As I walked the familiar streets of Eldorado this afternoon I heard a man say to his companion, ‘Well he looked kinda like him…but he has gray hair and he is wearing a cowboy hat.’

‘I can not wait to hear what the aliens have to say…perhaps they will have a solution to stopping war,’ Jane said gleefully! It had been discovered by our most powerful telescopes that we were being watched by residents of a planet that looked just like earth but was a thousand light years away in another galaxy. ‘I have always thought that there was life on other planets,’ said Chet with a wry grin. ‘Well, it stands to reason that with the countless planets that we are aware of and the untold planets that we are not that there has to be intelligent life in space somewhere,’ Neva J. said. ‘Where do you think that Phillip K. Dick got his inspiration from…he was in contact with aliens who told him many of the secrets of the universe,’ Billy B. added. ‘I bet that they are amazed at our technology and our civilization,’ Jane contended. ‘I hope that they do not want to have us for dinner,’ Chet laughed. ‘How are they watching our lives…we do not have a telescope that is remotely powerful enough to see what is happening on their world…which the scientist calls Earth 2.0…and the Hubbel Telescope has only recently revealed the similarities in their planet’s topography and ours,’ Billy B. noted.

The Flying Saucer landed in Eldorado, Illinois…not in New York City or London or Paris…but in the little Southern Illinois former coal mining town of Eldorado. This was a major event! The mayor of Eldorado and the town fathers and mothers came out to be the official greeting party for this singular worldwide event. CNN was there and the New York Times and ABC and CBS and NBC and the London Telegraph. When asked why they thought that the Aliens from Earth 2.0 would make their visit to Eldorado the Mayor said that he believed that Eldorado personified small-town America. He also mentioned that he had been a Science Fiction aficionado for his entire life.

‘I am sure that they have come to learn from us…we have unparallel science and understanding of the cosmos,’ said Daryl. ‘Dad…better known as the Wiz…told me that they may be more advanced than we are and perhaps are coming to warn us of imminent disaster, Daryl contained. The Wiz had told Daryl that the Earth could not continue down its destructive path and that our passion for war would ultimately consume us. Also, our disregard for our home and our constant pollution of the Earth may be coming home to our destruction.

‘Greetings Earth.’ said Ralph of Earth II. We are extremely happy to see you and feel what it is like to live on Earth,’ Ralph continued. ‘Do any of you have questions for me before I launch my presentation,’ Ralp asked? ‘What have you noticed about us that has impressed you,’ Jane asked? ‘Your love for your families and your consideration for your neighbors and friends,’ Ralph answered. ‘How is our technology and do we measure up to yours,’ asked Chet? ‘Well your technology is our technology two thousand years ago,’ Ralph answered. ‘You see…all of you are dead in our world and we are your ancestors that left Earth a millennium ago,’ Ralph noted. ‘Worldwide nuclear war destroyed most of humanity 2,000 years ago…a few of us escaped to colonize on Earth II,’ said Ralph. ‘I am the great-grandson of the founder of Eldorado…many times over…and that is why I wanted to visit the town that he loved so much,’ Ralph said with a tear in his eye.

‘Dead…you say…how could that be,’ asked Neva J? ‘By the time that the images of Earth reach our most powerful telescopes the inhabitant of Earth have been dead for over a thousand years…watching each of you is a wonderful history lesson,’ Ralph said dispassionately. ‘We have watched this day countless times…and wept for our past,’ Ralph said. ‘We all are a bit like the subatomic particles that can be watched in more than one physical place at a time…it seems that our relevance is in…the eye of the beholder…