Nov. 22nd 2007 Anniversary

[Terry Mauro]

The numbers of people who were alive when the Kennedy Assassination occurred are dwindling down. We must never forget this crime, nor the overthrow of govt.

Kathy Collins

I am one of those who was not alive during President Kennedy's administration. Please rest assured, however, that the events of that weekend WILL NOT FADE AWAY.

Ever.

People like me won't let that happen. I may not have the memories of President Kennedy but I do have a sense of justice, of what this country and world lost with his murder. So I will make sure my future students are well aware of the importance of not forgetting, of not letting it fade into the mists of history.

It won't happen on my watch. I promise.

Thanks for that Courtney. I believe as shocking as the events of 9/11 were, those of 11/22/63 were even more devastating to those of us who have those memories seared into our minds and 'souls'. They are, of course, different heads of the the same Hydra. It is heartening that those who were not here to remember it as it happened can understand the importance of the event - and the need to counter it. 9/11 was another blow...but the first BIG one happened in Dallas on that day 44 years ago. It was theft of a Nation by stealth, nothing less...slowly, by slight of hand and lies......if one looks at what is left of the America that existed on 11/21/63 one would have to say very little...but enough to fight for what we have lost back...if ONLY people would feel empowered to fight. It is OUR Nation - NOT 'theirs' [the secret Oligarchy] It is one person one vote, not one dollar one vote! Time is now short, I fear...one more event like these and those of open minds will be in detention camps. I know that sounds extreme....no one in Germany in the early 1930s would have believed it possible either....but it happened - and is happening in America. America, Awake - or face an endless night.......and fog.....

*************************************************************

I believe as shocking as the events of 9/11 were, those of 11/22/63 were even more devastating to those of us who have those memories seared into our minds and 'souls'.

I sometimes get the feeling that 9/11 was staged as the "shock and awe" experience it was, as a way of diminishing the memories of the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, if not completely obliterating them, from the American collective consciousness. But, that's just my humble opinion.

Read Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine - or see her speeches on it on youtube and google!...I believe you are correct....and the 'next' one is going to be the one when they open the 'camps'.....and start to round us up an not just abuse us at home.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...=shock+doctrine

While most of us want to be correct, I hope I'll be [but fear I will not be] wrong.

*************************************************************

"....and the 'next' one is going to be the one when they open the 'camps'.....and start to round us up an not just abuse us at ome."

That's exactly what my neighbor, Steve Gaal, has been telling me for the last 3 to 4 years. But, you know what? They're going to have a battle royale on their hands when they try and take me down. They'll have to drop a freaking bomb on this house, or grenade it because I'll give them nothing short of a Gunfight At The O.K. Corral, Culver City style, that is. They'll never take me alive, and that's a fact!

Are you listening out there?

[Terry Mauro]

Mark wrote:

To the rabid right wing, the assassination of JFK must have been a glorious moment. Here was a president who, in their collective opinion, was a collossal failure

The assassination was a glorious event to members of organized crime who were being vigorously prosecuted by JFK's brother.

With respect to celebration even by the "rabid" right wing, I am sure some occured and indeed has been documented. But it is unfair I think to brand even right-wing extremists as people who would celebrate the murder of a political opponent.

Look at it this way: many members consider the administartion of the current president as at best a "collossal failure". But I hope that in the unlikely event he should share the same fate as JFK few of you would celebrate it as a "glorious moment."

Back then, I was not an extremist but I was quite conservative. I cried that entire weekend and I know that was also true of many other supporters of Barry Goldwater. JFK was the president of all Americans even those who disagreed with his policies and his assassination was a crime directed not only at him but at our democratic system.

And Mark is wrong, the programs that have been aired about JFK have been anything but negative about him.

Mark is also wrong that the "right wing" owns the media. Left-wing bias in the main stream media is well-documented.

********************************************************************

"Back then, I was not an extremist but I was quite conservative. I cried that entire weekend and I know that was also true of many other supporters of Barry Goldwater. JFK was the president of all Americans even those who disagreed with his policies and his assassination was a crime directed not only at him but at our democratic system."

Thank you for sharing this with us, T.G.

Sometimes I feel there are members on this forum that read right past your logic in order to pick out the parts of your response that will allow them the sole purpose of finding another bone of contention, in their minds, with which to pick with you.

My father was a hard line Republican, but he was at a total loss, and just as forlorn as I was, while observing the events as they unfolded on that weekend in 1963.

Edited November 23, 2007 by Terry Mauro

[Terry Mauro]

To the rabid right wing, the assassination of JFK must have been a glorious moment. Here was a president who, in their collective opinion, was a collossal failure. He singlehandedly screwed up the Bay of Pigs, to hear them tell it. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, he gave away the store instead of sending in the B52's with the nukes, as any good, red-blooded [true American] right-winger would've done. His foreign policy was a series of missteps and stumbles, and at home he let the n*ggers think they were somebody! Instead of locking up that "black agitator" Martin Luther King, he let him hold a rally at the Lincoln Memorial!!! In short, JFK was, to the right wingers, the most UN-American leader ever...on a level with Benedict Arnold, to some. So what happened to him should've come as no surprise...the only surprise being it didn't happen sooner.

These are things I've heard said in recent years about JFK.

[Now, if JFK had singlehandedly caused the collapse of Communism--as some still credit one successor with doing--maybe the right might've cozied up to him a bit more.]

And despite all the cry from the right about a left-wing US media bias, today in America the right wing owns the media. So expect that whenever anything is aired about JFK, it will be ONLY something negative.

But JFK called this nation to become more than what we were in 1960...to join together in working to achieve our potential. There were new challenges on the horizon and New Frontiers; there was the Peace Corps...the war in Vietnam was essentially "theirs to win or lose" in 1963. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Liberal stuff there, indeed.

After November 22, 1963, the world was still the same...but the joy and positive anticipation with which we'd previously faced the challenges of the day were gone. Instead of the vibrant Jack Kennedy, we were led by the dour LBJ...followed by the brooding Nixon. And we are still being led by their political heirs, folks whose vision of America more closely follows Adolph Hitler's vision of Germany than Jack Kennedy's vision of America. Government OF the people, but certainly not FOR or BY the people.

