As 50th anniversary approaches, Dallas’ nerves still raw about JFK assassination

A “proactive” attempt at denial of free speech by the Sixth Floor Museum. Since they have no plans to use the Grassy Knoll site themselves, COPA will gladly hold our annual Moment of Silence there in 2013. We sent this to the Dallas Morning News:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Your recent article by SCOTT K. PARKS of March 3 (“Sixth Floor Museum officials have reserved Dealey Plaza for the week of the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, but as of now there are no plans to have an event there”) clearly shows an attempt by the City of Dallas and the Sixth Floor Museum to silence all criticism or even discussion of the assassination of President Kennedy on the 50th anniversary, November 22, 2013. Anticipating record crowds and public and press interest, Museum executive Nicola Longford was quoted:

Longford, the Sixth Floor Museum executive, said last week that the task force has made no decision about whether to use Dealey Plaza. Asked why she obtained the permit to use Dealey Plaza, she replied, “Just to be proactive and make sure the space is committed. The direction as of now is not to hold any event in Dealey Plaza.”

In an earlier article, Longford said that they wanted to discourage a “carnival atmosphere” on the Grassy Knoll for the 50th anniversary, and hold a “solemn event” without “conspiracy theorists”.

As Sixth Floor Museum officials and Dallas Parks and Recreation workers know, the national Coalition on Political Assassinations, a network of serious medical, ballistics, forensics and legal experts, as well as academicians, historians and other researchers that was responsible for passage and implementation of the JFK Assassination Records Act in 1992, has held a Moment of Silence at 12:30 pm every year on November 22 at the Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza with a permit, continuing a tradition begun the year after the assassination by Midlothian, Texas newspaper editor Penn Jones, Jr.

Our efforts to obtain a permit for 2013 began at least three years ago, but we were told that no applications would be accepted before November 23, 2012. Our permits in the past were also never exclusive of other activities or public access to the area. However, this year, we were informed that the area was already reserved by the Sixth Floor Museum and that we could not be issued a permit. We were encouraged to contact the Sixth Floor Museum to incorporate our event into their plans. We have written them to tell them of our plans, with no response to date

This article reveals that they do not even have any events planned that day, or apparently for the week-long period secured for their exclusive control of the area. This is clearly a content-based attempt to stifle free speech and the First Amendment rights of those who disagree with the official version of the assassination of President Kennedy, who despite their credentials and evidence are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists”.

If the Sixth Floor Museum has no plans for an event, then they should have no problem with our presence and our Moment of Silence and public discussions about the historical reality that shook the nation in 1963 and since. Their Museum clearly is designed to support the official mythology on a daily basis to millions of tourists who visit the location out of curiosity every year. Yet, they feel compelled to deny the expression of even a few hours of dissent on the Grassy Knoll when they know there will be large numbers of people there to hear it.

It remains to be seen whether the City or the Museum will allow free speech in a public park next year. Instead of a Moment of Silence and a few hours of truth, they seem to want to create a perpetual silence about the assassination of the President for fear that remembering the event will cast a shadow on the reputation of Dallas itself. However, the real embarrassment has been the failure of the Dallas press, legal authorities and police to investigate the crime or to reopen the case as compelling new evidence has emerged. This latest attempt to silence dissent and to pull the focus away from the event that will be bringing the crowds to Dealey Plaza in 2013 is only spreading the blemish that continues to stain the city’s history and reputation.

The Coalition plans to be visible on the Grassy Knoll on November 22, 2013 to speak historical truth to the real killers of President Kennedy and of democracy that day so long ago.

As 50th anniversary approaches, Dallas’ nerves still raw about JFK assassination
Dallas Morning News
Published: 03 March 2012 10:55 PM
By SCOTT K. PARKS

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20120303-as-50th-anniversary-approaches-dallas-nerves-still-raw-about-jfk-assassination.ece?action=reregister

Sixth Floor Museum officials have reserved Dealey Plaza for the week of
the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, but as of now there are
no plans to have an event there.

What should the city do to officially observe the 50th anniversary
coming up in November 2013?

“This is very important — unbelievably important — as to our place on
the world stage,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said recently. “We can’t
get out of our skis on this.”

With the event still more than 20 months away, a community group led by the Sixth Floor Museum is working behind the scenes to plan the first official commemoration built around the date of the assassination.
They’re calling it A Day of Remembrance: The Life and Legacy of JFK.

The planners know that many Dallasites, especially the older ones who
lived through the tragedy, prefer to let the anniversaries pass without
official fanfare. To them, remembering calls up painful memories of a
time when the world unfairly tarred Dallas as “The City of Hate” and
“The City that killed Kennedy.”

Nothing is set, and task force members say a lot of civic, business and
political leaders will be involved in decisions about what happens on
Nov. 22, 2013.

“What we are talking about is the politics of memory,” said Jim
Hollifield, an SMU political science professor and task force member.
“Remembering is a very political thing. It’s an intensely emotional thing.”

Typically, Nov. 22 comes and goes in Dallas without much notice.

Sixth Floor Museum traffic increases, and more tourists than usual
gather in nearby Dealey Plaza for a spontaneous moment of silence at
12:30 p.m., the approximate time that JFK was assassinated as his
motorcade traveled down Elm Street. The museum might unveil a new
exhibit, and the news media marks the anniversary with brief stories.

