Rockport, Texas - Chances are that if extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring earth’s radio and television broadcasts, they most likely think of us as being ignorant, disgusting and war-like beings.

If aliens are listening in, the songs we listen to on the radio, and the television shows we watch, do not speak well for us.

Rock n roll has long been cited for containing rebellious ideas and foul lyrics. Aliens, who may be monitoring our radio waves, and forming impressions of us from what they hear, may think we are a planet of sex-crazed juvenile delinquent morons.

Add rap music to the interstellar playlist, and the interpretation might become crack-smoking fifth-grade drop outs who can’t even speak our own language - a world of booty-people who respect money and violence over human life.

Consider if aliens are trying to understand our society by tapping into our television transmissions. A large number of shows they would see portray earthlings as all being special taskforce undercover agents, and earth life revolving around daily gun battles, where every character involved - good and bad - has instant access to unlimited arsenals of automatic weapons and ammunition.

Consider the alien’s confusion trying to balance those images with the remainder of earths television transmissions, which show us as a weak-minded species - obsessed with random sex with strangers, and people who are easily amused by crude references to bodily functions.

And it’s not just the interception of transmissions of modern-day entertainment which may give aliens cause for alarm.

I’m sure Sheb Wooley had no idea when he recorded One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater, that someday, somewhere on another planet, alien scientists may interpret the song as our total ignorance of extraterrestrial life forms.

Is it possible that after monitoring electronic signals from our planet, aliens are afraid to make contact with us?

If aliens are monitoring our radio and television transmissions, perhaps they want nothing to do with such offensive creatures.

Could our incurable love of violence - in words and images - cause aliens to someday attack us?

Could intercepted transmissions convince extraterrestrials we are no more than a planet of farting, sex-crazed war-mongering imbeciles - pathetic mistakes of nature who should be eliminated before we reach out to the stars and infect others?

Perhaps our last hope for survival may lie in the hands of aliens that are wise enough forgive us for our bad taste.

Dean Terry for Our Strange World