From Denny: It's been a long day for the entire country, revisiting the worst of American history - the killing of a President. As the child of a CIA officer I have my own memories of that fateful day and ensuing Cover-Up Week that followed. I certainly remember watching the news that was discussing how the bullets hit the President and the Texas Governor in the vehicle. Then, suddenly, there was a commotion on the news show and a shuffling of papers and then the news man changed his story to accommodate the new - and utterly ridiculous - theory.
Even my father thought it was a ridiculous idea of how a single bullet could hop and skip around to create all the damage it did - until the phone rang. It was his boss at "work" at the Agency. My father listened, then repeated what he was told to sell to others, "Got it. You can count on me." Then my father returned to the room where the rest of the family was yelling at the TV for being so stupid.
My father changed his story. He was white as a sheet, clearly shaken and visibly frightened. I heard most of his conversation with his boss and I knew they were both terrified of stepping out of line with the "higher ups." They even discussed who else might be involved outside of the CIA - which only scared them more.
My father started with his typical engineer style of how to rationalize the possibility of the Single Bullet Theory being true. As a precocious child with an adult mind, I would have none of his sales talk, "That's a bald-faced lie and we both know it." That pretty much shut down that vile conversation and we watched the rest of the news show in silence. My father turned embarrassment red and looked down, ashamed.
Was he ashamed he was caught in an obvious lie and partner to a nasty cover-up for his bosses and those who were guilty? Was he ashamed he was selling such an insulting lie so soon after a President was killed, even before he had been buried? Was he ashamed he lied to his family?
All these years later we will never know. What I do know is that when some author comes along and writes a book about how this killing of a President was not a conspiracy, well, I know that is yet another bald-faced lie from someone trying to profit from a man's death.
Over the years too many people have tried to assign the guilt of this President's murder to this group or that. The reality is that they all did it. That is what is so heinous: there was a confluence of groups and individuals with resentments, grudges, bigotry, and just plain hatred that joined together to kill a President. They were heads of government agencies. They were so callous and cavalier they actually believed that after six months no one would care any more and the country would move on.
The truth is the country has never really been able to "move on" because this murder of a President is a festering wound that political leaders and current Presidents have not had the courage to address and heal. It's created a restlessness and mistrusting attitude toward government. President Clinton saw to it a bill was passed in 1992 to release all the papers concerning this assassination. Yet various parts of the government refuse to release these documents decades later. Since when do they outrank a President?
It really is past due time one President step up and get these documents released: all of them (please sign this White House site petition to reach 100,000 by 11 Dec 2013 - currently at 99,846.) The only way for a badly infected wound to heal is to do the messy business to lance it, clean the wound thoroughly and then dress it to properly heal. You can't have infection present and expect the wound to ever heal. So it is with a country, this country: America.
President Obama, perhaps this is your time in history to do this country a tremendous service? Perhaps this is your moment. Now really is the time to step up: "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country." Heal your country, Mr. President, please.
This Day In History @ History Channel - Nov 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy assassinated
The following are the news links from the major news networks:
