HALF-CENTURY ANNIVERSARY

I knew I'd been extremely lazy about blogging in the recent past, but, WOW - -   Nearly a year since my last! 

In a similar vein to my last post - -  we are rapidly approaching the half-century mark since President Kennedy was slain in Dallas.  Yeah, that should go without saying.   The TV people and the print media are warming up for their blitz of publicity, I assume just to imply that they are properly respectful concerning the event.  No, they shouldn't just ignore the significance.  I'm simply not sure that those of us who lived through late November 1963 can tolerate all the "celebrations" and special programming and extra editions to sell ads and souvenirs and trinkets.

I shudder to think that I might for some reason be compelled to drive into Dallas during the "event."  If I'm fortunate, I'll be able to avoid it. 

Perhaps it will seem to you that I'm ignoring a historical occasion.  Not at all.  I'm not trying to convince anyone, least of all myself, that I have forgotten that traumatic time.  I'd simply rather recall it in my own way, without a bunch of others telling me how to think of it. 

If you have no first-hand recall of those unhappy days and weeks, please don't forego the opportunity to wade through at least some of the feature stories this November.  Most of them may be trash, but many will be worthwhile.  Don't forget:  There was a VAST store of misinformation and erroneous reporting circulated in the immediate aftermath of the assassination.  I hope the "new" stuff doesn't all merely rehash-and-repeat the now-refuted material.  Over the ensuing decades, much of that has been set straight.  By the same token, new and even more exciting conspiracy theories have been promulgated, some even less logical than the old ones.  Please consider the sources of what you read this year.   

If you want to believe in conspiracies, if you like to exercise healthy skepticism concerning what the Dot Gov tells you, there is much more, 'way fresher, and FAR better documented material available now.   And, we have ready access to countless items of information through the Internet.  Please, don't stop reading and thinking and discussing.