Friends,
I am writing you as current and past registrants to COPA conferences in Dallas and COPA contacts with a survey and an update on the conference. As you know, we have been trying to assert our First Amendment right to hold our annual Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll on November 22 at 12:30 pm, as researchers have done for the last 49 years. In 2011 the Sixth Floor Museum, the Mayor of Dallas and a Dallas public relations firm, along with members of the Dallas elite and power structure, began efforts to block off Dealey Plaza from the public on November 22 and to illegally prevent "conspiracy theory" from being spoken there. Their motive is clearly to control the message that the world press will come to see that day in Dealey Plaza, favoring public relations to the truth.
We spent the better part of two years opposing and challenging these efforts by meeting with the Mayor, writing to the "50th" planning committee he created to plan his ticketed event, and contacting city administrators working on the planning and blocking our permit for our traditional event. See more details in the attached press release.
We have met with complete silence until just recently, when the Mayor proposed to let us gather at an alternate location not visible to the crowd or the press and to allow us access to the Grassy Knoll once their event ended and people were allowed to disperse. We insisted that all those who applied for a ticket to the Mayor's event be notified that our event would follow and proposed better alternatives that would allow us to preserve our rights at the place and time when it could have the most effect. The letter that follows, sent to COPA this week, represents a final offer from the City of Dallas, rejecting any compromises proposed:
Mr. Judge,
In response to your recent email (September 16th), as I have previously stated, we will be holding a JFK commemoration event on Friday, November 22nd in Dealey Plaza. Shortly after the program is completed, we will make every effort to have the site available for your group. We estimate the time that the event will conclude and begin to clear to be approximately 2:15p.m. We are holding a location approximately two blocks from Dealey Plaza that will be available for your group to gather, watch the program on the provided monitor, and stage the move to Dealey Plaza around 2:30p.m.
The Mayor has agreed to post information regarding your event on the city's website to assure the public is aware. We will not be able to accommodate your other requests--- to move the event to American Airlines Center; to change the start time; or to move the barrier fence to the north side of Elm St.
We look forward to working with you cooperatively to announce your event on the city's website; to locate your group nearby Dealey Plaza, and to assist in moving them expeditiously to Dealey Plaza as soon at the event clears.
Please feel free to call me in order to work out the details.
Sincerely,
Mary K. Suhm
City of Dallas
SURVEY
I am seeking your response at this point. Please fill out the survey below and return it by email as soon as you can:
Name:
____ YES ____ NO I plan to be in Dallas on November 22 and would like to attend a Moment of Silence.
____ YES ____ NO I would be willing to accept the proposal from the Mayor to gather elsewhere and come to the Grassy Knoll at 2:30 pm.
____ YES ____ NO I would be willing to send a donation to support the cost of a legal challenge in a federal court to challenge the violation of our First Amendment rights based on the content of our message and restore our ability to hold our event as planned.
COPA 2013 Conference - 50 Years is Enough! Free the Files, Find the Truth
We now have over 230 people registered to attend our events from November 21-24, including an early bird dinner, a meet and greet, banquet and keynote speakers, information packed presentations, a premiere film showing, and a visit to the JFK researcher archives at Baylor University.
One item of good news recently is that Dr. Ernst Titovets, Oswald's friend in the Soviet Union, has secured his travel visa to attend our conference. We have a great lineup of speakers this year.
If you have not yet registered or paid your registration and banquet fees, the current discount rate will end on October 31. After that date registration will cost $175, and payment for the banquet must be made by that date if you plan to attend. If you want to make the trip on Sunday to Baylor University, please send an additional transport fee by that date of $20 per person to cover bus fare and a dinner. All these payments can be made to COPA, PO Box 772, Washington, DC 20044 or online at
www.politicalassassinations.com using the Donate button and PayPal. If you have not yet reserved your hotel rooms we can help you arrange them at a rate of $109/night by putting you in touch with a hotel near the events with shuttle service.
Registration is still open for the conference, so please attend and let friends and others know about this historic event. Send back the registration form below if you have not already. Thank you for your support and interest in COPA. Looking forward to seeing you there. John Judge
Register Now! Don't Miss COPA 2013, Dallas, TX
FIFTY YEARS IS ENOUGH!
FREE THE FILES FIND THE TRUTH
COPA is currently planning our 20th annual conference in Dallas which will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy and the 45th anniversaries of the murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Our theme is: "50 Years is Enough! Free the Files Find the Truth" and we will hold our events from November 22-24, 2013 in Dallas. We will have the leading researchers, authors, ballistics, forensic and medical experts who have worked on these cases over the last five decades and the best documentary films. We plan to hold our Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll at 12:30 pm on November 22 as we have for the past 49 years.
Over 200 people have already registered, so please make plans to join us and
register now to get a discount room rate at the Aloft before they run out. It promises to be one of our best conferences ever.
Among the confirmed speakers are [B]Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, JD, MD (our founding president), Mark Lane, Peter Dale Scott, Richard Belzer and Jesse Ventura.[/B]
Also, Dr. Gary Aguilar, Robert Groden, Abraham Bolden, William Turner, David Talbot, Dick Russell, Russ Baker, Joan Mellen, Dr. Ernst Titovets (Oswald's best friend), Jefferson Morley, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, David Montague, PhD (ARRB staff), Rex Bradford, John Armstrong, Doug Valentine, Dr. Joseph Palermo, David Starks, Ed Tatro, Baba Zak Kondo, Jack Colhoun, Bill Kelly, Bill Simpich, Andrew Kiel, Chris Pike, Joseph McBride, Kenn Thomas, Stan Weeber, Wayne Smith, Ben Rogers, Edward Curtin, Michael Calder, Bill Holiday, Mel Barney, John Judge and many others. Please plan to join us for our most important conference to date.
The conference will run from Friday, November 22, 2:00 pm to 1:00 pm Sunday afternoon November 24. We will also arrange a trip for those interested to the Baylor University Poague Library collection of JFK researcher archives (Penn Jones, Jr., Robert Cutler, John Armstrong and others) in Waco, Texas after the conference. See:
http://www.baylor.edu/lib/poage/jfk/index.php?id=60315. Please let us know if you are interested in going there. We will get back at 10-11 pm Sunday night and there will be a small transportation fee.
COPA 2013 SCHEDULE
Nov 21, Thursday
6:00 pm Early Bird dinner, Founder's Grill,
Hotel Lawrence
Nov 22, Friday
12:30 pm Moment of Silence, Grassy Knoll (TBD)
2:00 pm Meet and Greet, Aloft
Hotel, Party Pad
6:00 pm Banquet, Aloft
Hotel, Premium Pad
7:00 pm Keynotes speakers, Premium Pad
Nov 23, Saturday
Aloft Hotel, Premium Pad
9:00 am JFK speakers
11:300 pm Lunch
12:30 pm JFK speakers
5:30 pm Dinner
7:00 pm RFK, MLK speakers
9:30 pm Showing of The Searchers, documentary about JFK researchers
Nov 24, Sunday
Aloft Hotel, Premium Pad
9:00 am Malcolm X, JFK Research Archives, Future Plans
1:00 pm Conference Ends
2:00 pm Trip to Baylor University archive, dinner
10:00 pm Return to Dallas
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
