Help beaming in for ET commission

An initiative that would create an Extraterrestrials Affairs Commission is getting some help in blasting off with today’s Denver appearance by Dr. Steven M. Greer, an alleged expert of ET affairs. 

Jeff Peckman, the founder of the Extraterrestrials Affairs Commission ballot initiative, will be introducing Greer and gathering signatures for his initiative tonight at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus. Peckman needs to gather 4,000 signatures before Aug. 7 to get his initiative, which would establish a seven-person panel to collect data and research that could prepare Denverites for potential alien encounters, on the Nov. 2009 ballot.

“We have made a significant dent so far with signatures,” said Peckman. “It’s a little too early to predict where we will be a month from now, but it’s definitely a much stronger start in terms of petitioning than it was last year.”

Greer, who claims to have briefed heads of state, members of Congress, a sitting CIA director and other senior officials on extraterrestrial life, spoke last July to a packed room at Metropolitan State College of Denver. During the speech, Greer told the audience that revolutionary technologies from UFOs are available on earth but are being covered up by invested parties like oil and gas companies.

“We have the technologies to get us off coal, oil and gas,” he said. “It’s locked away in a little black box. It’s time for that to change.”

Greer’s speech at 7:30 tonight is expected to bring Denverites who are interested in extraterrestrial life into the same room, which Peckman believes will help him in collecting signatures. Petitioners for the ballot initiative have been aggressively trying to gather signatures since the beginning of the month.

“Last time I was totally absorbed by the media requests, and this time the focus really is primarily on petitioning, which is what we need to do,” he said.

Third time the charm?

Peckman is hoping that the third time is the charm for getting Denverites to vote on his initiative. Peckman said he didn’t collect enough signatures to put the initiative on the November 2008 because the massive flood of publicity he got at the time — which culminated with an appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” — sidetracked him. The ET guru then planned on placing the initiative on the May 2009 ballot but decided against it after being informed that it would be the only initiative on the ballot and would cost the city at least $500,000 to carry out the vote.

Not everyone has been on board with Peckman’s efforts to get the initiative on a ballot.  The Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society told DDN reporter Peter Marcus in April that Peckman is making a mockery of the topic.

“We tend to approach things with intelligence,” said Matthew Baxter, a paranormal investigator with the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. “They would like to get assistance from the government on something the government is covering up.” 

Rather than be discouraged by the false starts or opposition to his ideas, Peckman remains optimistic and said it’s a blessing that he held off on putting the initiative on a ballot. Since its original incarnation, the initiative has been changed so a city employee will no longer have to serve on the panel and so the city will not have the authority to spend the money from the extra terrestrial commission fund, which would be funded entirely by grants and donations.

Peckman said he has become even more convinced of extra terrestrial life and the need to establish the commission in recent months. Peckman added that the general public needs to be briefed on what federal officials have known but have been unwilling to share so they will be prepared for possible extraterrestrial contact going forward. 

“People need to know what to do if they see an unusual craft hovering above their house or if somebody goes missing from their family and there are bright lights and a burn mark in their yard,” he said. “All of that stuff happens much more frequently than you would imagine.”