Advice for E.T.: Stay away from planet Earth
Regarding the recent article in The Tribune on extraterrestrial visitation, we live in a world where racism and xenophobia are widespread, and some people have trouble accepting a human of a different color, let alone a being who might not have the same number of heads as we do.
We raise and slaughter animals to eat, even though more morally and environmentally sound alternatives are available, and others of our fellow mortals hunt down, kill and call it “sport.”
Save for a few short periods in human history, there has always been at least one war being waged: One month out of the year we give lip-service to treating each other with compassion, yet during that month and the other 11 we demonstrate our marked propensity for killing each other off.
Yes, many people are working to change these things, but as of today, if I were an extraterrestrial cruising through our solar system, I’d take one look at Earth and say “Nah, let’s wait until after the next asteroid strike before we consider visiting this one.”
Jeff Rininger, Cayucos
This story was originally published January 3, 2018 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Advice for E.T.: Stay away from planet Earth."