27-05-2011, 04:31 AM
You're so right. And executing elected presidents at high noon in front of hundreds of witnesses is worse. Shakesperian worse. I don't see Dallas EVER recovering from that. I doubt that it should. Democracy, the Constitution, Due Process, State law, Trial by Jury, Right to Life, Christian values (as in "Thou shalt not kill?" claimed from numerous pulpits every sunday), the sanctity of the police and local government, the credibility of a free press...all made into a sad joke in the streets of downtown Dallas. Could the Russians have done any more damage to America? They never did. One wonders what Dallas itself believes its identity to be? Anything other than the place where JFK was murdered? In 1000 years, Dallas will STILL be the place where JFK was murdered. Dealey Plaza is the number one tourist attraction in Dallas for a reason...and it's NOT to buy-in to the Warren commission BS hopelessly dished out at the seventh floor museum that even the Warren commission didn't believe. The people get it. American Exceptionalism, huh? Some legacy.
P.
-----Original Message-----
From: TOM BLACKWELL [mailto:decision@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 2:05 AM
To: YOU and a few others
Subject: Dealey Plaza Redo: Beware the Goon Squads
Dealey Plaza Redo: Beware the Goon Squads
(and support journalist Robert Groden)
By Jim Schutze,
Tue., May 24 2011 at 1:00 PM Comments (12) Categories: Get Off My Lawn
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpa..._the_g.php
or
http://tinyurl.com/3nnp435
​Yesterday's city council committee briefing on restoring Dealey Plaza
was all very well. The well-intended and the well-heeled have joined
together to raise money for a well-designed refurbishing of the place
where President John F. Kennedy was ... well, you know ... shot.
I'm sure it will be well done. But here we go again. Dallas has a
well-known tendency to use taste and discretion as excuses for
knee-capping anybody who colors outside the lines, especially on
painfully sensitive topics, of which there is none more so for Dallas
than JFK.
I wrote about this in April. The city has gotten itself into hot water
in the past by strong-arming Kennedy conspiracy theorist and author
Robert Groden, who expresses his point of view and sells books and DVDs
at Dealey Plaza. City Hall's version of good taste was throwing Groden
in jail in June of last year on trumped-up charges that later were
tossed out of court.
​City Hall's preferred view of Dealey Plaza mirrors its view of the
assassination itself. It's the Warren Commission view: No conspiracy
here, folks, nothing to see, show's over, please return to your homes.
But Groden's view, the view of the 1977 House Select Committee on
Assassinations, is the one that draws the tourists: lots of unanswered
questions, shadows over Dallas, we've got books about it, don't go home
without one.
Groden is suing the city in federal court, claiming the city violated
his First Amendment rights, which is probably what you're doing about
the time you jail an author for selling his book in a public place where
such sales are expressly not prohibited.
We imagine the debate beforehand at the city attorney's office:
"Hey, what if there's some jackass author, and he says crap we don't
like? Can we jail his ass?"
"I don't know. We got a car available?"
This just isn't a big First Amendment town.
The heavy hands of two organizations show up again and again in the
city's efforts to make Dealey Plaza a really nice assassination site.
One is the Sixth Floor Museum, which tells the tale the way Dallas wants
it told, and the other is Downtown Dallas Inc., an outfit so square it
once invented a motto for downtown Dallas, "Find Your D Spot," without
realizing it was a vague reference to screwing. Both seem to be very
involved in the paint-up spruce-up effort described to barely wakeful
council members Monday.
Nothing wrong with painting up and sprucing up. Dealey Plaza needs it.
It sounds nice. But it won't be nice if it involves taking a
high-pressure power washer to Groden's face.
You know, damn! Dallas always winds up playing to its stereotype. If we
use good taste and being respectful and displaying reverence for history
as excuses for going after Groden, we look like goons.
Goons is not good taste. Goons is bad.
--
Regards, TOM BLACKWELL, PO Box 25403, Dallas, Texas 75225
http://DemocraticResearch.Org
P.
-----Original Message-----
From: TOM BLACKWELL [mailto:decision@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 2:05 AM
To: YOU and a few others
Subject: Dealey Plaza Redo: Beware the Goon Squads
Dealey Plaza Redo: Beware the Goon Squads
(and support journalist Robert Groden)
By Jim Schutze,
Tue., May 24 2011 at 1:00 PM Comments (12) Categories: Get Off My Lawn
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpa..._the_g.php
or
http://tinyurl.com/3nnp435
​Yesterday's city council committee briefing on restoring Dealey Plaza
was all very well. The well-intended and the well-heeled have joined
together to raise money for a well-designed refurbishing of the place
where President John F. Kennedy was ... well, you know ... shot.
I'm sure it will be well done. But here we go again. Dallas has a
well-known tendency to use taste and discretion as excuses for
knee-capping anybody who colors outside the lines, especially on
painfully sensitive topics, of which there is none more so for Dallas
than JFK.
I wrote about this in April. The city has gotten itself into hot water
in the past by strong-arming Kennedy conspiracy theorist and author
Robert Groden, who expresses his point of view and sells books and DVDs
at Dealey Plaza. City Hall's version of good taste was throwing Groden
in jail in June of last year on trumped-up charges that later were
tossed out of court.
​City Hall's preferred view of Dealey Plaza mirrors its view of the
assassination itself. It's the Warren Commission view: No conspiracy
here, folks, nothing to see, show's over, please return to your homes.
But Groden's view, the view of the 1977 House Select Committee on
Assassinations, is the one that draws the tourists: lots of unanswered
questions, shadows over Dallas, we've got books about it, don't go home
without one.
Groden is suing the city in federal court, claiming the city violated
his First Amendment rights, which is probably what you're doing about
the time you jail an author for selling his book in a public place where
such sales are expressly not prohibited.
We imagine the debate beforehand at the city attorney's office:
"Hey, what if there's some jackass author, and he says crap we don't
like? Can we jail his ass?"
"I don't know. We got a car available?"
This just isn't a big First Amendment town.
The heavy hands of two organizations show up again and again in the
city's efforts to make Dealey Plaza a really nice assassination site.
One is the Sixth Floor Museum, which tells the tale the way Dallas wants
it told, and the other is Downtown Dallas Inc., an outfit so square it
once invented a motto for downtown Dallas, "Find Your D Spot," without
realizing it was a vague reference to screwing. Both seem to be very
involved in the paint-up spruce-up effort described to barely wakeful
council members Monday.
Nothing wrong with painting up and sprucing up. Dealey Plaza needs it.
It sounds nice. But it won't be nice if it involves taking a
high-pressure power washer to Groden's face.
You know, damn! Dallas always winds up playing to its stereotype. If we
use good taste and being respectful and displaying reverence for history
as excuses for going after Groden, we look like goons.
Goons is not good taste. Goons is bad.
--
Regards, TOM BLACKWELL, PO Box 25403, Dallas, Texas 75225
http://DemocraticResearch.Org