I was in New York City last weekend. After being cooped up inside Kent for such a long time, I got that culture shock feeling again and remembered that better things really do exist outside this town. And I saw all the usual stuff like the tall buildings, the bridges; I saw that big statue way out in the bay and saw a terrific collection of contemporary art.

I walked down to lower Manhattan close to where the World Trade Center used to be and, at first, figured that the guy over there yelling at the top of his lungs wanted me to pray with him or give me a bunch of papers about how Jesus Christ will save my life. On the contrary. Although this man and his companions scattered about were still preaching, this was something different. This was angry. They were really mad about something.

The folks strewn about Ground Zero were promoting the message of a government cover-up of the Sept. 11 attacks. They believe the people in the White House orchestrated the attacks instead of some terrorists from the Middle East. It was an “inside job” they say. But why would our government do this? What’s the point? They said it gave premise to enter a war swiftly and with reason. They said it was only designed for fat cats in Washington to make additional profit on top of their already enormous salaries.

Private investigations over the years have attempted to convince the public that all the facts of the towers’ collapse just do not add up. All sorts of theories have been brought up, including bombs placed in the lower floors, missiles penetrating the Pentagon and fake phone calls from airline passengers. Computer geeks surfing Wikipedia for a broad array of conspiracy theories have come to the conclusion that our government hates us and has the ability to fool the entire planet into being scared for their lives.

But what do I think? I think conspiracy theory is just another religion. I think some people actively pursue something non-mainstream and controversial to believe in just so they have the feeling they’re smarter than everyone else.

Special Agent Fox Mulder’s poster said, “I want to believe,” and this is exactly the mindset of many passionate theorists out there. Some want to believe in government corruption and wrong-doing so much that they’re willing to give up common sense and rationality in the process.

Ever hear of Roswell, N.M? You know… that place where extraterrestrials crash-landed and the Army scooped up their bodies? How many odd stories derived from that one?

It’s been 60 years since that happened, and we still have no answers and no proof of anything. Just books and books worth of tall tales and first hand accounts that never meant anything in the first place. The only evidence of something actually happening that day is the fact that people are still talking about it. And essentially, that’s all we have left of 9/11. No one really knows for sure what they saw, but people died, and that is one of the few facts that can hold up.

Whatever evidence did exist that might answer one of the six million questions we all wonder probably doesn’t exist anymore. And even if it did, who is to say that piece of evidence hasn’t been produced by an evil government to mislead us on our quest for truth? That’s why a second official investigation still wouldn’t make any theorist happy considering they already think they’re being lied to in the first place. Believing in a conspiracy is a catch-22 that no person can find themselves out of. The only thing to come out of them is more questions.

I guess everyone just wants to know if they’re being lied to. And I don’t know. I don’t really know if aliens are cruising around in space ships abducting people. I don’t know if Oswald had any help when he shot Kennedy. I don’t know if Elvis is still alive either.

A multitude of figures concerning those attacks and many other questionable events does seem a little fishy. It’s silly to think everything we’ve been told is the truth but even more silly to believe in nonsense based off sketchy research that someone else collected. In the age of unlimited information available instantly on a computer and the ability for anyone to create the said information, second guessing all of it becomes an important part of believing anything.

A full scale cover-up where the United States government meticulously plans out the deaths of 2,000 people, and flawlessly executes it, to me seems unlikely. Sorry, I don’t believe our country is competent enough to pull that one off.

Garrison Ebie is an electronic media production major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].