**************************************************************

"And despite all the cry from the right about a left-wing US media bias, today in America the right wing owns the media. So expect that whenever anything is aired about JFK, it will be ONLY something negative."

And, that has been nothing more than a distraction created by the true entities who've really been running the Mockingbird sideshow.

The right-wing has always owned the media. Especially from the year, 1947 when Operation Mockingbird was first put into place. After the Anglo-American O.S.S. realized what a cash cow the new technology of television offered them, and the rest of the elitist faction, aka, fascist faction, for manipulating masses of humanity for the supreme opportunistic venture of control and corporate economic gain. I don't care what political persuasion they profess to hide behind, while conducting their "dirty deals, and/or tricks" campaigns. The Rockefellers, Harrimans, Luces, et.al. are nothing more than elitist fascists, using their political clout, and charitable organization contributions for corporate tax write-offs.

It was, and always has been, 1 party - 2 branches, especially after World War II, the last "honest" war. "Them that's got, is them that gots supposed to get." And, the rest of us are nothing more than plebes from which to extract money to pay for trumped up "eminent domain-style" Manifest Destiny wars on foreign soil no less, just so some corporate military contractors can become billionaires. That's the furthest thing from what the true form or idea of "democracy" is supposed to represent. More like a "bastardized" version, IMHO. But, then again, I certainly was fooled for years.

Look at how that's been driven home to us since 1963, regardless of how many changes LBJ tried to implement by signing the Civil Rights Bill and his war on poverty. It's been crashing and burning ever since. The only reason they continue to endorse the 2 party system is merely as a way of fooling the general "dumbed-down" public into believing that they actually have a "choice." Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone can be bought and sold, for a premium these days. Those who buck the system are either physically, or "characteristically" assassinated.

"Money talks bulls--t walks." That's London's, and Wall Street's motto.

[Duke Lane]

Is it me, or is everyone else seeing what im seeing? Every year it seems there is less and less coverage of the anniversary of our Presidents death. ....

I think it's worthwhile to note that, if in 2007 the interest of the media in JFK's assassination seems subdued, that in 2007, the interest of the public - at least that attending the memorial ser-cus - seemed likewise subdued. I was one of only maybe 100 people there. Were it not for the presence of a high school hockey team, I might put the number at half or three-quarters that. I think I saw one actual TV camera, tho' a couple of mobile units did drive by, perhaps seeing if there was anything to shoot.

And they missed it! Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having a 10-foot "Big Tex" - a guy in a costume similar to the Texas State Fair's mascot - standing around the pergola near "Zapruder's perch" during the entire ser-cus. While nobody admitted to being the perpetrator or knowing who it was that came up with this stunt, I can only say that the good folks from COPA made no effort to distance themselves from the huge dummy, but rather stood with their banners facing Elm Street and railed against a local journalist who called this memorial "service" a "circus" (see below) and about the important work they were doing ... all with Big Tex waving in the background!

Couldn't they at least have gone over to the other side of the pergola? Or was this their way of proviing it was a circus, by "mocking" the columnist's mockery? D'oh! Yessir, these folks should be taken seriously! (This does not necessarily reflect my opinion of COPA, but seriously: what were they thinking!?!)

Of course, Thanksgiving intervened and probably kept many people away who might otherwise have been there, but once again: if there's little coverage, it's very possibly because there seems to be little interest. At least this year. At least by anyone "serious."

Just ask Big Tex.

From The Dallas Morning News

In the absence of official JFK observance, we get a circus

By Jacquielynn Floyd

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

People may drift down to Dealey Plaza on Thursday, but there won't be any official ceremony or city-sanctioned observance to mark the 44th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

It's not a tradition that ever took hold here, and the absence is understandable. Dallas, which endured its own unique grief in the years immediately following 1963, may well have been too traumatized to mark the anniversary.

By some accounts, the city – and, later, The Sixth Floor Museum – have deferred to the Kennedy family's longstanding wishes that the date not be observed.

And after all these years, public grief has largely given way to a general relegation of this terrible event to memory. There are many Americans who remember that day in bleak detail – but there are probably more now who don't.

In fact, I can think of only one reason why the city might, at this late date, consider organizing an officially sanctioned event to recognize the worst day in its history.

Just this: Too often, on Nov. 22, people have gone to Dealey Plaza in a genuine and respectful spirit of remembrance – and have found an embarrassing, exhibitionistic carnival.

In the absence of any structure, the date has become a high holy day for conspiracy cranks, a swap meet for oddballs to peddle their strange obsessions. The grassy knoll isn't just a magnet for people who want to bend your ear ad nauseam about the Warren Commission report; now it attracts people waving banners extolling such offensive sentiments as "9/11 = INSIDE JOB."

This is not a suggestion that anybody's First Amendment rights be curbed. People get to air their crazy ideas if they want to, even if it's tedious and obnoxious and nobody wants to listen.

But it's a cruel shame that people who feel a genuine desire to visit the site to pray or meditate and remember the slain president have to put up with a chaotic, disorganized circus on this, of all days.

Four years ago, for instance, my colleague David Flick visited Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22.

"In the absence of any structured events," he wrote, "proceedings ... were dominated by conspiracy theorists."

He described a confused scene of at least 5,000 people, some of them apparently expecting a formal program. Instead, there were noisy crackpots and publicity seekers. The headliner among them was former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who bellowed that he was the "only elected official who had the courage to come here today."

A marching drum band showed up unannounced. Conspiracy theorists set up microphones. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Festive pranksters popped open umbrellas on a prearranged signal in a "flash mob" event.

If the date and place had attracted only genuine mourners and historians, it might have been a moving, spontaneous observance. The cranks and partiers made it silly and disrespectful.

That was the assassination's 40th anniversary; round numbers have powerful appeal. If the scene was this tawdry for 40, what do you suppose 50 will look like?

