“The people here are serious people. They’re sincere [about their interest in the subject],” said Alicia Quaini, one of the members of the Fort Lauderdale-Miami UFO Group.
The group gets together to watch videos dealing with UFOs and the conspiracies that surround them. The event is very low key, probably because most of the group’s members are elderly.
However, these aren’t old folk gathering on a Saturday just because they had nothing else to do (some of them did seem like it though). After the event was over, many people stayed and sat around two tables pushed together to discuss not only the video but the news they had seen. They also discussed what they believed to be solutions to some of the world’s issues. One woman even mentioned Nikola Tesla’s perpetual energy coil as a solution to the energy crisis.
Normally, if someone said things like that in any other venue, they would be labeled a nut job.
The group was started by LeRoy D. Lawhorn after he realized that there was some demand for a place where people can talk openly about their experiences and beliefs about UFOs. Lawhorn claims to have seen a UFO during his days as a commercial pilot.
“I saw that and thought, ‘This is the real thing,’” said Lawhorn.
The event isn’t the most exciting thing you can do on a Saturday afternoon. In fact, it is rather dull if you aren’t interested in the subject. There isn’t anything particularly special about it, but the fact that it is a group of people getting together to talk about a shared belief makes the experience something different.
If you’re looking for something akin to a science-fiction convention then don’t bother making the drive, but if you’re interested in meeting people (some of them kooks) with a belief in UFOs or if you are simply curious go ahead and stop by Gateway Terrace in Fort Lauderdale. Who knows, maybe you'll bump into Dennis Kucinich.
“We’re spreading the message, and the message is a message of love,” Quaini said. -- Elvis Ramirez
The meetings take place the first Saturday of every month at 1943 N.E. 6th Court. Bldg. T-105, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33304.
