COPA's John Judge
It was the same place, the same date, the same time --- and the same day. Friday, November 22, midday. Dealey Plaza, Dallas. Even the weather was similar.
It was thirty-three years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy --- and the thirty-third time since then that private citizens have gathered unofficially, to remember that day in 1963.
"Many times we were under a dozen people that came here at 12:30 to commemorate the assassination of the President," said John Judge, the Executive Secretary of the Coalition on Political Assassinations, who has been to most of these observances over the last twenty years.
He needn't have worried about the 1996 turnout: hundreds of people --- thousands, by one estimate --- crowded around the concrete pergola above Elm Street, and lined the sidewalks, and milled about the grassy knoll.
"We are here gathered to remember his life, and his death, and beyond," said author George Michael Evica, one of the organizers of an assassination conference that coincided with the anniversary. "We know the truth, and will tell the story of that truth, here where he died, and in our councils and conferences, and in the years beyond, through the turn of the century. Because we remember JFK and his death, and his life, and of the meaning of that life and death, we now bear witness, in our voices, here in Dealey Plaza, where an unrested spirit is still with us."
Evica was the first of many speakers to address those assembled there on the grassy knoll. Another was author Charles Drago. "The land you're standing on here today, no less than Gettysburg or the Little Bighorn, is a battlefield, in a war, truly, for the soul and the future of your country. We have to find a way to --- I guess the best way to say it is, return the fire that happened thirty-three years ago to this day. This is not a comedy --- this is not an arcane, abstract historical abstraction. This is a current event. And until and unless we are prepared to deal with that, on those terms, and to understand what happened here as part of an ongoing process, we shall, sadly, return here every year with more questions than answers, and with the chance to win the war receding ever farther. Please take home, if nothing else, from this event today, the sense that you can make a difference. Form your own judgments --- keep your own council --- hear all sides --- but understand one thing to the exclusion of all others --- that conspiracy in the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is historical fact."
Ian Griggs, a former policeman and a leading British researcher, also spoke. "This thing affected us on the other side of the Atlantic --- not as much as it affected you, obviously, in 1963. And it still affects us because it still frightens us. This thing that happened in the United States, I fear, could happen in the UK. I pray that it won't. And obviously, like everybody here, I also hope and pray and work to get the truth of what happened here, thirty-three years ago. It concerns us all, in every part of the world, what happened on this very spot."
Author Robert Groden reminded the crowd that former Dallas researcher Larry Ray Harris had died recently in an automobile crash. "I'd like very much to acknowledge his memory --- a true friend, and a great man. For all of you who have come here to honor the memory of John F. Kennedy, and let the world know we don't buy the official fiction, I thank you personally, and wish you all the best, and hope to see you again here next year. Maybe by next year we might know the truth, if we're lucky."
John Judge spoke next, and used his time to talk about the Assassination Records Review Board, which has overseen the release of thousands of previously unavailable documents relating to the JFK case. "Major federal agencies have been balking at releasing records --- especially the National Security Agency has not been in any real compliance," Judge said. "The Pentagon, the military intelligence branches, have turned over very very few documents. They admit, in the case of Army Intelligence, to five cubic feet of documents on Lee Harvey Oswald ... but not one page has been released to the public. This Review Board goes out of existence in October of next year, and any document that it doesn't vote to release, or doesn't get turned over by them, may never see the light of day."
Author David Lifton also addressed the Review Board's ticking clock. "I'd like to urge everybody to support the one government body we have now that is dedicated to clarifying the historical record in this area with regard to this whole event," said Lifton, who recently testified before the Board (see "The Review Board in L.A.," by Joseph Backes, Fair Play Issue #13). "We should all be petitioning the government to extend the life of this Board to deal with the matters that are being raised by the research community. You should write your congressmen and let them know that the ARRB deserves an extension past their closing date."
When 12:30 arrived, silence fell on the crowd. Someone later said that a replica of the fateful limousine, now used in a tourist attraction recreating Kennedy's final ride, drove by the knoll at this moment.
When the moment of silence passed, and the observance came to an end, most of those present lingered for a time. Perhaps some of them still heard John Judge's words: "The research community that I've worked with since the 1960s has essentially solved this case," he said. "That solution certainly involves the highest levels of military and intelligence organizations in this country. It's not a mystery."
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