Op-Ed: Why Aliens are hiding from us

From wars of religion to aggressive intent on the territories of others, Earthlings have killed for a variety of reasons. They are now entering an era of exceptional hatred of the difference. Is it really a wonder that no one wishes to pay Earth a visit?

There was a time when an Earthling, a male, resembling more a monkey than a man, would attack ferociously another ape-looking male because he walked on his territory. One hundred thousand years later, men and women were killing each other for a number of reasons, from territory to food to religion, and for a flag and a king’s glory. In far-away lands, people were killed depending on which side of the Crusades they found themselves. Smack in the middle of the Enlightenment, some lost their lives simply because they forgot to take off their hat at the passage of a religious procession, or because they wrote something considered unpleasant by religious leaders. Plenty of women were burnt alive, accused of being witches by men dressed in robes. Not long ago, in the New World, men dressed in blue were battling it out with men dressed in red, and both of them were maltreating and killing the natives with red skin. You could get killed because you spoke French or because you spoke English; after that, you lost your life depending on whether you resided in the North or in the South. You were insulted, degraded, sold and bought, and often killed, if your skin was dark. Jump two hundred years or so. The entire machinery of a State and the power of its military were put into full force to hunt down, degrade, beat and kill entire families, because their members were Jews, and individuals because they were either homosexuals, intellectuals, disabled or Gypsies. Both the Russians and the Americans were preparing for the annihilation of each other and of most of the world, because one was capitalist and the other communist. During that time, those fighting for freedom were enslaving, lynching and killing some of their own, because they had a black skin; those fighting for Big Brother Stalin were killing their own, because, well, because they could. And that’s only 50 years ago. Jump to now. The poor Iraqi citizen is killed because he’s in the way of the American on the march toward Baghdad and its oil. Innocent Americans and other Westerners are killed because some men with long beards think they are infidels. The same men beat and kill their own women, simply because they are not wearing what they have decided is the proper attire. Many people get killed because they said something considered insulting to one god or another. Some white men, who have learned nothing from the past, continue to hate their brothers because they are Blacks; and the same is true of some Black people. The Israelis are killing Palestinians because they are Arabs, and the Arabs are killing Jews because they are Israelis. Killings continue unabated around the world for a variety of reasons, but mainly because of a "difference", and we seem to be entering an era of unsurpassed intolerance and hatred of “the difference”. The simple fact of wanting to speak a language other than the one à la mode is now a reason for sick minds to pick up a rifle. And yet, we wonder why the Aliens are so darn reluctant to show their face!