Here's a promise: A lot of people are going to show up, whether there's an official observance or not: camera crews, trinket vendors, mourners, tourists, conspiracy theorists, attention seekers and possibly street jugglers and reality-show contestants.

In the absence of any other consistent tradition, this is the one that seems to be taking hold. The way things have been shaping up in recent years, 2013 will be a major blowout for the wackos.

Neither Dallas nor The Sixth Floor Museum is obligated to plan an "official" assassination observance, for 2013 or for any other year. Maybe it's better to let Americans observe the sad occasion as they see fit.

But they might want to think it over. If there's going to be a public gathering, it ought to have some focus and purpose beyond grabbing some free publicity. It ought to have dignity.

[William Kelly]

Is it me, or is everyone else seeing what im seeing? Every year it seems there is less and less coverage of the anniversary of our Presidents death. ....

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

On the 35th anniversary, they said nothing was happening, when COPA did have a dozen speakers and a microphone and the press still said nothing happened. I taped and transcribed what they said and posted it in a thread - the Event that Didn't Happen. I'll revive it and you can decide for yourself whether it was a circus.

And the reporter of this story is absolutly wrong about the Sixth Floor observing the Kennedy's family not to memorialize the date of JFK's death - they go to his grarve every Nov. 22nd, and Ted Kennedy personally requested that the Sixth Floor NOT have an assassin's window perch web cam and the Sixth Floor told the Kennedy family they don't give a xxxx about their feelings.

The cranks and partiers don't make it disrespectfull - it was the murder of JFK that was disrespectful, and Dallas should have thought of that before it was allowed for JFK to be murdered in their fine city.

And it is the failure of the Dallas PD to protect the crime scenes, protect the suspect, and the failure of the Dallas "jouranlists" to accurately and respectfully report on these events that is disrespectful. The sins of the city will never be cleansed, only ignored or mocked.

And if Dallas is getting ready for a 2013 circus, they better look out for next year, when things are sure to get crazzier.

The Kenney family would like us to remember JFK for his life, not his death, that's why COPA also meets every June 10th at the JFK memorial site at American University where he gave his "Peace" Speech. No reporters show up there either, and we hold as respectful memorial service like the one at Dealey Plaza.

On the 40th anniversary, shortly after John Judge gave his little speech and the moment of silence, someone played taps and the flag across the street was lowered. There were thousands of people, still and quiet. A uniformed marine stopped in front of me when taps began playing, and snapped to salute until the flag was lowered. I snapped a picture of this scene, which is the one I prefer to remember as moving and respectful.

The disrespect began with the murders and is perpetuated by the museum, the reporters who paint the world a picture of the circus, and those who ignore or mock those who meet there every Nov. 22nd at 12:30, and hold their moment of silence.

Long after John Judge is dead and gone, someone will go there and continue that tradition.

God bless Penn Jones for those early lonely years when he stood there alone.

Bill Kelly

I think it's worthwhile to note that, if in 2007 the interest of the media in JFK's assassination seems subdued, that in 2007, the interest of the public - at least that attending the memorial ser-cus - seemed likewise subdued. I was one of only maybe 100 people there. Were it not for the presence of a high school hockey team, I might put the number at half or three-quarters that. I think I saw one actual TV camera, tho' a couple of mobile units did drive by, perhaps seeing if there was anything to shoot.

And they missed it! Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having a 10-foot "Big Tex" - a guy in a costume similar to the Texas State Fair's mascot - standing around the pergola near "Zapruder's perch" during the entire ser-cus. While nobody admitted to being the perpetrator or knowing who it was that came up with this stunt, I can only say that the good folks from COPA made no effort to distance themselves from the huge dummy, but rather stood with their banners facing Elm Street and railed against a local journalist who called this memorial "service" a "circus" (see below) and about the important work they were doing ... all with Big Tex waving in the background!

Couldn't they at least have gone over to the other side of the pergola? Or was this their way of proviing it was a circus, by "mocking" the columnist's mockery? D'oh! Yessir, these folks should be taken seriously! (This does not necessarily reflect my opinion of COPA, but seriously: what were they thinking!?!)

Of course, Thanksgiving intervened and probably kept many people away who might otherwise have been there, but once again: if there's little coverage, it's very possibly because there seems to be little interest. At least this year. At least by anyone "serious."

Just ask Big Tex.

From The Dallas Morning News

In the absence of official JFK observance, we get a circus

By Jacquielynn Floyd

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

People may drift down to Dealey Plaza on Thursday, but there won't be any official ceremony or city-sanctioned observance to mark the 44th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

It's not a tradition that ever took hold here, and the absence is understandable. Dallas, which endured its own unique grief in the years immediately following 1963, may well have been too traumatized to mark the anniversary.

By some accounts, the city – and, later, The Sixth Floor Museum – have deferred to the Kennedy family's longstanding wishes that the date not be observed.

And after all these years, public grief has largely given way to a general relegation of this terrible event to memory. There are many Americans who remember that day in bleak detail – but there are probably more now who don't.

In fact, I can think of only one reason why the city might, at this late date, consider organizing an officially sanctioned event to recognize the worst day in its history.

Just this: Too often, on Nov. 22, people have gone to Dealey Plaza in a genuine and respectful spirit of remembrance – and have found an embarrassing, exhibitionistic carnival.

In the absence of any structure, the date has become a high holy day for conspiracy cranks, a swap meet for oddballs to peddle their strange obsessions. The grassy knoll isn't just a magnet for people who want to bend your ear ad nauseam about the Warren Commission report; now it attracts people waving banners extolling such offensive sentiments as "9/11 = INSIDE JOB."

This is not a suggestion that anybody's First Amendment rights be curbed. People get to air their crazy ideas if they want to, even if it's tedious and obnoxious and nobody wants to listen.

But it's a cruel shame that people who feel a genuine desire to visit the site to pray or meditate and remember the slain president have to put up with a chaotic, disorganized circus on this, of all days.

Four years ago, for instance, my colleague David Flick visited Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22.

