27-08-2012, 09:35 PM
Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Precisely.
The public slaughter of JFK is not an "American crime".
It is a mass trauma scripted, crafted, with the flair of an ancient myth by the Usual Suspects.
Invoking the likes of Orator Churchill, High Priest of the Beaches, and Henry T Ford, God of Mass Production, ensures only that nothing is learnt.
Official History continues.
No revelation, no epiphany, into the nature of Power is achieved.
This is not a game.
JFK is not a brand.
I agree that JFK should not be a brand. But whether you like it or not, JFK is a brand. And we often refer to his family (way before the television mini-series) as, "The Kennedys." A brand. For we, again whether we like it or not, all around the world, live in a pop culture society. The actor/comedian, Dennis Leary, once postulated to a crowd in his tv show, Rescue Me, "I bet anyone of you can name me five American Idol contestants, but not one of you can name me a firefighter who died on 9/11." Say what you will about my quoting a television show in a forum of obvious history scholars, but that quote is a rather honest assessment of our society at large.
True, it should not be that way that JFK is a brand, that more people follow Idol than study accurate history, and we are a lesser society for it. We should count ourselves lucky that a young adult can at least acknowledge that Henry Ford invented the assembly line, and not the automobile in general. The fact that Ford was a fascist and received a medal from the Nazis before the war is subservient to the fact, at least in my opinion, that when a line was drawn in the sand, the man kicked in for Uncle Sam and his industrial abilities helped beat back the Nazi apparatus. One of my quotes from earlier in this thread came from Theodore Roosevelt. Not one of you mentioned that he was a contributing architect to an organized revolt of key land owners against the government of Colombia to facilitate the building of the Panama Canal. Not one of you. Is this act not akin to the transgressions of Churchill & Ford? The sad truth is, every public figure has some skeletons in their closet; whether a light has been shined in certain closets remains to be seen. Personally speaking, one of my deceased aunts grew bitter and cut herself off from my family, but I will always remember her as the"cool" aunt who let my cousins, my sister and me gorge on junk food and took us to the movies as kids. We remember the best part about people and forget the worst as long as, and I admit it is subjective, their historic balance sheet of deeds permits.
I started this thread to say something about unity. And just the simplest unity: although we can't agree on who were the originators of the assassination, we can agree that it was a conspiracy of some kind. From there, the thread degenerated into a tirade of this/that man is no good, and that my endeavor was "petty." One fellow even made this comment towards me, "Perhaps a less truthful and confrontatory (his spelling) [to the powers that be] website might suit you." I acknowledge that I am new to this forum, and I did get off to a bad start with Mr. Drago (again, that is my fault), but I am amazed at how new voices are treated on this forum. Rather than exchange with me in a constructive manner - "Mr. Prior, I appreciate your desire to bring about yada, yada, yada, but I disagree with you because of reasons 1, 2 and 3" - I am met with a most distasteful bile. This subject of the Kennedy assassination does not only belong to the scholars or the well-read. It belongs to everyone who wants to be a part of it. The prose and word-smithing is great only if you are in a forum of Literature professors. Phil Dragoo, I respect you, and I DO have a degree from an accredited university, but I have no idea about half of what you are talking about. And that has to change for others as well, because there are people coming to this very forum who are seeking knowledge, who want to be informed. Kids out of high school, blue collar people without a higher education or vocabulary...they want to participate. However, I have a bad feeling they are intimidated, not by "the truth," but by the lack of a vernacular that they can grasp or an aire of open discussion. The numbers may very well back me upon this. The "Member List" within the "Community" dropdown menu in the navigation along the top of the this forum displays 9 pages for the list of the 529 members of this forum. Of those 529 members, 396 have posted only three times or less 74.8% !!! And 316 members (59.7%) have never posted anything at all !!! I'll concede that a good portion of people may simply want to read the posts and not participate, but I'll wager dollars to donuts that there are some well meaning, genuinely eager people who want to participate but are downright scared of having their questions, statements, replies picked apart. This is not constructive. This forum, its Founding Members, its moderators have the human right to disrespectfully disagree and insult, but assuming the RESPONSIBILITY to host or moderate a professional forum includes respectfully disagreeing. Anything less, although not a crime, is deconstructive.
As we approach the the 50[SUP]th [/SUP]anniversary, it has become apparent that many in this forum have become wary of any prospect that anything will change. One poster wrote, "I shall not sit by quietly and allow second-rate minds to re-invent wheels." I don't feel wheels have been re-invented, but that they merely be turning ever so slow. I joined this forum with exuberance and enthusiasm for the cause, and was met with the attitude of a W.C. Fields character, "Get outta here, son. You bother me." I caution the elite of this forum with the words of President Kennedy, ..."we are all mortal." You all, like myself will be gone eventually. What keeps this cause, OUR cause, yours AND mine, going is the participation of the younger generation. And as distasteful as it may be to those who hate to write in the common tongue, it would be more productive and constructive ensure that people do not have to frequently open up thesaurus.com to get your point. And forgive me for saying (but I'm sure some won't) the cause could use some more youthful enthusiasm and a little of that "pie in the sky" effort.
Sincerely,
Mark Prior