A Reflection Of Life's Journey

As I reflect upon being blessed with another year of life - a birthday – I found myself looking back at the time in which I’ve lived. Maybe you could say I’m being introspective because of achieving this milestone along my life’s journey. This thing we call life is like a season characterized by a particular circumstance, suitable to an indefinite period of time associated with a divine phenomenon gifted to us by someone greater than ourselves.

This important event caused me to realize what I view as a grace-filled journey to which I asked myself; if it was a true story, a miracle, a blessing or just simply a fairy tale. While examining the evolution of my life to this point, through God’s grace, I was blessed with the good fortune or privilege to have had many precious moments. As a result, I can say during this passage through time I have come to realize that there are milestones, mountains, and valleys that everyone will encounter.

What I have learned is that we need to appreciate and value those dear to us for tomorrow is not promised. Which is why I think showing love is the toll we pay along the way. I will admit that my life has not been unlike that of any other man who has ever lived. Although challenging at times, the answer to those challenges was to have the will to survive and that means being accountable for life on life’s terms, and of course understanding that I have no control over life’s terms.

Some may say that I am a self-made man, while I say I simply experienced a journey that was charted by someone greater than myself. I have been given the magnificent gift of being a benevolent spirit and the good fortune to have been blessed many times over, for which I am very grateful. I am thankful to have enjoyed the by-products of life, meaning the material things that can be gained from it. However, the most rewarding experiences have come from the personal enrichment gained from helping others.

I can recall my Granddaddy telling me to reach for the stars and understand that it is not a disgrace to do so. It is, however, a disgrace not to have a star. I worked hard trying to make my dreams come true. If my mind could conceive it and my heart would believe it, there was no reason not to achieve it. I was born and therefore I am.” In reality it doesn’t matter what you have done for yourself. It is what you have done for humanity during the journey that is the more important question. Granddaddy taught me that doing the common things in life in an uncommon manner would command the attention of the world. It is possible that’s what my dear friend meant.

As I look back, I am honored to have given something to everyone whose path I’ve crossed, along with finding a place in my heart to care for other souls, especially those I loved. I cannot say that my greatest glory was never failing; although the objective was not to fail but when I did, finding the strength to rise when I have failed was the true blessing.

I lesson learned a long time ago when I attended Sunday school classes. It was why Jesus wept. As the story goes, when Lazarus died, Jesus saw Mary and Martha weeping. He was so moved as he witnessed their pain for the loss of his friend that he also wept. Today I understand, because I have felt that pain because I lost a son. So I understand that the real tragedy of life is not that it ends too soon. Perhaps the tragedy is that most people never have a chance to live life while they have it.

I sometimes wonder if the lessons from my experiences should be called obstacles or stepping-stones that shape the time I’ve have lived. Nonetheless, in their entirety – life’s lessons are priceless. Maybe this proves that God is in the miracles business. He works in mysterious ways with his wonders yet to behold.

Time is life and just as in life, time is something experienced that dictates the rhythm of your soul. As life’s most precious commodity, it waits for no one. All of us have been given only 24 hours each day, which is life’s great equalizer. It does not matter who you are – everyone is equal and from that standpoint, 1440 minutes each day are all you get. It is each minute that is the starting point for living the rest of your life or the last minute of it. Therefore, I must be ever so conscious of every single minute because each minute must be cherished and used ever so wisely. The key, however, is not how much time you have, rather what you do with that time. Since we know not the minute or the hour, my mission now must be to live each eternal moment.

How interesting it is that we come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. Then we leave the world smiling while everybody around us weeps. This brings to mind a sermon my childhood pastor, Reverend Cole, gave explaining this phenomenon called life in the simplest of terms. He said, “This period of existence we call life in the final analysis is Just a Season.” And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Marissa Alexander Freed

For the first time in a long while there is good news out of Florida!!! Marissa Alexander the Florida woman sentenced to 20 years in prison after firing a "warning shot" during an argument with her abusive husband has been released on bond while she awaits retrial under a controversial part of the state's self-defense law. What a wonderful holiday gift!

The case of Marissa Alexander, who was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, touched off a furor when her supporters compared it to the self-defense case of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted earlier this year of murdering an unarmed black teenager. Some have compared these two cases and the law as simply “black and white. Whereas, no one was injured in Alexander's case, the court gave her a 20-year prison sentence under the state's mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines because she had fired a gun during the assault.

A state appeals court ruled in September that Alexander, who is black, deserved a new trial because the judge failed to properly instruct the Jacksonville, Fla., jury about her self-defense argument. She was convicted in May 2012. "This news is vindication for Marissa and all the women who have become criminalized for exercising their basic right to defend themselves and their children," Angie Nixon of Florida New Majority, a social justice organization, said of Alexander's release.

The case drew criticism from civil rights groups concerned about self-defense laws and mandatory minimum sentencing rules, but it received little attention outside north Florida until the Zimmerman case. Zimmerman was arrested for killing Trayvon Martin in 2012 and was acquitted of murder and manslaughter in July 2013.

