My husband often asks me, “What planet did you come from?” when I express frustration about the state of economic, environmental and social systems in this country. That got me to pondering just what an ET would think if they arrived here. I can only imagine they would be confounded.

They would wonder, perhaps, why the news media thought the deaths of 2,800 people in a sudden, horrendous Middle East war deserved vast coverage, while the simultaneous deaths of over 3,000 people from a devastating earthquake got barely a mention. I imagine they would be confused trying to figure out who decides which humans’ lives are important and which are not.

I expect they would be puzzled why in America, unborn children receive a great deal of protection and concern, but once born they appear to be far less important. Many states do not support them having adequate food, shelter or health care. The visitor from space might be curious why the children who survive this neglect are subsequently carelessly exposed to gun violence, environmental poisons and abuse, then despised when they end up unable to function meaningfully in society.

If a being from outer space could manage to travel as far as Earth, they would have to be a very advanced species that would have undoubtedly encountered other, far more diverse beings than humans (all one species). They would likely wonder why one race or gender thought itself superior and more deserving than the rest.

Perhaps most perplexing would be the earthlings’ persistent destruction of the only planet they know can support human life. A being of such advanced intelligence might be so stunned that we would purposefully destroy our own home, when we have no other place to go, they would crash their ship in New Mexico.

Susan Chichetto
Bath