bracelet would be required to “participate”. It was a slippery slope.

Zoor was buzzing… Who would monitor all of the bracelets? And, would the leaders of Zoor and those who monitored the populace also be tagged? Those were unspoken questions as many were sometimes afraid to speak out. Perhaps, eventually, computers could monitor some of the bracelets – to save money, of course.

*****

In the midst of it all, there sat Noelte, 29, a young mother.  She had a dilemma. She had lived near the River near a chemical plant for years and knew she had developed another tumor in her leg; she could feel it, the knot protruding from her thin, tanned shin. But, she had already had three removed. The pain was bad. She tried to move through it, rather than dwell on it. But, the possible repercussions from getting an appointment to see a medic could be even more daunting.

Noelte had heard that on the fourth tumor, you would be labeled “incurable” and a “marker” would go on your bracelet. She wasn’t sure what the marker was, or what it meant. It just didn’t sound good. Noelte looked down at her little girl, Rombley, resting on the bed and smiled. Now, there was a beautiful girl! Vibrant eyes, full of hope. After all, why not? Rombley had seen God a lot more recently than Noelte had, and still had visions of flying at night… visions of hope.

To be continued…

A Science Fiction Tale:

Prelude: The Return of the Forgotten One

In an instant, in one space/time snapshot, a wonder-full story began and then spun out across time and space – toward the past and toward the future.  Many snapshots later (or earlier, if you prefer) a crucial time in history arose – when time and space literally seem to converge on each other, at first not sure if they will make love or war. The Figure 8 had transversed its course and both ends were meeting in that middle land once more.

It was shaky going. Just as soon as one felt like he/she knew what was real anymore, it changed again. And, that was okay, even though it often felt the opposite. “It’s all good” would be the modern saying for the hope that comes from just giving all one has each day, and praying for the best outcome of all concerned. After all, we see and move forward by faith, not sight.

It was a time of great upheaval, of suffering. But, oh, a time for hope, as well. The people had been living on the planet for ages. So long, in fact, that memories of entire generations of people on the planet – and their children – had been forgotten….or erased.

Details about their Source, their purpose, and their true identity and nature and life fuel seem to have evaporated.  Some people sought to remember these threads, others to forget…while perhaps the majority, these days, simply had forgotten that there was anything to remember or forget. They were numb, raw, overexposed to images and information and stimuli. They were used to being afraid.

Sometimes, this “forgetting” was due to catastrophic events on the planet – threats from underneath, from the surface, and above.  And, some times, the threats seemed to come from the ethers, invisible threats. Who knows if these type exist apart from the minds of the inhabitants – apart from the echoes they can hear across the land – or not?

Both threats and opportunities had come too from others “worlds” – from people unknown to the planet’s inhabitants. Aliens. For, if the people would know that others existed beyond their planet, they could, if  in dire trouble, call on these “others” to help. Across time, and across space,  and across dimensions. Nothing was impossible.

Such is the time of our telling. This time, human DNA had triumphed. Humans had rose to the top of the food chain and maintained their position – above dogs, and cats, and reptiles, on down to amoebas. The humans were multiplying rapidly, using up their resources and minerals and organs, experiencing dis-ease, further imprisoning each other, polluting the planet, and beginning to fight for food and water. One place or another on the planet was at war, constantly.

For, you know, the ancient story goes that once the First War began, it never has ended, whether above or below, or in that gray bridge between. The planet’s people were bidding time against catastrophe – in one form or another. On their own, in their own minds,  they had succeeded in making great technological advances.  In fact, so superior were their advances that they had done what they had not intended; they had created ways to eliminate themselves, to wipe out their entire race.

Greed, too, had swept the planet – to the extent that some would eliminate others just as easily as they strip a $20 bill from their money roll to pay a black-suited valet. The Little People – who knew no better,  would be better off with the educated and powerful in control, anyway, right?

So, what The Little People were told, and how they were molded was very important. And, it was most important that the strings that tweaked them would be so subtle and so cunning that the People would not even know that they were being herded for profit – and had been for years. It would be better still if what they were told actually looked like it was a way to help them in their suffering.

