It seems that the media and general public are slowly beginning to realise the reality of UFOs. This was confirmed by the good level of reception given to the first Alien Acknowledgement Campaign (AAC) 'Day of Action' in London. This took place on Monday 23rd May 1994 and was timed to coincide with a similar demonstration taking place outside the Pentagon in Washington, organised by the American counterpart organisation, Operation Right To Know (ORTK).
The demonstration had been organised by AAC founder John Holman, in order to lobby the MOD and parliament to tell the truth about what in-formation they hold concerning UFOs. The 'official' AAC line was thus; "We call on the military in the United States and Britain to tell the truth about UFOs. And we call on the US Congress and the British Parliament to go after the truth."
IRCUP are affiliated members of AAC and we were pleased to participate and help publicise this event by gaining interviews on local radio and television as well as attending the demonstration in London. The day started at 7.30am with a live radio interview on BBC radio, Wiltshire Sound, given by myself. I then followed this with an interview on independent radio Ocean FM's main 8am news bulletin.
On arrival in London at 11.30am a small group of demonstrators were gathering outside the Ministry of Defence building, Whitehall. Organiser, John Holman was already being interviewed by a Press Association reporter, whilst other AAC members arranged their placards and leaflets ready for the peaceful demonstration. Luckily the weather was sunny and warm, encouraging members of the public to come and see what was going on. The AAC had previously prepared a punchy, six-point document entitled "Are You Aware", highlighting the major areas of UFO secrecy and providing hard evidence pointing to a non-terrestrial, intelligent origin for UFOs. In addition to a quantity to hand out to the public, 650 had been prepared beforehand, in order to hand-deliver to every UK member of Parliament.
The reception from the public, walking down Whitehall was very good with over 50% of passers-by, stopping to take a leaflet, some even stopping for a lengthy chat about UFO sightings and to find out what we hoped to achieve. As I had already stated earlier in one of my radio interviews, we were not there to tell people what to believe, the object was purely to raise public awareness and to make the Government release information so that people can sift through the evidence available and make their own minds up.
After a brief pub lunch, we assembled outside St.Stephens entrance of The Houses of Parliament where, again, we got a good reception from tourists and people walking past. Many specifically came up to us to take a leaflet. It wasn't long before more media attention was was gained, from ITN and The Independent newspaper. I was interviewed a second time, in more depth, by Ocean FM local radio, and also by Meridian Television
At 2.30pm we were allowed to enter the lobby chamber in order to deliver our 650 letters to the post master. We also had a lengthy chat with MP Gerry Hayes, who seemed genuinely interested in the UFO phenomena, but said he would need more evidence before he became a firm believer himself.
On the whole, I felt that the day had been worthwhile and constructive, with a fair amount of media coverage. John Holman later gave a lengthy interview on the Nicky Campbell show on national Radio 1, and Ocean FM again featured part of my interview in their main 6pm news. Part of my TV interview was also shown on the 6pm local news programme, Meridian Tonight.
Whether or not the Government or MOD took any notice of us, the general public were very eager to find out more and I would certainly participate in more such Action days.
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