President Ronald Reagan reportedly made a comment about Spielberg's movie being closer to the truth than most people could imagine. And Reagan made a well-known speech about how humanity would become unified in the face of an extraterrestrial threat.

President Jimmy Carter and other witnesses aboard an aircraft spotted a UFO of some kind in October 1969. Carter filled out a UFO witness report form.

Former Arizona governor Fife Symington stated, as reported in a March 18, 2007 article, that he saw the huge "Phoenix Lights" craft that silently cruised at low altitude over the Phoenix metropolitan area in the early evening of March 13, 1997.

He was quoted as saying he witnessed a large triangular "craft of unknown origin" with lights. "It was dramatic. And it couldn't have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape," Symington said.

Symington, a former Air Force officer, stated, "It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too."

These kinds of accounts are very difficult to believe. But, when researchers and average people put various bits of information together, an interesting scenario does emerge. But, are these things true, partially true, totally false? This is not completely clear.

READY OR NOT

And now in the early part of the 21st Century we have candidates for president discussing the topic, or avoiding discussing it, on national TV. This could be "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," as Ohio native and astronaut Neil Armstrong stated when he set foot on the moon July 21, 1969.

Because whether we believe accounts and reports of unusual objects sighted in the skies or not, contact between humans and other kinds of intelligence cannot realistically be ruled out.

Nowadays, physicists and other scientists tell us there could be other dimensions that are unseen. And that there could be ways of bending or using time and space in ways that make long-distance space and inter-dimensional travel possible.

For average people who take time to read some of the alleged evidence of these very unusual activities, the information can sometimes be compelling in persuading us that something is going on. Something that is very interesting, maybe scary or dangerous, maybe something that can completely change your view of things.

It seems worthwhile that we keep open minds about these kinds of topics. Because as we become more prepared to discuss and consider subjects like this, we are better able to deal with unusual circumstances of many types. And this can be helpful for us.

Who knows - our next president might be the one who announces that, yes, my fellow Americans, we are in contact with unusual visitors. There have been successes and problems in the relationships with them over the decades. There have been courageous efforts, advances and mistakes along the way. There was secrecy and now there is disclosure.

My fellow Americans, we will now need to look at our human existence on this small planet in new ways.