There were governments. Some had celebrated their people; some had eventually slaughtered their people. None had lasted very long, for varied reasons. But, without question, nearly all the people kept falling farther away from one important truth: that peace was their legacy.

There were temples and churches. Some on the planet believed in good and evil. Some believed that all is One.  And still others believed in nothing (or is it, no-thing?) For, it  is often true that if  a situation or experience is a paradox, the more real it actually is. That’s as reliable of a barometer for discernment as any other.

There were sprites and elementals, and there were the clouds, and the shadows. There was the Sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all sorts of space debris surrounding the planet. There was activity going on in space beyond ones wildest imagination, sometimes obscured.

And, then… There were the leaders, strong leaders, who had led the people to new heights at each new juncture along the planet’s own journey… and some men and women, who had caught the planet in addictive downward spirals, with each recovery a bit harder than the last. Pull and tug. Pull and tug. Pull and tug.

Legend has it that strong leaders need to be peacemakers – speaking and negotiating with anyone, looking for commonalities first – to get the ball moving. Strong  leaders have been around the block, and above all, have sought and discovered truth from his/her own experience and mistakes – rather than just through the images and limitations presented to them. As Martin Luther once said, they “sin boldly”. To these men and women, richness is in relationship and depth and wisdom and nature, not necessarily blood line or “authority”.

Never forget, we still are writing history and herstory one blink, one experience, one tear, one kiss at a time.

Rest assured, Love will prevail.

*****

Check back on the site later for Chapter One of  “The Return of the Forgotten Ones” – coming soon.

(Note: The photo is of an Analemma – a trace of the annual movement of the Sun on the sky – is well known among experts of sun-dials and old Earth’s globes as a diagram of change of seasons and an equation of time.)

Dallas, TX – The controversy continues. Read one media source they say one thing. Read another media source they say the opposite. Then, there are some stories that get little or no attention from the major networks. Case in point…

The Dallas Morning News reported this story on May 5, 2010.

Article Title: “Theft of safe at Sixth Floor JFK Assassination Museum visitors center thwarted” (Source)
Published: 07:02 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 5, 2010

“Dallas Metro Police say two men abandoned this Dodge pickup after trying to steal the safe. Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said the thieves took some hidden or hard-to-find surveillance equipment, which he said suggests they had help from someone who may have worked for the museum.

A pair of thieves apparently disabled surveillance equipment early Tuesday at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza before using a winch on a pickup in an aborted attempt to steal a safe from the visitors center, county officials said.

Dallas Metro Police say two men abandoned this Dodge pickup after trying to steal the safe. View larger Photography Photo store Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said the thieves took some hidden or hard-to-find surveillance equipment, which he said suggests they had help from someone who may have worked for the museum.

“Someone had good knowledge,” Price said. “You had to know the safe was there … and what’s in the safe. It’s not in public view.”

The visitors center is in the county administration building, where the commissioners meet every Tuesday morning.

Investigators declined to comment on whether the botched theft – the thieves ran off, leaving the safe behind – was an inside job at the world-famous museum, which is dedicated to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

There did not appear to be broken glass or other evidence of forced entry. Officials would not say how the thieves entered the museum. The only damage was to the concrete stairs at the visitors center’s south entrance, where the thieves apparently dragged the heavy safe out.

About 4 a.m., a Dallas County security officer noticed two suspicious men standing near a white Chevrolet pickup backed up to the outside of the museum at Houston and Elm streets in downtown Dallas. The truck had been reported stolen overnight in Pleasant Grove, officials later determined.

The officer shouted for the men to stop, but they jumped into an older Dodge pickup with a safe hoisted up on a winch in the back.

The officer “feared for his life, fired shots, and they swerved and wrecked out,” said Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Kim Leach.

The beat-up Dodge, which had paper tags and a yellow taxicab door in the bed, ran up on a nearby curb on Elm, where the men abandoned it.

