07-08-2010, 04:38 AM
Robert,
I was very interested in your point about academia and the JFK assassination. I teach a course a course on this topic in the Humanities program at the University of Minnesota. I am especially troubled by the lack of interest from such academic disciplines as History, Political Science, Sociology, American Studies, and Cultural Studies. The academics either ignore the assassination completely or soft-peddle the event with such clichés as "we'll probably never know the truth."
There are not enough academicians willing to tackle the issue, and much of the discourse from the allegedly distinguished mainstream authors is downright embarrassing. For example, there is really only one paragraph on the assassination in the otherwise outstanding popular biography of JFK written by Robert Dallek:
"Unimpeded by any law enforcement agency and animated by possibly nothing more than resentment against a symbol of the authority, success, and fame he craved and could never hope to achieve, Oswald fired three shots from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building at the president riding directly below in an open car. The second bullet struck Kennedy in the back of the neck. Were it not for a back brace, which held him erect, a third and fatal shot to the back of the head would not have found its mark. At 1:00 P.M. central time, half an hour after the attack, doctors at Dallas's Parkland Hospital told Mrs. Kennedy that the president was dead." --Robert Dallek, AN UNFINISHED LIFE--JOHN F. KENNEDY 1917-1963 (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003), p. 694.
The paragraph above is an exercise in obfuscation, and it merely repeats the errors of the Warren Commission. I would suspect that this précis is what is most frequently conveyed to today's university students in survey courses of American history.
Much work lies ahead in order to raise awareness of the significance of the assassination and to present the facts to future generations. At present, one of the major problems confronting students is the difficulty of locating those books and resources that will provide the evidence that will lead them to the truth. I commend you for your efforts to make some inroads at the Sixth Floor Museum.
James Norwood
I was very interested in your point about academia and the JFK assassination. I teach a course a course on this topic in the Humanities program at the University of Minnesota. I am especially troubled by the lack of interest from such academic disciplines as History, Political Science, Sociology, American Studies, and Cultural Studies. The academics either ignore the assassination completely or soft-peddle the event with such clichés as "we'll probably never know the truth."
There are not enough academicians willing to tackle the issue, and much of the discourse from the allegedly distinguished mainstream authors is downright embarrassing. For example, there is really only one paragraph on the assassination in the otherwise outstanding popular biography of JFK written by Robert Dallek:
"Unimpeded by any law enforcement agency and animated by possibly nothing more than resentment against a symbol of the authority, success, and fame he craved and could never hope to achieve, Oswald fired three shots from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building at the president riding directly below in an open car. The second bullet struck Kennedy in the back of the neck. Were it not for a back brace, which held him erect, a third and fatal shot to the back of the head would not have found its mark. At 1:00 P.M. central time, half an hour after the attack, doctors at Dallas's Parkland Hospital told Mrs. Kennedy that the president was dead." --Robert Dallek, AN UNFINISHED LIFE--JOHN F. KENNEDY 1917-1963 (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003), p. 694.
The paragraph above is an exercise in obfuscation, and it merely repeats the errors of the Warren Commission. I would suspect that this précis is what is most frequently conveyed to today's university students in survey courses of American history.
Much work lies ahead in order to raise awareness of the significance of the assassination and to present the facts to future generations. At present, one of the major problems confronting students is the difficulty of locating those books and resources that will provide the evidence that will lead them to the truth. I commend you for your efforts to make some inroads at the Sixth Floor Museum.
James Norwood