But next year will be different, according to historians. The 50th
anniversary of a calamitous event is a bridge between older generations and younger generations who might not even know that an American president was murdered in Dallas.

Publishers will launch new books on JFK and the assassination, and those books inevitably will explore what Dallas was like in 1963 and what it’s like today. And, undoubtedly, international media will focus on the event.

“To think that the 50th anniversary can be ignored is Pollyannaish and
infantile,” said Dr. Edward Linenthal, a history professor at Indiana
University-Bloomington and a consultant for the Sixth Floor Museum.

“In a way, the desire to forget becomes part of the evidence of the
horrific power of the event itself,” Linenthal said. “One appropriate
way that you can bring a sense of justifiable pride in your city is a
remembrance ceremony of great integrity.”

Open for debate?

Robert Dallek, a nationally known presidential historian, told The
Dallas Morning News that the 50th anniversary is the perfect occasion to debate whether Lee Harvey Oswald was simply a misguided soul who killed JFK by himself or whether the murder was a conspiracy involving multiple gunmen and sinister forces such as the Mafia or the CIA.

“The one thought I have is that the people in Dallas would want to focus on the issue of this enduring concern about there being a conspiracy,” said Dallek, who wrote An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963.

When Dallek’s biography was published in 2003, a Gallup poll reported
that 75 percent of the American public believed in one of the many
conspiracy theories about JFK’s death. The poll results probably
wouldn’t be much different today, Dallek said.

“I think the city of Dallas would be well-served by accepting and
supporting the proposition that Oswald was the only killer,” he said.
“If they do some kind of forum, it should definitely be orchestrated by
the Sixth Floor Museum.”

But Dallek lives in Washington, D.C., and not in Dallas.

Task force members visibly cringe when confronted with the idea of
holding a symposium that might delve into entry wounds, exit wounds and other gory details surrounding the assassination. They worry about what Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, and other members of the Kennedy family might think about such a program.

“We don’t want Dallas to be ashamed and embarrassed when the media
spotlight descends on us in November 2013,” said Nicola Longford,
executive director of the Sixth Floor Museum and a task force member.

“I think that whatever is done in Dallas needs to be solemn, respectful
and put his death into context without reliving the details of what
happened,” Longford concluded.

Plans to consider

Interviews with task force members and others involved in the 50th
anniversary planning reveal the following ideas under consideration:

The commissioning of an original piece of music to be unveiled at one of downtown Dallas’ theaters for the performing arts.

The commissioning of a piece, or pieces, of visual art by the Nasher
Sculpture Center and/or the Dallas Museum of Art.

A symposium on how broadcast television and satellite communications
carried news of the assassination and its aftermath around the world.
When Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on live television, it
forever changed the media landscape.

A program highlighting how Dallas has changed during the 50 years
between 1963 and 2013.

The unveiling of a new exhibit at Love Field commemorating the
transfer of power that occurred when vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
took the presidential oath of office inside Air Force One as it prepared
to leave Dallas after the assassination.

One of the thorniest issues confronting the task force is what use to
make of Dealey Plaza, which always has been the public gathering spot
for tourists, mourners and assassination researchers.

The Sixth Floor Museum has obtained a special activity permit that
appears to give it control of Dealey Plaza from Monday, Nov. 18, through Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. The permit troubles Robert Groden and other assassination researchers.

Over the years, Groden and the Sixth Floor Museum have clashed like
angry neighbors. He fears the museum will ban him from Dealey Plaza
during the anniversary week and try to control what happens there.

“The museum wants to be the only game in town, but I plan to be at the same place I am every year — up on the grassy knoll fighting for the truth,” he said. “What the city could do during the 50th anniversary is fund the travel for experts on the Kennedy case and hold a formal meeting for them to talk on the case.”

Longford, the Sixth Floor Museum executive, said last week that the task force has made no decision about whether to use Dealey Plaza. Asked why she obtained the permit to use Dealey Plaza, she replied, “Just to be proactive and make sure the space is committed. The direction as of now is not to hold any event in Dealey Plaza.”

‘A tricky issue’

José Antonio Bowen, dean of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, is among those involved in discussions about what to do for the 50th anniversary. A visual artist “who works on this subject” has been approached to participate in the project, Bowen said, declining to name the artist.

“This is a chance to say we are a great art city, but it’s a tricky
issue,” he said. “It’s about how people feel. We don’t want anyone to
think we are taking advantage of the event for the purposes of
advertising or hyping the city.”

Bowen has lived in Dallas for six years and only recently has been
exposed to the walking-on-eggshells nature of discussions about the 50th anniversary planning.

“There is enough hesitation that somebody will have to take the reins
and say, ‘Here’s what’s gonna happen.’”

In fact, Dallas has never embraced “the A word.” The Kennedy Memorial two blocks from Dealey Plaza doesn’t mention the assassination. The plaque designating Dealey Plaza as a National Historic Landmark is only feet away from the spot on Elm Street where the fatal shots killed JFK. But it does not mention the assassination.

Lindalyn Adams, a longtime Dallasite who has devoted much of her life to preserving local history, remembers when she used to avert her eyes to avoid seeing the Texas School Book Depository when she drove through Dealey Plaza.

“I just would not look there,” she said recently. “So many in Dallas did
not want to preserve that building.”

Later, Adams became the public face of the movement to create the Sixth Floor Museum, which opened in 1989.

“This is a part of our history, and it will never go away,” she said.