24-05-2014, 01:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 24-05-2014, 01:44 AM by Joseph McBride.)
I had a rewarding experience speaking last night to the Progressive Democrats
of America, San Francisco. I spoke on my research into the assassination and
the Tippit killing and why the events of November 1963 were a coup d'etat
and why that matters so much today, because that delegitimizing of our
government had led to all of our current problems. The audience was most
attentive and concerned and asked excellent questions, so we had a good
discussion.
Readers of this forum will be especially pleased to learn that I started
by taking a poll of the group's views on the events of November 1963. There were eighteen people in the audience.
Not one person raised his or her hand when I asked who thought a lone gunman or Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. Every hand
in the room went up when I asked who thought the assassination was a conspiracy. One person thought Oswald
may have had some involvement in the plot. Two people thought
Oswald killed Tippit. And that was before I laid out my case
for Oswald's innocence in both murders.
So it was a most promising sign to spread the word to a thoughtful and committed
group from JFK's party who still believe in working within
the system we have to spread their progressive views. The PDA
is trying to get Bernie Sanders to run for president as a
Democrat rather than as an independent. While I am less
persuaded that the system is workable, I applaud their
continued belief in trying to change it.
When one woman remarked since that the pain of 1963 is so horrible, should we not try to put
it behind us, I said yes, it's still horrible, but we can't put
it behind us because it has led to what we now live in, which is not
the country I thought I was being raised in when I worked
for Kennedy in 1960. I said we can't change that world without facing the truth about the Coup of 1963. I received
a respectful hearing on that point, and there seemed to be considerable agreement. This experience made me realized that we researchers ought to
reach out more to speak to groups outside our "base." We might be
pleasantly surprised with what we find, with how receptive people
have become. I told the PDA group that I found more anger and opposition from friends
and others when I expressed my views about the assassination in the past, until recent years when our situation became more obvious with 9/11,
W, the surveillance state, Obama and his assassinations by drone, etc. I said
the mainstream media are as big a problem as the government, or worse, but that
three-fourths of the public still know better.
And I found that
the leader of the PDA in San Francisco, Tom Gallagher,
became interested in the JFK case by reading Computers
and Animation long ago and by sharing thoughts with his
longtime friend Carl Oglesby, whose THE YANKEE
AND COWBOY WAR I strongly recommended to my listeners
as a deeply insightful book that is prescient about
what came after its publication. The book is now
freely available in PDF format online.
Since people expressed interest in seeing my talk
outside San Francisco, I recorded it on video, and if it
comes out OK, I will try to post it somewhere.
of America, San Francisco. I spoke on my research into the assassination and
the Tippit killing and why the events of November 1963 were a coup d'etat
and why that matters so much today, because that delegitimizing of our
government had led to all of our current problems. The audience was most
attentive and concerned and asked excellent questions, so we had a good
discussion.
Readers of this forum will be especially pleased to learn that I started
by taking a poll of the group's views on the events of November 1963. There were eighteen people in the audience.
Not one person raised his or her hand when I asked who thought a lone gunman or Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. Every hand
in the room went up when I asked who thought the assassination was a conspiracy. One person thought Oswald
may have had some involvement in the plot. Two people thought
Oswald killed Tippit. And that was before I laid out my case
for Oswald's innocence in both murders.
So it was a most promising sign to spread the word to a thoughtful and committed
group from JFK's party who still believe in working within
the system we have to spread their progressive views. The PDA
is trying to get Bernie Sanders to run for president as a
Democrat rather than as an independent. While I am less
persuaded that the system is workable, I applaud their
continued belief in trying to change it.
When one woman remarked since that the pain of 1963 is so horrible, should we not try to put
it behind us, I said yes, it's still horrible, but we can't put
it behind us because it has led to what we now live in, which is not
the country I thought I was being raised in when I worked
for Kennedy in 1960. I said we can't change that world without facing the truth about the Coup of 1963. I received
a respectful hearing on that point, and there seemed to be considerable agreement. This experience made me realized that we researchers ought to
reach out more to speak to groups outside our "base." We might be
pleasantly surprised with what we find, with how receptive people
have become. I told the PDA group that I found more anger and opposition from friends
and others when I expressed my views about the assassination in the past, until recent years when our situation became more obvious with 9/11,
W, the surveillance state, Obama and his assassinations by drone, etc. I said
the mainstream media are as big a problem as the government, or worse, but that
three-fourths of the public still know better.
And I found that
the leader of the PDA in San Francisco, Tom Gallagher,
became interested in the JFK case by reading Computers
and Animation long ago and by sharing thoughts with his
longtime friend Carl Oglesby, whose THE YANKEE
AND COWBOY WAR I strongly recommended to my listeners
as a deeply insightful book that is prescient about
what came after its publication. The book is now
freely available in PDF format online.
Since people expressed interest in seeing my talk
outside San Francisco, I recorded it on video, and if it
comes out OK, I will try to post it somewhere.