The scuffed but apparently unopened gray safe was still dangling from the rear of the Dodge as police cars filled the street responding to the incident.

By that time, the two men – both described as black males in their 20s – had fled. They remain at large. It’s not known if they were injured.

In addition to not talking about the surveillance equipment or the method of entry, museum officials would not divulge what the safe contained.

A museum spokeswoman released a statement Tuesday saying that the “museum collections and historic materials are safe and secure.”

Well… back track about 15 months ago – In February 2008, guardian.co.uk, reported this about the Dallas safe:

Monday 18 February 2008 12.38 GMT

“JFK assassination plot’ papers found in Dallas safe”
Lee Harvey Oswald is shot by Jack Ruby JFK (Source)

Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of assassinating President Kennedy, is shot by Jack Ruby in the garage of the Dallas police headquarters in November 1963 (Photo) – “A transcript claiming to detail Lee Harvey Oswald’s plot to assassinate President John F Kennedy has been discovered in an old courtroom safe.

“The record – described as reading like a conspiracy theorist’s dream – appears to minute talks between Oswald and Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald after Kennedy’s assassination.

Today, the Dallas County district attorney’s office said other documents found included letters from former district attorney Henry Wade, the prosecuting lawyer in Ruby’s trial.

But the apparent record of the conversation between Oswald and Ruby was probably fake, said the district attorney, Craig Watkins, and was instead likely to be long-forgotten material for a proposed film.

Oswald says in the transcript: “I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I’ll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning.”

The Dallas Morning News reported the transcript and other material were found in a safe on the 10th floor of the county courthouse.

The memorabilia – the rest of which was believed to be genuine – also included letters from Wade to Ruby, a gun holster and clothing that probably belonged to Ruby and Oswald, Watkins said.

The transcript suggests Ruby and Oswald met at Ruby’s nightclub on October 4 1963, less than two months before the assassination on November 22 that year.

In it, they talked of killing the president because the mafia wanted to “get rid” of his brother, the then attorney general, Robert Kennedy.

Today, Gary Mack, the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, which chronicles Kennedy’s life, said he doubted the transcript was genuine.

He added it was well documented Oswald was in Irving, Texas, on the evening of October 4, and therefore could not have been in Ruby’s nightclub.

“The fact that it’s sitting in Henry Wade’s file, and he didn’t do anything, indicates he thought it wasn’t worth anything,” Mack said. “He probably kept it because it was funny. It’s hilarious. It’s like a bad B movie.”

Terri Moore, an assistant to Watkins, today said she believed the transcript was part of a movie Wade was working on with producers.

The former prosecutor had discussed making the film, Countdown in Dallas, in letters found in the safe. “It’s not real. Crooks don’t talk like that,” Moore said.

Watkins said the items were still being processed and would eventually be made available to the public.”

*****

And on the same day, msnbc.com – Nightly News ran this report:

Updated 8:26 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 18, 2008 (Source)

Dallas DA unveils tantalizing JFK-related items
Boxes of forgotten memorabilia surface in old safe in Dallas

Article entitled: “JFK assassination documents revealed”

“More than four decades after former Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a vault of hidden files has finally been cracked open. Take a tour with NBC’s Don Teague …

DALLAS – “Long-hidden items and documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were revealed for the first time Monday, after spending nearly two decades locked inside a courthouse safe.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins presented the articles at a U.S. Presidents’ Day holiday news conference while standing next to brown and white file boxes stacked in a pyramid.

The items include a purported transcript between Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald’s killer, nightclub owner Jack Ruby; a leather gun holster that held the weapon Ruby used to shoot Oswald; brass knuckles found on Ruby when he was arrested; and a movie contract signed by then-Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade.”

What’s your assessment?

Here is the link to the Museum’s web site, including details about their JFK collection.

By the way… Word is that Tom Hanks is planning to produce a movie to debunk the JFK assassination conspiracy for his next project. Read more here from Associated Content. (Note: Rare photo by Scott Hale.)

