Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others?

For years I've been stressing with regard to UFOs that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

If we're capable of conjuring up terrifying monsters in childhood, why shouldn't some of us, at least on occasion, be able to fantasize something similar, something truly horrifying, a shared delusion, as adults?

We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.

Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you.

Otherwise we don't run the government the government runs us