"In the absence of any structured events," he wrote, "proceedings ... were dominated by conspiracy theorists."

He described a confused scene of at least 5,000 people, some of them apparently expecting a formal program. Instead, there were noisy crackpots and publicity seekers. The headliner among them was former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who bellowed that he was the "only elected official who had the courage to come here today."

A marching drum band showed up unannounced. Conspiracy theorists set up microphones. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Festive pranksters popped open umbrellas on a prearranged signal in a "flash mob" event.

If the date and place had attracted only genuine mourners and historians, it might have been a moving, spontaneous observance. The cranks and partiers made it silly and disrespectful.

That was the assassination's 40th anniversary; round numbers have powerful appeal. If the scene was this tawdry for 40, what do you suppose 50 will look like?

Here's a promise: A lot of people are going to show up, whether there's an official observance or not: camera crews, trinket vendors, mourners, tourists, conspiracy theorists, attention seekers and possibly street jugglers and reality-show contestants.

In the absence of any other consistent tradition, this is the one that seems to be taking hold. The way things have been shaping up in recent years, 2013 will be a major blowout for the wackos.

Neither Dallas nor The Sixth Floor Museum is obligated to plan an "official" assassination observance, for 2013 or for any other year. Maybe it's better to let Americans observe the sad occasion as they see fit.

But they might want to think it over. If there's going to be a public gathering, it ought to have some focus and purpose beyond grabbing some free publicity. It ought to have dignity.

[William Kelly]

Is it me, or is everyone else seeing what im seeing? Every year it seems there is less and less coverage of the anniversary of our Presidents death. ....

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

On the 35th anniversary, they said nothing was happening, when COPA did have a dozen speakers and a microphone and the press still said nothing happened. I taped and transcribed what they said and posted it in a thread - the Event that Didn't Happen. I'll revive it and you can decide for yourself whether it was a circus.

And the reporter of this story is absolutly wrong about the Sixth Floor observing the Kennedy's family not to memorialize the date of JFK's death - they go to his grarve every Nov. 22nd, and Ted Kennedy personally requested that the Sixth Floor NOT have an assassin's window perch web cam and the Sixth Floor told the Kennedy family they don't give a xxxx about their feelings.

The cranks and partiers don't make it disrespectfull - it was the murder of JFK that was disrespectful, and Dallas should have thought of that before it was allowed for JFK to be murdered in their fine city.

And it is the failure of the Dallas PD to protect the crime scenes, protect the suspect, and the failure of the Dallas "jouranlists" to accurately and respectfully report on these events that is disrespectful. The sins of the city will never be cleansed, only ignored or mocked.

And if Dallas is getting ready for a 2013 circus, they better look out for next year, when things are sure to get crazzier.

The Kenney family would like us to remember JFK for his life, not his death, that's why COPA also meets every June 10th at the JFK memorial site at American University where he gave his "Peace" Speech. No reporters show up there either, and we hold as respectful memorial service like the one at Dealey Plaza.

On the 40th anniversary, shortly after John Judge gave his little speech and the moment of silence, someone played taps and the flag across the street was lowered. There were thousands of people, still and quiet. A uniformed marine stopped in front of me when taps began playing, and snapped to salute until the flag was lowered. I snapped a picture of this scene, which is the one I prefer to remember as moving and respectful.

The disrespect began with the murders and is perpetuated by the museum, the reporters who paint the world a picture of the circus, and those who ignore or mock those who meet there every Nov. 22nd at 12:30, and hold their moment of silence.

Long after John Judge is dead and gone, someone will go there and continue that tradition.

God bless Penn Jones for those early lonely years when he stood there alone.

Bill Kelly

I think it's worthwhile to note that, if in 2007 the interest of the media in JFK's assassination seems subdued, that in 2007, the interest of the public - at least that attending the memorial ser-cus - seemed likewise subdued. I was one of only maybe 100 people there. Were it not for the presence of a high school hockey team, I might put the number at half or three-quarters that. I think I saw one actual TV camera, tho' a couple of mobile units did drive by, perhaps seeing if there was anything to shoot.

And they missed it! Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having a 10-foot "Big Tex" - a guy in a costume similar to the Texas State Fair's mascot - standing around the pergola near "Zapruder's perch" during the entire ser-cus. While nobody admitted to being the perpetrator or knowing who it was that came up with this stunt, I can only say that the good folks from COPA made no effort to distance themselves from the huge dummy, but rather stood with their banners facing Elm Street and railed against a local journalist who called this memorial "service" a "circus" (see below) and about the important work they were doing ... all with Big Tex waving in the background!

Couldn't they at least have gone over to the other side of the pergola? Or was this their way of proviing it was a circus, by "mocking" the columnist's mockery? D'oh! Yessir, these folks should be taken seriously! (This does not necessarily reflect my opinion of COPA, but seriously: what were they thinking!?!)

Of course, Thanksgiving intervened and probably kept many people away who might otherwise have been there, but once again: if there's little coverage, it's very possibly because there seems to be little interest. At least this year. At least by anyone "serious."

Just ask Big Tex.

From The Dallas Morning News

In the absence of official JFK observance, we get a circus

By Jacquielynn Floyd

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

People may drift down to Dealey Plaza on Thursday, but there won't be any official ceremony or city-sanctioned observance to mark the 44th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

It's not a tradition that ever took hold here, and the absence is understandable. Dallas, which endured its own unique grief in the years immediately following 1963, may well have been too traumatized to mark the anniversary.

By some accounts, the city – and, later, The Sixth Floor Museum – have deferred to the Kennedy family's longstanding wishes that the date not be observed.

And after all these years, public grief has largely given way to a general relegation of this terrible event to memory. There are many Americans who remember that day in bleak detail – but there are probably more now who don't.

In fact, I can think of only one reason why the city might, at this late date, consider organizing an officially sanctioned event to recognize the worst day in its history.

Just this: Too often, on Nov. 22, people have gone to Dealey Plaza in a genuine and respectful spirit of remembrance – and have found an embarrassing, exhibitionistic carnival.

