With this issue we begin a regular feature: Who's Who and What's What. We've rounded up the names and addresses of as many organizations as possible who deal with the Kennedy case in one capacity or another. In all likelihood we have overlooked someone, and urge you to write us with information on whatever we may have missed. (Look below for an E-Z email form.)
Where do we, as researchers and interested parties, stand today in the Kennedy case? It is the (admittedly cynical) view of Fair Play that while the question of a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy is incontestible, it is equally true that the case will never be solved, at least not in a judicial sense. The bad guys won. Many of us have chosen to walk on the trail of the assassins, but it is a trail so tangled and overgrown it is all but impossible to follow. Still, we consider the words of Sheldon Inkol in the March 1995 issue of The Fourth Decade:
...I know in my heart that I can do nothing about [the JFK case]. I am made to feel small...the first question any non-researcher always asks me is "Who did it?" I usually say that I can't really answer that question, that I can't say precisely who did it, that my opinions change with the new information I learn. I think I'm lying to myself.I challenge regular contributors to [The Fourth Decade] to submit articles that approach the case in a more general, decisive sense. Who did it? Who covered it up? What should we do about it? Let us dare to write what we think happened (or, rather, what we know happened), instead of just cataloguing trivialities--the man behind the wall was really a young black woman, or a young military man, or a suspicious police officer, we'll probably never know for certain. Where does that lead us?
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As always, we would like to acknowledge those who have contributed one way or another to this Web site. Thanks to Gaeton Fonzi for sharing extracts from his notes on what we called "The Odio-Connell Mystery;" Deanie Richards of The JFK Place, who encourages input to her gopher site; researcher Lisa Pease, who maintains the ftp site accessible from FP; our friends at The Cat Machine, a World Wide Web literary magazine; David M. Stern, M.D., proprietor of the Deep Politics Bookstore; and Paul Franklin of The Alliance to Expose Government Corruption and Corporate Irresponsibility web site. Thanks also to John Whalen and Jonathan Vankin of The 50 Greatetst Conspiracies of All Time. Lastly, thanks to Joe Riley, who maintains the Executive Action ftp site accessible from Fair Play's front page.
For some silly reason we feel obliged to note that editor Kelin happened to win a contest associated with the 50 Greatest Conspiracies book and Web site. Total coincidence. Probably shouldn't even mention it. His prize was a free book, reviewed (favorably) herein.
We regard Fair Play as essentially one big Op-Ed page. All readers are encouraged to submit articles and letters for use in future issues. You may lambaste us, praise us, or send us Web links. We will run the most thought-provoking stuff we get.
As a rule, Fair Play is oriented toward research and journalism. But we'll run JFK-related fiction, poetry, or anything else of general interest. You may send articles via email (please send a querey first) to the following address:
jkelin@rmii.comLet us know what you think of Fair Play! Click here for an E-Z email form.
Fair Play was flattered to have been chosen a Cool Site of the Day last November 22. If you've not yet checked out this site, we suggest you do.
Editor Kelin has a tendency to adopt a first-person "we" when he writes this portion of Fair Play. The plural pronoun is just a convenient device; when he says we he usually means I. The editor has also been known to use the nom de plume, "Lionel Mirthmint." As if he were fooling anybody!
The page one photograph of the grassy knoll and the former Texas School Book Depository building was taken by the editor in October 1993. The line beneath it, about Oswald and the American public, comes from Sylvia Meagher's Accessories After the Fact.
Finally: this has absolutely nothing to do with the Kennedy assassination, but Fair Play would like to take this opportunity (to paraphrase Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who was quoting Emerson) to greet Marshall Scott Kelin at the beginning of a great career. This fine young lad was born on April 11 of this year, at 5:06 p.m. mountain time. He weighed in at five pounds and eleven ounces, in spite of the fact that he surprised everyone by showing up five weeks early. Fair Play editor "Cool Papa" Kelin says Marshall has the hands of a guitarist, like his old man, and who are we to dispute that?
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