There is no way I am going to criticize Dennis Kucinich for his admission of having seen a UFO. On the contrary, for any politician to do so lends him more credibility than the claims made by politicians they are “serving America.” I do criticize Kucinich for his loony political positions and hope his connection with that craft “and heard directions in his mind” wasn’t directing him to become even loonier. And I don’t discount his claim about the UFO may have been an appeal to fellow lunatics, though I consider Shirley MacLaine one of the more lovable. I will always like Shirley; she is one of the more likeable in your face don’t care what you say or think about me people in showbiz. But that may be because I have a fondness for my fellow kooks who in their kookiness do no harm, but rather appeal to imagination.

For example Delbert in Arachnophobia: “A web would indicate arachnid presence.” Nothing can come out of nothing is patently obvious. In respect to the universe and life, this is something that had to come out of something. Those that say there is no God will have to become smart enough to explain with absolute precision what this “something” was, apart from the various theories, before they have any legitimate basis to deny the existence of God. For my part, based on the evidence, it is more reasonable to my mind for me to believe in God than disbelieve. The problem for me and many others who attempt to be honest about our beliefs is that while “A web would indicate arachnid presence” the universe and life are not so accommodating to that kind of precision in interpretation. It is when religious people go off into their various versions of “precision in interpretation” we get the kooks that unlike Shirley too often do harm.

Quite often as a child I would see small funnel-like indents in the earth measuring about an inch in diameter around our place. Using a popsicle stick, a very utilitarian tool for most children, I knew if I gently dug into the bottom of one of these I would find an ant lion, or doodlebug as we children called them. So early is the spirit of scientific inquiry instilled in children. Those little funnels in the earth declared something made them, and I wanted to find the creature that made them. And this very kind of curiosity should be encouraged in children, the kind that leads a child to understand it is a clock but wants to take it apart and see how it works. The more adept child will not only take it apart to see how it functions, but be able to reassemble it. Those adults attacking believers remind me many times of the child that knows it’s a clock and takes it apart to see what makes it work, but do not have the ability to put the clock back together.

There are so very many things beyond our physical senses, unknown and perhaps even unknowable. The universe has a lot of room for both scientific and philosophical speculation. And while there are mysteries galore in the universe there remain many mysteries right here on our own planet. I applaud those who bend their efforts in searching for Atlantis and the meaning of strange markings in stone throughout the world. I want to know about Atlantis, I want to know about the pyramids, the Sphinx, and Stonehenge; I want to know if there really are ghosts or UFOs and extraterrestrials, I want to know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. Granted my belief is that we are going somewhere when we die, but what that “somewhere” consists of I have no idea, and heaven and hell are good words to use lacking any specific knowledge of the hereafter.

The thought came to me many years ago that death is easier to face when you have departed loved ones who have already passed before you, have already experienced that ultimate end that comes to all and are there waiting to greet you. This somehow made thoughts of my own death easier to face. But then I began to think about the fact I have been so blessed by loved ones gone on before me, people who made my life precious and meaningful because of their love for me and mine for them, and the further thought came to me not that many have such departed loved ones waiting to greet them on the other side. Stop a moment and consider the question; how many do you have waiting to greet you? Some people like me have quite a number of them, and some people have none or perhaps only one or two at most. I think this has a profound effect on a person’s beliefs and how some people live their lives for good or evil. And it may have a lot to do with America’s failure to cherish the innocence of children.

There is the environment of children to consider that has a profound effect on their beliefs, whether children are raised in nurturing love and parents providing for them or chaos and violence, poverty and ignorance. Dickens warned of children raised in poverty and ignorance, and as an advocate for children did his best to attack this plague in England.

There is, however, no escaping the realities of poverty and ignorance so prevalent here in America, dooming so many children. Those like Ray Bradbury and George Lucas who feared for literacy in America because of TV have been proven correct. TV has been a death knell for literacy in America. The mesmerizing influence of TV has supplanted the reading of books; and this to the detriment of children throughout America.

The genius of Harper Lee was seeing the world about them through the eyes of children in her masterpiece, the novel of the century “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Nick Owchar in the L.A. Times, August 24, 2007: “You’d think, from the hype surrounding it, that reclusive author Harper Lee had given a full-blown speech at the ceremony she attended this week to honor fellow Alabamians. But what she said amounted to very little. As recorded by various news services, she uttered 11 words: ‘Well, it’s better to be silent than to be a fool.’ “

It is obvious to all that J. K. Rowling while so very gifted as a writer was ignorant of Harper Lee’s cautionary statement and played the fool. And because of a very foolish statement favoring homosexuals Rowling gave up forever her credibility as a writer of books for children. The innocence of a child betrayed can never be restored.

In Thomas Mallon’s New Yorker column about TKM he wrote: “Late in 1960, in commenting on the book’s success, Flannery O’Connor declared, ‘It’s interesting that all the folks that are buying it don’t know they’re reading a child’s book.’ “ This observation by Mallon sums up why Harper Lee achieved such a rare pinnacle in literature, one that Rowling can never hope for. The Harry Potter books will never be great books in the literary sense, and now because of the taint of homosexuality will no longer even be considered children’s books.

This condemnation of Rowling has nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuals or her thoughts about homosexuality; it has everything to do with what is considered appropriate for children. There is good cause for those of us believing Rowling for whatever reason chose such a self-destructive thing as pronouncing Dumbledore a homosexual succumbing to some inner demon, a moment of temporary insanity if you will.

Some have criticized me for being so favorably inclined toward Harper Lee because of rumors about her personal life and her close association with Truman Capote. But such critics miss the truth of O’Connor’s pointed comment about TKM being a child’s book; and one has to go back and relive their childhood in order to enter into the real story of TKM, a story about and for children seen and understood through the eyes of children; a near impossibility for so many adults that have fallen into the very kind of cynicism addressed by Mr. Raymond in the book, that when children grow up they will no longer weep over injustice.

Harper Lee is neither altruistic nor naïve; she describes in detail the demons children face when it comes to the many perversions and injustices of life. Her rare gift to literature was in her being able to see these things through the eyes of children, and without any apology or compromise her gift to the world remains untarnished in its total honesty to children, and she has never betrayed this trust, choosing rather to be silent than to risk doing so. There was every reason for Harper Lee to retreat back into the world she knew as a child, and recreated in such a masterful way for children. What does Rowling have now?

Most dismiss what they consider fanciful claims like those of Kucinich, and it is easy to dismiss the claims of TV evangelists and others like, but the innocence of a child is not so easily dismissed. The child’s world of fantasy and imagination should be encouraged in purity and simplicity concerning good and evil. It is the responsibility of adults to cherish such innocence. As Harper Lee so well understood, when children grow up they will no longer weep over the injustices she describes in her literary masterpiece. But I fear America has failed to cherish the innocence of children; has in fact betrayed that innocence, and we are paying a heavy price for such betrayal, a price that is fast escalating into calamity for our nation.