Starchild Update October 2002

STARCHILD UPDATE

OCTOBER 12, 2002

When the last Starchild update was posted in early July, I agreed to renew our funding campaign of three years ago to try to raise $30,000 needed for diagnostic DNA testing, and for filming of the process so its veracity would be difficult to doubt. Our hope was that by being presented as part of a new "special" on TV's The Learning Channel, we'd draw attention to our cause and get the kind of help the Starchild needs and deserves.

We did obtain a certain degree of help, but not nearly enough to think about getting the testing done…at least, no time soon. However, we did make some real and interesting headway in this long swim upstream against heavy currents, the details of which I'll share with you below. That headway has left us with several irons still in the fire (these, too, will be detailed below), so the funding campaign is being continued until the end of this year (December 31st). I'll take stock again at that point, as I'm doing right now, and let everyone know where things stand at that time. I think it's the best way to proceed.

The first thing to discuss is money. Since this funding campaign was opened we have collected right at $5,500. Three people gave $1,000 each, two people gave $500 each, and the rest is made up of smaller contributions ranging from $250 to $5. (Yes, a few insisted on sending something, to be able to say they were part of it if it turns out to be what we think it probably is. I can't fault them for that and appreciate their feelings.)

Of that $5,500 approximately $1500 remains. I spent roughly $4,000 in several efforts to bring the Starchild to a wider national audience. First, I was invited to be on a local TV show in San Francisco, but at the last minute they refused to let me go on. When they invited me, they didn't understand exactly what it was. When I got there, they did.

I also went to Atlanta to be on a major radio talk show, which went well and was sent out to a large audience (albeit radio). I also tried to meet with individuals at CNN's national HQ and Ted Turner's organization. At both places people were considering examining the skull, but in the end neither one did. I was extremely disappointed in both cases.

Finally, I did manage to get it on the air at a TV station in Jackson, Mississippi, of all places (a surprisingly open-minded CBS affiliate there), and the result is an excellent piece of streaming video that is now on the website. If anyone hasn't seen it yet, by all means check it out. About 20 minutes of explaining the skull and what is so special and unusual about it. If you can't "get" it from that video, I don't know what else will do it for you. Anyone who sees it should be at least intrigued, if not entirely convinced.

Regarding the video: If anyone reading this is a personal friend of any executive at any level of any media organization in the world (TV and large newspapers are best), please ask them to take a look at the streaming video. Somewhere in the world is a mainstream media executive who still has spine and courage. I found Rick Garner in Mississippi, so while people like him are obviously a rare and endangered species, they do exist. So if any of you know where one might be found, by all means contact them and ask them to take a look at the streaming video. Who knows? They might decide to act on it.

I'm being acerbic here for good reason. I've sent three separate rounds of notices about the Starchild skull to every one of the major news outlets in the United States. I've sent them to ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. I've sent them to CNN and FOX News. I've sent them to PBS. I've sent them to Larry King, Bill Moyers, Charlie Rose, Connie Chung. I've also sent those notices to every major metropolitan newspaper in the country.

The point to make is this: Although those are all "news" organizations that will spend inordinate amounts of time and money analyzing and discussing stains on dresses, for some strange reason they won't bother to investigate a bone skull that could very well prove to be from a being that is not entirely human. Of course, maybe in the end it will prove to be merely a unique human deformity. That will remain a possibility-though now a remote one-to the end of testing. But I've pointed out to them again and again that by any reasonable definition of the word news, the Starchild skull easily qualifies.

The only one of those major media to even nibble on the bait was the Los Angeles Times, of all places, because I know someone who works there and he did his best to get them to take it on as a major investigative piece. He doesn't know how or why it didn't make the cut, but the bottom line is that in the end they rejected doing a story on it. This was a big disappointment, needless to say, but at least they know about it. They know it's for real. But no other organization nibbled because I don't know anyone anywhere else. As I said above, if any of you do, please contact your friend and see if they'll get anything going.

Another serious iron in the fire is that an organization in Rome, Italy, is getting a major display in a major museum in Rome outlining the history of UFO's. They've requested the Starchild skull be displayed for at least a few weeks. I'm not willing to send the skull by itself (too easy to be "souvenired" despite insurance), but I am willing to go and stay with it to give interviews and answer questions about it. Media in Europe are much less under the sway of government pressure in regard to UFO's than in the States, so if we go to Rome with it we can expect serious coverage in a wide range of mainstream media.

The problem, as always, is money. There is no way the organizers of the Rome event can pay for an extended stay by me and the skull for their exhibition. Also, to be fair, I would spend part of that time traveling up to Leipzig, Germany, to see if I could talk to those in charge of the #1 lab in the world for extracting ancient DNA. Our hope all along has been that they would participate in this project because they provide so much credibility for the scientific community. If Svante Paabo does the testing, everyone would respect the result.

This trip alone would probably cost no less than $5,000, so I informed the organizers I don't see how it could be done during the remainder of this year. We haven't received a contribution in weeks, so at this point the wind is simply not blowing us to Rome. If the funding situation changes, I'll let them know and I'll post another update to that effect.

The last iron in the fire is that a small group in Australia have become determined to try to make something happen for the Starchild over there, and they've dangled it under the nose of one of the top cranio-facial surgeons in the world, who happens to hail from their home town. I won't mention names for fear of upsetting early and sensitive negotiations, but to get that world-renowned surgeon interested in the Starchild would, in its own way, be the equivalent of enticing Svante Paabo to agree to do its DNA extraction and testing.

It is also possible-but I can make no guarantee-that the Starchild will be mentioned or shown in some way during one of November's episodes of the new version of the old "In Search Of…." TV series. I was filmed for it twice, but there has been a lot of upheaval getting the show to air eight episodes, so I can only say that at one time it was supposed to be a part of an episode. Whether it made the final cut or not remains to be seen.

Okay, that's where things stand for now. It doesn't mean we're dead in the water, but we're not gaining much traction, either. We're doing what we always do, poking around trying to cut a hole in the fence of doubt and hostility that keeps us from getting the fair hearing we should have been granted over three years ago. I'm not one to easily jump on the "conspiracy" bandwagon, but I have to admit it's beginning to look like something along those lines might be in place against the Starchild.

How else to explain the total disregard by even 24-hour-a-day TV news services that are usually dying for subjects to cover just to fill airtime? Or major metropolitan newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun Times, the L.A. Times, etc., that consistently choke their readers with masses of trite and/or useless information? Is there no room in any of them for an objective analysis of the Starchild? Not so far….

Again, I hate to use the word "conspiracy," and I hope I'm wrong about this, but we've been at it for a long time now with no takers. Also, there is no way they can protest that nobody told them about it. I've sent too much information to too many people. That's why I need your help if you can give it. If you know any of them…maybe you went to high school or college with one of them…please try to use whatever influence you might have to get them to take a look and hopefully gather the nerve to try to override whatever "orders" might be in place against dealing with the Starchild openly and objectively.

Contribute if you can, and try to keep the faith. Sooner or later, we'll find the way.

Lloyd Pye
The Starchild Fund
6805 Veterans Blvd. # L-3
Metairie, LA 70003

Lloyd@lloydpye.com