The title of this column has nothing to do with “Ya Gotta Believe.” That was a catchphrase used by New York Mets pitcher, Tug McGraw in 1973 to rally the fans to support the team. In some way it worked. The Mets began to win games and made it to the World Series only to lose to the Oakland Athletics.

My belief, that is the subject of this column, originated in 1992 near Binghamton, NY. I was visiting a friend that I knew from my years at SUNY Binghamton. My friend was driving back to his house in a wooded area when I had my first sighting. I yelled “Stop the car.” Screeching to a stop on the deserted road, I pointed to a green wingless cigar-shaped object that was hovering over the trees. It was not making a sound. Suddenly the object turned a brighter green, rose above the trees and sped off.

I “gotta believe” that I saw my first Unidentified Flying Object, better known as a UFO. Our government now refers to them as a UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. Maybe the powers that be figured that fewer people would file a written report about seeing a UAP because of the difficulty in spelling phenomenon. 

Arriving at his house we were excited yet taken aback by the sighting. I went upstairs to my bedroom and looked at the forest that surrounded the house. The hairs on the back of my head rose up as I saw a bright green glowing object about a half a mile away in the thick woods. To this day, I regret not having the nerve to venture into the woods to get a better look.

On summer nights, I enjoy sitting on my outdoor deck and looking at the stars. Occasionally I could spot one of them slowly moving. I was told they were satellites. But now, I am beginning to wonder about that. With the revelation by our government that there is a possibility that UAP’s have been sighted, you got to believe that we are not alone. 

Next time you look at all the stars in the night sky, ponder this. Each star is a sun and many of them, like ours, are capable of sustaining life on planets in their system.

Given that our space exploration has been limited to parts of our solar system, to me it is plausible that there might be life on other planets that have the capability of space travel that we only see in our science fiction movies and cartoons.

In the “Toy Story” movies Buzz Lightyear’s famous catchphrase is “To infinity and beyond!”  The concept of infinity is hard for us to comprehend. Given our technology, most of what exists in infinity lies beyond our observable universe.

It is believed our universe is about 13.8 billion years old, give or take a few million. It seems impossible that our planet and its inhabitants are the only entity out there. 

There are many television shows that indicate the possibility that beings from other planets visited Earth centuries ago. Somewhere out there might be an advanced planet that has developed space travel far beyond our science. 

Now, I am not Einstein, but in 1936 Albert proposed the existence of tunnels or wormholes through the space-time fabric. These tunnels could join many distant points in the universe. These shortcuts could minimize distance and create a fast time travel.

Maybe someday a lifeform from the planet Krinx in the third quadrant of the Armstrong galaxy will reveal the secrets of making wormholes. It would allow our summer visitors to enter the wormhole on a Sunday and be back in New York City in seconds. Of course, that assumes the entrance to the wormhole is not situated in that confusing roundabout now under construction. With the inadequate road signs, I often cannot find the entrances to Route 17 let alone a wormhole. 

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.