In the absence of any structure, the date has become a high holy day for conspiracy cranks, a swap meet for oddballs to peddle their strange obsessions. The grassy knoll isn't just a magnet for people who want to bend your ear ad nauseam about the Warren Commission report; now it attracts people waving banners extolling such offensive sentiments as "9/11 = INSIDE JOB."

This is not a suggestion that anybody's First Amendment rights be curbed. People get to air their crazy ideas if they want to, even if it's tedious and obnoxious and nobody wants to listen.

But it's a cruel shame that people who feel a genuine desire to visit the site to pray or meditate and remember the slain president have to put up with a chaotic, disorganized circus on this, of all days.

Four years ago, for instance, my colleague David Flick visited Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22.

"In the absence of any structured events," he wrote, "proceedings ... were dominated by conspiracy theorists."

He described a confused scene of at least 5,000 people, some of them apparently expecting a formal program. Instead, there were noisy crackpots and publicity seekers. The headliner among them was former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who bellowed that he was the "only elected official who had the courage to come here today."

A marching drum band showed up unannounced. Conspiracy theorists set up microphones. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Festive pranksters popped open umbrellas on a prearranged signal in a "flash mob" event.

If the date and place had attracted only genuine mourners and historians, it might have been a moving, spontaneous observance. The cranks and partiers made it silly and disrespectful.

That was the assassination's 40th anniversary; round numbers have powerful appeal. If the scene was this tawdry for 40, what do you suppose 50 will look like?

Here's a promise: A lot of people are going to show up, whether there's an official observance or not: camera crews, trinket vendors, mourners, tourists, conspiracy theorists, attention seekers and possibly street jugglers and reality-show contestants.

In the absence of any other consistent tradition, this is the one that seems to be taking hold. The way things have been shaping up in recent years, 2013 will be a major blowout for the wackos.

Neither Dallas nor The Sixth Floor Museum is obligated to plan an "official" assassination observance, for 2013 or for any other year. Maybe it's better to let Americans observe the sad occasion as they see fit.

But they might want to think it over. If there's going to be a public gathering, it ought to have some focus and purpose beyond grabbing some free publicity. It ought to have dignity.

[Duke Lane]

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

Bill,

I've been going to DP every November 22 since I've had the wherewithal to be there. I don't go to participate in a circus, but it is certainly easy to understand how "outsiders" get the impression of it as that. Having Big Tex stand behind COPA during what should have been a solemn ceremony - or perhaps more accurately, either not moving him away from them, or them away from him - gave this year's ceremony very much of a "circus"-like appearance.

C'mon: a cartoon figure waving to the crowd and making inane comments in front of any and all who'd listen or were within earshot?!? Standing directly behind the COPA crowd during the ceremony, by all appearances a part of them and it?!?

Unless someone in the media hired Tex, then your statement above is simply not so. It was stupid and tasteless if it was anyone else, especially anyone trying to prove that the event is not a circus! "We resent Jackie Floyd saying that, and here to prove it today is Big Tex!" (Nobody said that, but they might as well have.)

Apparently, some people think their cause is so right and righteous that nothing - not even Big Tex or the Muppets - can distract from it, and people will understand. Appearances mean nothing, right? Perception is not reality?

Anyone who believes that is indeed delusional. Not to mention a fool.

John Judge's inclusion of remarks about Jackie Floyd and what she said had nothing whatsoever to do with JFK's death, and smacked of the "free publicity" and self-aggrandizement she spoke out against. Has he never heard the adage about not dignifying something with reply?

Stick to the freaking program, which has nothing to do with John Judge, COPA, Jackie Floyd or even MLK and RFK or our big bad government and its multiple and myriad lies and nefarious schemes.

Maybe if someone would actually do that - make it an actual memorial service dedicated to JFK - then maybe nobody would think it was a "circus."

Oh. And leave Big Tex at home, or at least stay away from him when you're talking. D'oh!! (Penn Jones might have even spun in his grave if he saw that! If I thought it was bad, you can rest assured others saw it in an even worse light. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish?)

[Accogli Claudio]

http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/pop/sch...480.aspx?id=415

Special on italian tv and sat on monday 26. Title is: Jfk, a case still open (literal translation: unresolved)

[Terry Mauro]

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

Bill,

I've been going to DP every November 22 since I've had the wherewithal to be there. I don't go to participate in a circus, but it is certainly easy to understand how "outsiders" get the impression of it as that. Having Big Tex stand behind COPA during what should have been a solemn ceremony - or perhaps more accurately, either not moving him away from them, or them away from him - gave this year's ceremony very much of a "circus"-like appearance.

C'mon: a cartoon figure waving to the crowd and making inane comments in front of any and all who'd listen or were within earshot?!? Standing directly behind the COPA crowd during the ceremony, by all appearances a part of them and it?!?

Unless someone in the media hired Tex, then your statement above is simply not so. It was stupid and tasteless if it was anyone else, especially anyone trying to prove that the event is not a circus! "We resent Jackie Floyd saying that, and here to prove it today is Big Tex!" (Nobody said that, but they might as well have.)

Apparently, some people think their cause is so right and righteous that nothing - not even Big Tex or the Muppets - can distract from it, and people will understand. Appearances mean nothing, right? Perception is not reality?

Anyone who believes that is indeed delusional. Not to mention a fool.

John Judge's inclusion of remarks about Jackie Floyd and what she said had nothing whatsoever to do with JFK's death, and smacked of the "free publicity" and self-aggrandizement she spoke out against. Has he never heard the adage about not dignifying something with reply?

Stick to the freaking program, which has nothing to do with John Judge, COPA, Jackie Floyd or even MLK and RFK or our big bad government and its multiple and myriad lies and nefarious schemes.

Maybe if someone would actually do that - make it an actual memorial service dedicated to JFK - then maybe nobody would think it was a "circus."

Oh. And leave Big Tex at home, or at least stay away from him when you're talking. D'oh!! (Penn Jones might have even spun in his grave if he saw that! If I thought it was bad, you can rest assured others saw it in an even worse light. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish?)

