JFK ASSASSINATION: THE AMERICA THAT NEVER WAS

Blackjack. Image via Pinterest

New research on JFK assassination reveal broken promises.

A young American President landed in Dallas, Texas.

A man with family fame, WWII fame, and Pulitzer Prize fame, left town the way no one wants to leave anyplace.

History students cover the JFK assassination as part of class.

The rest of America, and the world alive at the time, don’t need classes.

They have the memory of that day.It doesn’t matter where you were on that November day, you know what happened.

If you forget anything you’ll find a ton of books to remind you.

Even the shooter’s perch is a museum today.

The Sixth Floor Museum At Dealey Plaza adds to the research.

Search bars include THE MUSEUM, THE ASSASSINATION, THE COLLECTIONS, and THE LEGACY.

The story they tell:

Forty-five minutes after shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit is murdered in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, a temporary employee at the Texas School Book Depository, is arrested and charged with both murders. Less than forty-eight hours after the assassination, Oswald is shot in the basement of the Dallas Police Department by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Artifacts from the Oswald shooting include: Homicide detective Jim Leavelle’s light-colored suit, Jack Ruby’s recognizable hat, the handcuffs worn by Oswald, and the camera use d by Dallas Times Herald photographer Bob Jackson to capture the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the shooting.

The story they don’t tell:

Teachers came into the school lunchroom crying.

Crying? We students did most of the crying in those corporal punishment days.

Something bad happened, we didn’t know how bad. We still don’t.

The JFK assassination for fourth graders sunk in slow.

Six years later during a family visit to Dallas, my Grandma took us on a history ride.

We got to meet jail officers, she was one of them, and take the walk.

Lee Harvey Oswald took the same walk.

We didn’t have Jack Ruby waiting in the crowd.

Instead we felt broken promises ground down by the JFK assassination.

What would we be when we grew up? Where would we live?

We wouldn’t be President of the United States, not if this is what happens.

Dallas, Texas as a future home? No way.

Sudden death, violent death, the sort of death that says, “It doesn’t get any worse,” was a clear message.

Over the next fifty three years the message still resonates.

The funeral horse. Image via Pinterest

Have we learned anything new?

Historical preservation is a real thing, otherwise the Sixth Floor Museum would be in a new building.

No one tore the building down to put up a memorial, and no one will.

Instead we live with history, new history, interpreted history, tainted history.

In America we have access to it all. Make the most of the privilege.