Flag of Earth

September 14, 2001

In memory of those who perished and were injured on September 11, 2001, in a
brutal attack on Western Civilization; the greatest civilization in the history of Planet Earth.

From left to right: Flag of Earth, Union Jack, State of Ohio, Stars and Stripes.

If you were using a Java-enabled browser, you would see a continuously updating image instead of this paragraph.

Flag of Earth Web site

The Flag of Earth represents the Sun, Earth and the Moon and is flown by some SETI Observatories.  At one time it was flown at OSU's now demolished Big Ear Radio Observatory.  I originally planned to mount the "Flag of Earth" on the pole supporting the 10 ft. satellite dish that is mounted immediately behind and to the north of The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory's dome.  However, about six weeks ago I started remodeling the carport in the front of my home and landscaping the area.  I then decided to mount the "Flag of Earth" and several other flags on the carport itself.  Because 3 x 5 ft. "Flag of Earths" were unavailable but 2 x 3 ft. were, it was decided to make all flags the latter size.

The four flag poles were purchased and erected two weeks ago, and all the flags obtained by last Monday; the day before what will forever be the 21st Century's first "Day of Infamy".  I preface this with the word "first" because, unfortunately, it will probably not be the last or worse such trauma which we will experience in this new century.  For last Tuesday, barbarians came knocking at the gate.  Time will tell whether this generation and its leaders have it in them to become another "Great Generation" as were those of my parents'.  This tragic event had it roots in a earlier series of aircraft hijackings.  Thirty one years ago, the then British Government (Prime Minister Edward Heath) gave into terrorist blackmail, and western civilization has been on the slide ever since.

My intention was to put the flags up on the poles after I had planted a row of Dwarf Alberta Spruces in front of the carport.  However, the rising feeling of patriotism that swept this land by Wednesday, a feeling very much shared by yours truly, caused an advancement of my plans.  The flags were flown for the first time last Thursday evening.

For many years, it was conjectured that the factor "L" in the Drake Equation, which relates to the lifetime of a technical civilization, might be small.  This was justified on the basis that at the height of the Cold War, a global nuclear exchange between the superpowers might initiate a Nuclear Winter.  Perhaps the real reason we have so far been unable to contact ETIs is that "L" is indeed very short, but the cause is terrorism on the Alien worlds.  Make no mistake about this, some of us may have been haunted by the idea of nuclear terrorism for years, but in time, as new scientific discoveries are made and new technologies developed (Kardashev Civilizations Type 1+), what at one time would be incredibly expensive technology and only available to advanced "civilized" countries, will become commonplace and available to terrorists or rogue nations.  Evil people would then be in a position to unleash incredible energies that could eliminate all life on this planet or even the planet or the solar system itself.  This is a terrible, depressing thought but one that should concentrate the minds of right-thinking people everywhere to eliminate this scourge of mankind forever before it eliminates us from the cosmos and reduces "L" even further!  To paraphrase Spock and Kirk "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one".  By that I mean, that in times of a Planetary Emergency, all resources available to mankind must be brought to bare on this problem, and certain freedoms in our democratic societies may have to be curtailed or modified for a time. 

First Upload: September 16, 2001
Revised: September 20, 2001

Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley
Director, The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory
Bexley, Ohio, USA

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Last Update: 02/22/02