Passing the Torch - Life after 50 Years of JFK

Passing the Torch – The JFK Assassination in the Post-50 Media Frenzy Society

                                         Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm November 22, 2003

By William Kelly

The theme of the recent Wecht Conference in Pittsburgh was “Passing the Torch.”

In his inaugural address JFK said that the torch was being passed to a new generation, a younger, smarter, better educated segment of society that had been tempered by war, and looked forward not to a prolonged Cold War, but a peaceful coexistence that would allow everyone to thrive and prosper.
With his assassination, the torch was then passed backwards, back to the older generation – LBJ, Nixon and Reagan kept hot the Cold War, and the infrastructure of government they set up is still functioning today, - the National Security State that continues to suppress the records related to the assassination on grounds of national security, so even if the assassination isn’t considered relevant to the new generation, it is certainly considered relevant by the CIA, NSA, ONI and the other agencies of government that hold assassination records they won’t let anyone see.

Since I have been studying and researching the assassination of President Kennedy since 1969, I marked down the 50^th anniversary as when I would hang up my hat, throw in the towel and finally consider the case closed, at least as far as my interest is concerned. I sort of feel like Tony Summers when he says that after this year, as public interest fades,  he is finished with the JFK assassination and will move on to other subjects, having given it his best shot.

I have the greatest faith in the next generation of researchers, like Steve Rosen and Zach, both of whom represent young people who recognize the significance of this subject.

My plan is to donate my books, papers, tapes and photos to a library archives, try to forget about the assassination and get back into golf in a big way, writing a follow up to my “Birth of the Birdie” history of golf at the Atlantic City Country Club. “Flight of the Eagle” – about the growth of golf in America and the world. There’s always money around the game of golf and I could tap into some of that writing about the incredible and unique history of the game.

In 2017, the last official JFK Assassination document is scheduled to be released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), so maybe I’ll get back into the game then, if I’m still around.

And while Dealey Plaza and Dallas has been Ground Zero as far as public interest in the assassination goes, that won’t necessarily be the case after the 50^th anniversary, as the interest shifts to Washington and the release of the remaining records.

Jim Lesar, the president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) is planning on a conference focused on the records in Washington in September 2014, the 50^th anniversary of the release of the Warren Report, with the hope that the interest generated will carry over into the New Year

Then it was pointed out that the president elected in 2016 will decide whether to go along with the law and release the remaining records or agree to keep some of them sealed, so the JFK Assassination records will be a campaign issue in the next presidential election.

 As Jim Lesar noted at the Wecht Conference, the next legal action must be Congressional oversight and public hearings on the JFK Act, something that can only happen if the massive public interest in the assassination generated over the 50^th anniversary, is harnessed and channeled towards building a solid political action constituency like the NRA, that can get the Congress to move on the issue as it was moved in 1992 as a result of the publicity generated by Oliver Stone’s film JFK.

The trailer at the end of that movie merely stated the fact that many of the government records in the assassination have been sealed by the government and are locked away so the public couldn’t read them, a simple act that bolstered public outrage and forced Congress to unanimously pass the JFK Act of 1992. That law required the government to release all of the records related to the assassination, and in order to get Congress to oversee and enforce that law, it will take an equally outraged public to get a reluctant Congress to act on it today.

At the time of the assassination, it may have been in the national interest to keep certain records sealed, but now, 50 years later, it is in the national interest to release the records.

I didn’t name my blog JFKCountercoup because I know that those who killed JFK took over the powers of the government, I called it that because if true, it will take a pronounced counter-intelligence investigation to uncover the cover-up, figure it out and solve the crime.

JFK said that problems created by man can be solved by man, and I said that crimes conceived by men can be resolved by men, but in this case, I also realize that the effort needed to reverse the damage done to democracy at Dealey Plaza must be more powerful than the one responsible for the one that overthrew Kennedy.

And I believe that we are almost there. We now have most of the evidence in the case in the public domain, thanks to the JFK Act, and we pretty much know what’s there, we have the testimony and statements of most of the critical witnesses, and we have the public support to require Congress to oversee the laws of the land and release the remaining sealed records related to the assassination. The files should be released not to blame anyone for the crime, but so the public can be informed as to everything that happened and make up their own minds on what and what not to believe.

Those responsible for the crimes that stemmed from Dealey Plaza are dead, but their legacy lives on in the continuing cover-up and withholding of government records that rightly now belong to the American people.

New people are now in office, new people with no ties to the old regime, and they should be pressured to release the remaining records now, in our lifetime.

 

And in memory of those who were part of this historic struggle and didn't live to see this day

RIP –

Phil Melanson

Penn Jones

George Michael Evica

Arlen Specter

Tim Carroll

Jack White

Sylvia Meagher

Kevin Walsh

Harold Weisberg

Gaeton Fonzi

Jay Harrison

Gene Case

Roger Feinman, Esq.

Jack McKinney

Carl Oglesby