Unidentified Aerial Phenomena is the phrase now used instead of UFO, which was what we' d blithely call every green-haloed light that materialized over the town's water tower, hovering there four nights in a row before mysteriously blinking out. While we popped cans of soda open on the front steps, one of our fathers told us of the mass hysteria caused by the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, one October evening the year before WWII. First, there was a weather report, then some live big band music from a hotel; then interruptions from reports of alien machines attacking the Jersey suburbs with gas and lasers. Who can explain how the fear of aliens in our midst continues to morph, along with this laundering in language? Aerial phenomena. Unexplained non- human biologics at crash sites. Just as in war, a bombed-out site becomes a pacification zone; and at our borders, field officers can separate minors from other individuals in a family unit—This, they've been told, is a good deterrent.
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