*****

History buffs will also enjoy this find:

President Eisenhower briefed on ET presence says former New Hampshire legislator – May 12, 11:37 AMDenver – from the UFO Examiner

“Henry W. McElroy, Jr, retiring State Representative to New Hampshire, declared this week that former U.S. President (and General) Dwight D. Eisenhower was briefed about the presence of extraterrestrial intelligent beings on Earth. McElroy also said that the document he viewed while at the State Legislature made reference to the opportunity for Eisenhower to meet the alien visitors.

This new revelation could result in timely support for the August 2010 election on the Denver ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission. The proposed commission would collect credible evidence and whistle-blower testimony regarding UFOs and visitors to Earth of extraterrestrial origin. It would then share such evidence with the public through the Denver city government web site at no cost to the city budget. The aim of the commission is to brief the public with information previously viewed only by a privileged few.

Following is the transcript of his speech made on May 8, 2010, at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The Gateway to Freedom video of McElroy’s speech can also be viewed on YouTube.

Transcript:

“Hello, I’m speaking with you from Fort Monroe, Virginia. We’re also known as The Gateway to Freedom.

We sit right next to a little town called Phoebus, Virginia. Interestingly, they call themselves The Gateway to the New World.

Phoebus sits inside of Hampton, Virginia whose motto is First from the Sea, First to the Stars.

My name is Henry McElroy, Jr. a retiring, former State Representative from New Hampshire. Thank you for your attention to this brief message concerning the world’s interaction with both earth-based, and off-world astronauts.

The reason I am making this announcement is in the hopes of encouraging better perspective to all who explore the universe. Therefore, as a result, making a more valuable contribution to humanity, for the benefit of all faiths, all races and all nations.

Another reason I am here today is because I believe in the foundational wisdom of our nation, which was laid down by our founding fathers and because we know that highly advanced knowledge and information can assist human beings in solving various problems both in current times, and in our future.

When I was in the New Hampshire State Legislature, I served on the State Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs committee. It was, apparently, important that as a Representative of the Sovereign People who had elected me to this Honorable Office, that I be updated on a large number of topics related to the affairs of our People, and our Nation.

As I understood it, some of those ongoing topics had been examined and categorized as Federal, State, Local development, and security matters. These documents related to various topics some of which spanned decades of our nation’s history. One of those recurring topics is the reason I am addressing you this evening.

I would like to submit to our nation my personal testimony of one document related to one of these ongoing topics which I saw while in office, serving on the State Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee.

The document I saw was an official brief to President Eisenhower. To the best of my memory this brief was pervaded with a sense of hope, and it informed President Eisenhower of the continued presence of extraterrestrial beings (aliens) here in the United States of America.

The brief seemed to indicate that a meeting between the President and some of these visitors could be arranged as appropriate if desired.

The tone of the brief indicated to me that there was no need for concern, since these visitors were in no way, causing any harm, or had any intentions, whatsoever, of causing any disruption then, or in the future.

While I can’t verify the times or places or that any meeting or meetings occurred directly between Eisenhower and these visitors – because of his optimism in his farewell address in 1961, I personally believe that Eisenhower did, indeed, meet with these extraterrestrial, off world astronauts.

I hope my personal testimony will aid the nation in its quest for continued enlightenment. I am honored to follow in the footsteps of those who have come forward with their personal testimonies – those who deserve the admiration of the American people for sharing their accounts publicly, in an effort to elevate our knowledge to a higher understanding of our existence.

People such as:

Former Astronauts John Glenn, Edgar Mitchell, Gordon Cooper, and Buzz Aldrin

Former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter

Captain Bill Uhouse of the United States Marine Corps

Lt. Col John Williams of the United States Air Force

Co Phillip Corso Sr. of the United States Army

Commander Graham Bethune of the United States Navy

Along with:

David Hamilton of the Department of Energy, Donna Hare of NASA, and James Kopf of the National Security Agency

I would also like to thank the countries of France, Brazil, Britain, Russia, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, our neighbor to the North – Canada, Uruguay, and Australia, for also opening their files to the citizens of their countries, and allowing them access to information that is so very important to the evolution of humanity.

