47 years after JFK assassination

[Michael Hogan]

from dallasnews.com

By David Flick

The Dallas Morning News

November 22, 2010

47 years after JFK assassination, Sixth Floor Museum adapts to new era

Excerpt:

Today, exactly 47 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the museum that has chronicled that fateful day finds itself in a delicate balancing act.

On the one hand, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza wants to keep jogging the emotions of those old enough to recall the tragedy. On the other, it needs to find

ways to explain the killing – using updated technology – to those who were yet to be born.

"We're at a pivotal moment right now," said Nicola Longford, the museum's executive director. "We're changing from memory to history."

Excerpt:

As a result, with the exception of 1993, when Dealey Plaza was officially designated a National Historic Landmark, the plaza has been commandeered

each Nov. 22 by conspiracy organizations, and the assemblage has sometimes taken on a carnival atmosphere.

"It is something we are talking about; there is no formal proposal," Longford said. "But we have to realize that on the 50th anniversary, we will

be micro-analyzed by people around the world, and there's nothing we can do about that.

"We might as well figure out how we are going to deal with it."

Officials are also taking the occasion to rethink the museum's exhibits, planning focus groups to help them figure out how to make displays more

appealing to a younger audience.

"The exhibit was initially designed for the rememberers – those who were alive when it happened. But in the last five years, a majority of our

visitors are not old enough to remember," said museum curator Gary Mack.

"Some things that were important to our visitors when we first opened are not as important right now."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/112210dnmetsixthfloor.3d64dc3.html

As the Sixth Floor Museum's executive director noted, Kennedy's murder is "changing from memory to history."

Longford's observation that "we're at a pivotal moment right now" doesn't seem quite right to me.

The change from memory to history has been going on for a long, long time.

[David Josephs]

History, while in some cases considered incorrect, is still permanent... whereas memory - one hopes - can still be "adjusted" so that history is reflected accurately....

Let's hope the Museum sees how important it is to begin telling both sides... present the evidence, or at least what exists, that it was NOT Oswald... what better place than that museum to be the center for ALL the info..

thanks Mike