********************************************************

"Maybe if someone would actually do that - make it an actual memorial service dedicated to JFK - then maybe nobody would think it was a "circus.""

If Dallas and Dealey Plaza insist on a repeat performance of mockery next year then all of us, going to Dallas for the 45th, should boycott their restaurants and hotels. Find some other place to stay. Maybe even drive there from Garland in an RV and set up camp near the site. I wouldn't spend a goddamned dime in the city of Dallas when you could just as easily stay in one of the outlying suburbs and drive in for a yes, dignified memorial service, if you could find a pastor or a priest to officiate it, and maybe give it tone of authenticity.

And, if Dallas and their news media continue with their childish, churlish exhibition on the grassy knoll, then we should take up the whole center piece of the plaza and carry on with it there. In fact, I believe it should be relegated to that central piece of greenery in the plaza because it appears to offer more foot and standing room than that little hill near the pedestal, anyway. Just an idea for a solution to the tacky disregard Dallas seems to hold for this horrendous

crime they allowed to be committed in broad daylight on the streets of their own city.

[David G. Healy]

Is it me, or is everyone else seeing what im seeing? Every year it seems there is less and less coverage of the anniversary of our Presidents death. ....

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

On the 35th anniversary, they said nothing was happening, when COPA did have a dozen speakers and a microphone and the press still said nothing happened. I taped and transcribed what they said and posted it in a thread - the Event that Didn't Happen. I'll revive it and you can decide for yourself whether it was a circus.

And the reporter of this story is absolutly wrong about the Sixth Floor observing the Kennedy's family not to memorialize the date of JFK's death - they go to his grarve every Nov. 22nd, and Ted Kennedy personally requested that the Sixth Floor NOT have an assassin's window perch web cam and the Sixth Floor told the Kennedy family they don't give a xxxx about their feelings.

The cranks and partiers don't make it disrespectfull - it was the murder of JFK that was disrespectful, and Dallas should have thought of that before it was allowed for JFK to be murdered in their fine city.

And it is the failure of the Dallas PD to protect the crime scenes, protect the suspect, and the failure of the Dallas "jouranlists" to accurately and respectfully report on these events that is disrespectful. The sins of the city will never be cleansed, only ignored or mocked.

And if Dallas is getting ready for a 2013 circus, they better look out for next year, when things are sure to get crazzier.

The Kenney family would like us to remember JFK for his life, not his death, that's why COPA also meets every June 10th at the JFK memorial site at American University where he gave his "Peace" Speech. No reporters show up there either, and we hold as respectful memorial service like the one at Dealey Plaza.

On the 40th anniversary, shortly after John Judge gave his little speech and the moment of silence, someone played taps and the flag across the street was lowered. There were thousands of people, still and quiet. A uniformed marine stopped in front of me when taps began playing, and snapped to salute until the flag was lowered. I snapped a picture of this scene, which is the one I prefer to remember as moving and respectful.

The disrespect began with the murders and is perpetuated by the museum, the reporters who paint the world a picture of the circus, and those who ignore or mock those who meet there every Nov. 22nd at 12:30, and hold their moment of silence.

Long after John Judge is dead and gone, someone will go there and continue that tradition.

God bless Penn Jones for those early lonely years when he stood there alone.

Bill Kelly

I think it's worthwhile to note that, if in 2007 the interest of the media in JFK's assassination seems subdued, that in 2007, the interest of the public - at least that attending the memorial ser-cus - seemed likewise subdued. I was one of only maybe 100 people there. Were it not for the presence of a high school hockey team, I might put the number at half or three-quarters that. I think I saw one actual TV camera, tho' a couple of mobile units did drive by, perhaps seeing if there was anything to shoot.

And they missed it! Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having a 10-foot "Big Tex" - a guy in a costume similar to the Texas State Fair's mascot - standing around the pergola near "Zapruder's perch" during the entire ser-cus. While nobody admitted to being the perpetrator or knowing who it was that came up with this stunt, I can only say that the good folks from COPA made no effort to distance themselves from the huge dummy, but rather stood with their banners facing Elm Street and railed against a local journalist who called this memorial "service" a "circus" (see below) and about the important work they were doing ... all with Big Tex waving in the background!

Couldn't they at least have gone over to the other side of the pergola? Or was this their way of proviing it was a circus, by "mocking" the columnist's mockery? D'oh! Yessir, these folks should be taken seriously! (This does not necessarily reflect my opinion of COPA, but seriously: what were they thinking!?!)

Of course, Thanksgiving intervened and probably kept many people away who might otherwise have been there, but once again: if there's little coverage, it's very possibly because there seems to be little interest. At least this year. At least by anyone "serious."

Just ask Big Tex.

From The Dallas Morning News

In the absence of official JFK observance, we get a circus

By Jacquielynn Floyd

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

People may drift down to Dealey Plaza on Thursday, but there won't be any official ceremony or city-sanctioned observance to mark the 44th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

It's not a tradition that ever took hold here, and the absence is understandable. Dallas, which endured its own unique grief in the years immediately following 1963, may well have been too traumatized to mark the anniversary.

By some accounts, the city – and, later, The Sixth Floor Museum – have deferred to the Kennedy family's longstanding wishes that the date not be observed.

And after all these years, public grief has largely given way to a general relegation of this terrible event to memory. There are many Americans who remember that day in bleak detail – but there are probably more now who don't.

In fact, I can think of only one reason why the city might, at this late date, consider organizing an officially sanctioned event to recognize the worst day in its history.

Just this: Too often, on Nov. 22, people have gone to Dealey Plaza in a genuine and respectful spirit of remembrance – and have found an embarrassing, exhibitionistic carnival.

In the absence of any structure, the date has become a high holy day for conspiracy cranks, a swap meet for oddballs to peddle their strange obsessions. The grassy knoll isn't just a magnet for people who want to bend your ear ad nauseam about the Warren Commission report; now it attracts people waving banners extolling such offensive sentiments as "9/11 = INSIDE JOB."