I thank you for allowing me this opportunity to have a small part in doing the same, by sharing the information I have given you today.

Thank you very much and I’d like to thank our communications crew for helping us make this happen today.

And, I’d also like to authorize distribution of this video (above) for anyone who wants to use it for educational purposes.

Thank you.”

I wanted to pass along this recent (03/25/2010) article entitled, “Is X-woman”really a new species?” – Quite interesting…

The discovery of the creature nicknamed “X-woman” has to rank as one of the most exciting science stories of the year so far. She -  if X-woman is indeed a “she” -  is known only from a little finger bone, found in a Siberian cave and dated to between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago. But according to a research team led by Johannes Krause and Svante Pääbo, of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, she may represent an entirely new human species.

At the time X-woman lived, the only hominins known in Eurasia were modern humans and Neanderthals (Homo floresiensis, the “Hobbits”, were also around in Indonesia). Yet analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the bone has suggested that X-woman belongs to neither species (the nickname, incidentally, was chosen because mitochondrial DNA is passed down the female line — there is no indication of sex just yet).

Krause and Pääbo believe that this suggests the creature belongs to a new lineage of humans, and perhaps to a new species. As Pääbo put it:

“Whatever carried this DNA out of Africa is some new creature that has not been on our radar screens. It suggests there were perhaps three different families of humans in this area about 40,000 years ago, and also the hobbits in Indonesia.”

Not everybody, however, is convinced by this interpretation. In an interesting and illuminating blog post, the anthropologist John Hawks points out that nowhere in the Nature paper do the scientists use the word “species”, and that there is another explanation that fits the currently-known facts just as well.

Hawks’s point is that it is dangerous to infer that a new species has been discovered from mitochondrial DNA alone. It is also perfectly possible that the unusual mitochondrial DNA sequence represents previously unappreciated but normal variation among Neanderthals.

The Neanderthal DNA that is known to date comes from populations situated far to the west of the Siberian site, and X-woman’s sequence may be nothing more than a matter of geography. He calls for caution, and more evidence:

“It is unnecessary to posit the existence of an unknown species of hominins in southern Siberia, based on the mitochondrial evidence alone. Whether we’re talking about an unexpected diversity of forms — well, I want to see something other than a pinky bone.”

He’s right that Pääbo and Krause don’t use the term “species” in their paper, but the pair were pretty bullish about their interpretation in a conference call with the world’s press on Tuesday. Their comments clearly indicated that they thought it likely that X-woman is a new species, and most reports of their work (including my own) have taken this line.

Hawks also suggests a possible explanation for their confidence:

“In the back of my mind I’m thinking this: if Krause’s team has done enough sequencing to do the entire mitochondrial genome, they surely already know something about what the nuclear genome looks like… So maybe there are already hints that the autosomal comparison will fall in the same direction as the mitochondrial comparison with Neandertals: different from them, different from us.”

I think hunch has a lot going for it. As John Timmer, of Ars Technica, pointed out to me today, it will have been several months since the Max Planck team started preparing this paper. They will certainly have some results from their nuclear DNA analysis by now, and it’s hard to believe they would have given the media the impression that this was a new species if those preliminary data suggested otherwise.

The Nature paper doesn’t prove that X-woman is a new species, and Hawks is right that reporters like me probably ought to have been a little more cautious. But I’d also be surprised (though not astonished) if this take on the story doesn’t hold up in the longer term.

Carl Zimmer, at The Loom, has another good post on this subject, which takes up another potential explanation for X-woman’s bizarre mitochondrial DNA. As I alluded to in my story, it’s also possible that the fossil was the result of interbreeding between Neanderthals (or Homo sapiens) and a more archaic hominin.

Note: This article was posted by Mark Henderson on March 25, 2010 in the Evolution, Genetics category.

Also refer to this recent BBC article on the subject: