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Storming Area 51 on September 20, 2019? 51

Storming Area 51 on theorists have been getting a little bit louder. The Frankly, this is a poor argument.
media has devoted a lot of space to speculation Wayfaring aliens are unlike new missiles or
September 20? Here's why about various space objects, for example, with Mach 3 fighter jets. Alien spacecraft would, one

reporters and scientists alike wondering if, for presumes, be routinely noticed by many of the
you're unlikely to find
example, the mysterious object 'Oumuamua was billions of people who are not employed by the
aliens hiding in the desert an asteroid, a comet — “or an alien spaceship.” U.S. military, nearly all of whom have
Which brings us back to Area 51. The cellphones with cameras. Sure, the recently
Air Force says a citizen assault would be released videos made by some Navy pilots are
The search for extraterrestrial life has “dangerous” — a description perfectly chosen to suggestively mysterious. But they’re also
long been a fixture of American pop encourage those who believe that what goes on ambiguous. And what about the around 100,000
culture — but lately, it seems like the at this hush-hush base is both suspect and commercial flights that take off every day,
probably malevolent. Signs posted around Area apparently without the slightest concern with —
conspiracy theorists have been getting
51 somberly note that trespassing will be dealt or notice of — extraterrestrial craft? Does the
a little bit louder.
with harshly, and that deadly force is authorized International Airline Pilots Association offer
— as if you’d care whether or not it’s authorized training on how to deal with aliens in our
by Seth Shostak when they winch your body out of the airspace?
sagebrush. Perhaps most importantly, however, is
More than a million people say — at least online Of course, secret things do go on at Area the fact that humans are weak and susceptible to
— they want to scale the fences and storm Area 51 — the testing of new military aircraft, for all sorts of pressure and enticements. It beggars
51, a top-secret Air Force installation in the instance. The Air Force is not keen on people belief to think that the many, many employees
Nevada desert. Their stated hope is to see the taking photos. So trying to scale the Area 51’s and contractors who’ve worked at Area 51 in the
aliens who for decades have been rumored to be ramparts is about as advisable as storming Fort seven decades since the celebrated Roswell
warehoused within. The blitz is scheduled for Knox. And even if camo-clad guards aren’t incident have been capable of keeping news of
Sept. 20, so mark your calendars. enough to dissuade you, there’s always the stockpiled aliens under wraps, despite the fact
Or not. desert itself. Daytime temperatures, even in late that it would be the biggest story ever. The oft-
The idea for this effort was birthed on September, hover around a sweaty 90 degrees. repeated argument that secrecy is necessary in
Facebook, and it was clearly intended as a joke. Refreshments will be hard to find, and the order to avoid panicking the populace doesn’t
But so was Johnny Carson’s 1973 claim that the expected crush of people will more or less wash. Folks already believe E.T. is here, and
U.S. was running out of toilet paper — an guarantee you’ll be sleeping in your car or under they still go to the office every morning.
offhand attempt at humor that triggered a real a creosote bush. If nothing else, the suggested blitz of
shortage. So joke or no, the hordes might really OK, but maybe you’re thinking that Area 51 demonstrates Nevada’s continuing
show up at the closely guarded federal facility, a revealing humanity’s contact with aliens would success in cornering the alien market. In 1996,
poor decision according to authorities. be worth the discomfort. Which, indeed, it state officials christened route 375 as the
BookMaker, an Internet betting site, is already would. And internet jests aside, a lot of people in Extraterrestrial Highway. This 100-mile stretch
weighing the odds of a tsunami of citizens the so-called UFO community seem convinced of straightaway, which parallels the northern
storming the chain-links and, if they do, the that the federal government really keeps border of Area 51, might have qualified as the
chances that they’ll find any aliens mothballed evidence of extraterrestrial visitors — dead or world’s most boring two-hour drive if it weren’t
inside. alive — somewhere. Surveys show that one- for the fact that some people have seen strange
It’s all good fun (unless, perhaps, you’re third of the American public is convinced that objects in the sky while en route.
in charge of security for the Air Force.) But aliens are visiting Earth, and a majority say that It’s also noteworthy that the Nevada
should you go? And, really, is there any reason the government keeps information about these Commission on Tourism, which promoted the
to believe that extraterrestrials are stacked up at beings secret. highway rebranding, didn’t point to the fact that,
Area 51? However, crashed saucers or broken three years earlier, state Sen. Richard Bryan had
The search for extraterrestrial life has bodies aren’t on display at the Smithsonian or introduced an amendment to cancel the NASA
long been a fixture of American pop culture, Roswell’s UFO Museum. This lack of obvious project to search for radio signals from
immortalized in television shows like “The X- evidence encourages true believers to claim that extraterrestrial intelligence. But then again,
Files” and movies such as “E.T.,” federal authorities are the only people with the those aliens would have been light-years away
“Independence Day” and “Arrival” among many technological capabilities to gather alien and of little benefit to the Nevada economy.
others. These examples speak to a widespread artifacts. And of all the places they could As for Area 51, the truth may not be out
sentiment that has long bubbled beneath the squirrel away this evidence, they’ve chosen there. But some high-speed aircraft and a lot of
surface. But lately, it seems like the conspiracy southern Nevada. prickly pear probably are. []