This is not a suggestion that anybody's First Amendment rights be curbed. People get to air their crazy ideas if they want to, even if it's tedious and obnoxious and nobody wants to listen.

But it's a cruel shame that people who feel a genuine desire to visit the site to pray or meditate and remember the slain president have to put up with a chaotic, disorganized circus on this, of all days.

Four years ago, for instance, my colleague David Flick visited Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22.

"In the absence of any structured events," he wrote, "proceedings ... were dominated by conspiracy theorists."

He described a confused scene of at least 5,000 people, some of them apparently expecting a formal program. Instead, there were noisy crackpots and publicity seekers. The headliner among them was former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who bellowed that he was the "only elected official who had the courage to come here today."

A marching drum band showed up unannounced. Conspiracy theorists set up microphones. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Festive pranksters popped open umbrellas on a prearranged signal in a "flash mob" event.

If the date and place had attracted only genuine mourners and historians, it might have been a moving, spontaneous observance. The cranks and partiers made it silly and disrespectful.

That was the assassination's 40th anniversary; round numbers have powerful appeal. If the scene was this tawdry for 40, what do you suppose 50 will look like?

Here's a promise: A lot of people are going to show up, whether there's an official observance or not: camera crews, trinket vendors, mourners, tourists, conspiracy theorists, attention seekers and possibly street jugglers and reality-show contestants.

In the absence of any other consistent tradition, this is the one that seems to be taking hold. The way things have been shaping up in recent years, 2013 will be a major blowout for the wackos.

Neither Dallas nor The Sixth Floor Museum is obligated to plan an "official" assassination observance, for 2013 or for any other year. Maybe it's better to let Americans observe the sad occasion as they see fit.

But they might want to think it over. If there's going to be a public gathering, it ought to have some focus and purpose beyond grabbing some free publicity. It ought to have dignity.

enjoy.... The City of Dallas wanted to end their embarrassment regarding the assassination. Buying into the TSBD/JFK museum concept, isn't working out as well as they'd hoped.... it will probably get worse before it gets better (if ever)....

[William Kelly]

Duke,

John Judge has been going to Dealey Plaza every November 22nd siince the mid-sixties. One year, on a cold, rainy day, only Penn Jones, Judge and a half-dozen other people showed up.

Judge doesn't use a microphone, talks briefly from 12:20-12:30 and then holds a moment of silence.

There's only a circus if the media make it so. And it was the reporters who wants to portray whatever it is they want to portray.

Bill,

I've been going to DP every November 22 since I've had the wherewithal to be there. I don't go to participate in a circus, but it is certainly easy to understand how "outsiders" get the impression of it as that.

BK: Duke, it isn't "outsiders" who get the impression its a circus, it's the local reporters who are portraying it as such - that's their impression, not outsiders.

Duke: Having Big Tex stand behind COPA during what should have been a solemn ceremony - or perhaps more accurately, either not moving him away from them, or them away from him - gave this year's ceremony very much of a "circus"-like appearance.

BK: Absolutly - and whoever Big Tex belongs to - and I can assure you it isn't COPA, but whoever owns it and arranged for Big Tex's presence there should be identified - you're right there on the scene - and a bonified JFK assassination researcher - it should be a cinch to find out who was behind this nefarious scheme -

Duke: C'mon: a cartoon figure waving to the crowd and making inane comments in front of any and all who'd listen or were within earshot?!? Standing directly behind the COPA crowd during the ceremony, by all appearances a part of them and it?!?

BK: Absolutly, and that's why it is imperative that the real culprets be identified and brought to justice - and you're just the man to do it -

Duke: Unless someone in the media hired Tex, then your statement above is simply not so.

BK: Who hired Tex? That is the question - and I'm sure it is somehow part of a more broad psych war operation -

IDuke: It was stupid and tasteless

BK: Absolutly stupid and tasteless, and all the more reason why you must find out who the stupid and tasteless vandals are - so the world doesn't think all you Dallasites are just as stupid and tasteless

Duke: if it was anyone else, especially anyone trying to prove that the event is not a circus! "We resent Jackie Floyd saying that, and here to prove it today is Big Tex!" (Nobody said that, but they might as well have.)

Apparently, some people think their cause is so right and righteous that nothing - not even Big Tex or the Muppets - can distract from it, and people will understand. Appearances mean nothing, right? Perception is not reality?

Anyone who believes that is indeed delusional. Not to mention a fool.

BK: That's why you must get to the bottom of this!

Duke: John Judge's inclusion of remarks about Jackie Floyd and what she said had nothing whatsoever to do with JFK's death, and smacked of the "free publicity" and self-aggrandizement she spoke out against. Has he never heard the adage about not dignifying something with reply?

BK: Gee Duke, now you've got me googling Jackie Floyd, and I know it will be dirty and ugly and I don't really want go there - do I have to?

Duke: Stick to the freaking program,

BK: What's the program again?

Duke: which has nothing to do with John Judge, COPA, Jackie Floyd or even MLK and RFK or our big bad government and its multiple and myriad lies and nefarious schemes.

Maybe if someone would actually do that - make it an actual memorial service dedicated to JFK - then maybe nobody would think it was a "circus."

BK: Already done. You missed it. Very solumn.

Duke: Oh. And leave Big Tex at home,

BK: He is home - It's your backyard.

or at least stay away from him when you're talking. D'oh!! (Penn Jones might have even spun in his grave if he saw that! If I thought it was bad, you can rest assured others saw it in an even worse light. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish?)

BK: What do you mean WE, Duke?

I don't think we're on the same team.

BK

Edited November 24, 2007 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

Duke,

Duke: Having Big Tex stand behind COPA during what should have been a solemn ceremony - or perhaps more accurately, either not moving him away from them, or them away from him - gave this year's ceremony very much of a "circus"-like appearance.

Duke, COPA didn't bring the circus to Dallas, it was already there.

