FOR HISTORY'S SAKE (MAY 1998)

I wanted to share my views on the state of the JFK case that I think are important for everyone to read. In my humble opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) I think, with all due respect, that the days of big-time, formal conferences are over. Between the networking going on via the "information superhighway" and the expense of these formal venues, there no longer seems to be a burning need or desire to have these type of conferences (unlike even up to the early 1990's, when the print journals - particularly the Third Decade - ruled and "snail mail" was it). With the advent of technology, the average researcher can get all the "state-of-the-art" information he/she may care to get, and then some. In addition, there is a wide variety to choose from: websites, e-mail, newsgroups, etc.

This is NOT to cast any aspersions against COPA's impressive-looking Fall conference; I wish them nothing but the best and I hope they get 1,000+ people ... but don't bet on it. The attendance has fallen drastically at all conferences since the very early nineties and, again, the expense, coupled with the information options available to everyone who can handle a computer mouse, has greatly curtailed the need for formalities, so to speak.

What is needed - especially as we approach the new Millenium - is a different course of action. The general public, while overwhelmingly on our side, does not attend any of our conferences. The days of best-selling JFK books are probably a thing of the past (not so much because of Posner but because of the muddying of the waters caused by so many conflicting theories - another problem in and of itself). There are many, many researchers/authors doing great work out there, and the ARRB/the Archives is supplying us with millions of pages of documents we never dreamed we would get our hands on even up to a short four or five years ago (pre-Stone film/legislation). However, the press rarely reports on anything released, much less of anything significant, and, when they do, they report on "straw men" that are easily toppled over (i.e. the long-dismissed ruminations that the KGB had a hand in the plot in Dallas on 11/22/63).

It is time to stop living in denial: there definitely was a conspiracy. The public believes it ... they just do not know it. Why? Because the "state-of-the-art" research is restricted via expensive conferences and many conflicting theories (again, unlike some recent writers, I am not casting aspersions on these conflicting theorists or even the sponsors of these expensive conferences - I have indulged both many times; we all have).

It seems to me, at this late date, that we should concentrate all our efforts on reporting, to the best of our abilities, the facts as we see and know them, not necessarily just to the media, the public, or to the government... but to history. Ultimately, what history writes about this case - not the media pundits, the mortal men alive today, or the transitory public officials - will be the accepted, final word; not the Warren Commission, the HSCA, or Posner (thank God).

What can we do? Keep active on this information superhighway, share your information with all who request it (within reason), and stay on course about what we can all agree with and that which we know to be true:

1. JFK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

2. The government covered up much in regard to this case.

You want specifics? Here they are:

1. Lee Harvey Oswald, if he "acted" in any fashion, did not act alone;

2. J. Edgar Hoover, who hated the Kennedys, covered up much in this case;

3. The CIA did not share much information about their joint efforts with the Mafia (to kill Castro);

4. The government investigations were seriously biased/flawed;

5. The Secret Service was extremely negligent in Dallas (this author goes beyond this, but that's another story);

6. JFK suffered a non-penetrating back wound and a separate neck wound: an entrance wound from the front;

7. The majority of the witnesses indicated that a shot or shots came from the front. This, coupled with the majority of witnesses at Parkland and Bethesda who stated that JFK had a gaping exit wound in the right rear of his head (including SS agent Kinney), and the timing/ sequence of the shots themselves (and the wound patterns on all three men - JFK, Connally, and Tague (remember him?), indicates, in and of itself, a conspiracy (more than one gunman).