Now if we can only get a big sign : Free the JFK Files - to put around Big Tex's neck

- BK

http://www.bigtex.com/aboutus/history/bigtexhistory/

[Terry Mauro]

Duke: Having Big Tex stand behind COPA during what should have been a solemn ceremony - or perhaps more accurately, either not moving him away from them, or them away from him - gave this year's ceremony very much of a "circus"-like appearance.

Duke, COPA didn't bring the circus to Dallas, it was already there.

Now if we can only get a big sign : Free the JFK Files - to put around Big Tex's neck

- BK

http://www.bigtex.com/aboutus/history/bigtexhistory/

***********************************************************

"Now if we can only get a big sign: Free the JFK Files - to put around Big Tex's neck."

A capital idea, Billy!

Hey, Dawnie and I will be on the scene next year, finally. And that's a given, this time. I look forward to finally meeting up with you. I met John a few years back at the L.A. Seminar, a really great crew of people, BTW.

[Duke Lane]

Duke, COPA didn't bring the circus to Dallas, it was already there. Now if we can only get a big sign : Free the JFK Files - to put around Big Tex's neck

- BK

That's exactly the kind of bullxxxx that perpetuates the "circus" mentality. Maybe we could add some dancing bears in the middle of Elm Street ("all the way" with JFK!), planes running banners behind them, a mechanical menagerie of gunmen popping out of storm drains (pow! pow!) ... one of those air-filled things that wave atcha ... hey, "the circus was already there, so let's take advantage of it, whatever it takes, the message is the mission." Ho-f***ing-hum.

(A positive note: "the limo" didn't run down Elm Street this year with accompanying "gunfire!" Guess they must've been at home having turkey.)

Maybe we should all just go sell used cars so we feel like our message fits the mood of the masses, eh? As long as we can make our point: "ALL credit applications will be accepted; NONE will be refused" does not mean you're going home with a new car ... but at least we got you to visit our dealership and get sent home empty-handed. Oh: don't forget to spread the good word cuz we pay for referrals!

Big Tex ain't gonna solve the mystery for anyone either.

But if it works for them, why not us? After all, the audience isn't actually very intelligent after all, is it? Let's go with "all conspiracy theories accepted! None will be undermined or proven wrong!" Whatever you bring forth will work for us as long as we keep the focus on the fact NO "official story" is acceptable or truthful!

I thought that the "intelligencia" was who we wanted behind our cause. How better to alienate them?

I often wonder if whether some of the "celebrities" in this endeavor haven't abandoned it in favor of "back-door" efforts just so that they're not associated with the "wierdos" that propound just this sort of idiocy. The point of being a "respected researcher" in the JFK arena only shows, at best, that you're a big fish in a very small pond. BFD.

"Free the JFK files" around Tex's neck indeed! Is that how "we" celebrate the recently-deceased George Michael's memory and his contributions, Penn Jones' perseverence, Hal Weisberg's incisive invective? Flackery is how we "attract" the "fourth generation" of critics, to "prove" something other than the "official version" with whatever seems useful at the moment, whatever catches "their" attention, at whatever cost to us, the supposedly "legitimate" critics of a scenario most of us reject?

I reported what I saw at DP this year; I didn't see where anyone here has claimed to have seen anything different. So where the hell were all of you now that Penn Jones is dead? Apparently not at COPA or Lancer or DP. So get off the soap box.

... And let's hope that nobody else reads this thread.

Making friends and influencing people (but there ya go!), I remain sincerely yours ....

[William Kelly]

Duke, COPA didn't bring the circus to Dallas, it was already there. Now if we can only get a big sign : Free the JFK Files - to put around Big Tex's neck

- BK

That's exactly the kind of bullxxxx that perpetuates the "circus" mentality. Maybe we could add some dancing bears in the middle of Elm Street ("all the way" with JFK!), planes running banners behind them, a mechanical menagerie of gunmen popping out of storm drains (pow! pow!) ... one of those air-filled things that wave atcha ... hey, "the circus was already there, so let's take advantage of it, whatever it takes, the message is the mission." Ho-f***ing-hum.

(A positive note: "the limo" didn't run down Elm Street this year with accompanying "gunfire!" Guess they must've been at home having turkey.)

Maybe we should all just go sell used cars so we feel like our message fits the mood of the masses, eh? As long as we can make our point: "ALL credit applications will be accepted; NONE will be refused" does not mean you're going home with a new car ... but at least we got you to visit our dealership and get sent home empty-handed. Oh: don't forget to spread the good word cuz we pay for referrals!

Big Tex ain't gonna solve the mystery for anyone either.

But if it works for them, why not us? After all, the audience isn't actually very intelligent after all, is it? Let's go with "all conspiracy theories accepted! None will be undermined or proven wrong!" Whatever you bring forth will work for us as long as we keep the focus on the fact NO "official story" is acceptable or truthful!

I thought that the "intelligencia" was who we wanted behind our cause. How better to alienate them?

I often wonder if whether some of the "celebrities" in this endeavor haven't abandoned it in favor of "back-door" efforts just so that they're not associated with the "wierdos" that propound just this sort of idiocy. The point of being a "respected researcher" in the JFK arena only shows, at best, that you're a big fish in a very small pond. BFD.

"Free the JFK files" around Tex's neck indeed! Is that how "we" celebrate the recently-deceased George Michael's memory and his contributions, Penn Jones' perseverence, Hal Weisberg's incisive invective? Flackery is how we "attract" the "fourth generation" of critics, to "prove" something other than the "official version" with whatever seems useful at the moment, whatever catches "their" attention, at whatever cost to us, the supposedly "legitimate" critics of a scenario most of us reject?

I reported what I saw at DP this year; I didn't see where anyone here has claimed to have seen anything different. So where the hell were all of you now that Penn Jones is dead? Apparently not at COPA or Lancer or DP. So get off the soap box.

... And let's hope that nobody else reads this thread.

Making friends and influencing people (but there ya go!), I remain sincerely yours ....

Duke,

Why are you trying to blame COPA for Big Tex being at the scene of the crime?

And who really did put him there?

Thanks for your report.

BK