Under the so-called "Stand Your Ground" clause added to Florida's self-defense law in 2005, people who use deadly force to defend themselves from serious injury - rather than retreating to avoid confrontation - can be immune from prosecution. Zimmerman never sought immunity under "Stand Your Ground," instead relying on a standard self-defense law. Alexander's "Stand Your Ground" claim was rejected because she left the house during the confrontation to retrieve a gun from her car, returning to fire a shot near her husband Rico Gray's head.

A slightly built woman who stands 5 feet 2 inches, Alexander said her 245-pound husband was about to attack her when she fired into a kitchen wall during the August 2010 incident. He had previously been convicted of domestic violence for attacking her. Prosecutors said the shot endangered Gray. At the time, Alexander had an active restraining order against her husband and she carried a concealed weapons permit.

Source: CBS News

The History Of Thanksgiving

The Holiday Season is upon us, and Thanksgiving is a special day to enjoy with family and friends. It welcomes the transition from Fall to Winter and the marvels it brings. A time of joy and hope!

I have said many times “nothing is as it seems”, as the truth or true history is never told or taught with regard to what really happen or how it is that we celebrate most holidays. Therefore, as we enjoy the graciously prepared food on this day; think about the real history of Thanksgiving.

Let’s go back in time. It was in September 1620 when a tiny ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers of assorted cast of religious separatists or as we might call them today – religious zealots. They set out seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith with individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.

The journey across the Atlantic was treacherous and an uncomfortable crossing that lasted sixty-six days before they dropped anchor near Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. After about a month, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth. They saw that there was not fences, so the thought the land was theirs for the taking, and they did just that – took it.

The first winter was brutal causing most of the colonists to remain on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first spring in the so-called new world. It wasn’t until spring that the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian, who greeted them in English. Shortly thereafter, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe.  Squanto had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition.

Squanto was the person who taught the Pilgrims, who were starving and sick, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. This is the beginning of what is now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”; although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term, at the time, history reports that the festival lasted three days.

As you can imagine, there is no record of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

What most people don’t know it that thereafter thanksgiving was not celebrate each year, rather it was a celebration had after a major victory resulting from a battle in a war. It was not until the Civil War that Abraham Lincoln did the holiday become a national holiday celebrated each year. Today as with all holidays, it has become an economic extension of capitalism.

In spite of its history, I wish you and yours a safe and blessed day with you and yours. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

The Day Innocence Died – A Legacy Of Hope

John F. Kennedy was a forward thinking leader who believed in a simple principle that government’s purpose was to do things for the great good of its people. He was a remarkable man of vision who said, “We chose to go to the moon and do other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard”. He was eloquent and charming, yet ruthless and determined which may have been his demise. It is my view on November 22, 1963, fifty years ago, America’s best hope died.

This man had the courage stand up to mighty powers to save the world, bringing it back from the brink of destruction during the Cuban missile crisis. He was trying to pull the troops out of Vietnam, which I believe had it happened fifty-six thousand Americans killed and the many more wounded would not have happened. Nor the suffering and devastation caused to the families of those Americans.

Kennedy had to deal with issues of ending the cold war and fight the hawks who wanted it to remain under the guise of communism. He was about to break up the CIA and remove Hoover as FBI Director; more significantly he planned to remove Johnson from the 1964 ticket, and remove . This man stood up to the powerful forces within the government with such extreme right wing thinking that was like that of a horror movie.

Then the was the issue of race and Jim Crow that was more prevalent than at anytime since the Civil War.  He took it on with proposing aggressive legislative moves to address equality for those American citizens designated to second class citizenship within the most powerful nation in the world. Not to mention, his struggles with the backward and segregationist called Dixie-crates of the south who were so engrained in opposition to integration that you would have thought they were Klan members, which many were cardholders.

In the interest of fairness, I must say with regard to race; he had no choice because of television. Actually, the race problem in America at the time was worse than the apartheid system in South Africa. Television brought the horrific coverage of Bull Connor putting dogs on peaceful protester down south on American streets into living rooms across the country nightly on the evening news, which was also broadcast around the world. This was a tumultuous year! There was the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. There were also the actions of segregationists like George Wallace who stood in the doorway of an Alabama university to deny blacks, or colors as they were called then, access to higher education. Let’s not forget segregation at all levels of education and housing discrimination.

This was the year that Medar Evers was assassinated and on the very night of a speech given by Kennedy on the topic of race. In Birmingham, Alabama four innocent little black girl were killed in a church by a bomb planted by a racist. Dr. King was arrest and locked up in a Birmingham jail for his work in trying to achieve equality. There was Bloody Sunday a day where peaceful marchers were stampeded as they tried to cross a bridge into Selma, Alabama. These are just a few issues but at the time segregation was the law of the land.

President Kennedy embodied a vision of hope for America that spoke loudly to the heart of a man, as evidence by this remark “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” Interrupting that says to me “leaders are not made they are born”. The point here is each of us is born with a purpose, and that is to die. However, a more significant purpose is what it is that do while we live. Could it be that he was born to die so that we could see? As horrible as Nixon was as president, resigning in disgrace ten years later, the world would have surely been much worse if he was elected in 1960.

It weighed heavily on my heart to write this commemorative piece to pay homage to the light that shined bright at a time when America was so dark, from my perspective as an African American. As I wrote this series of articles, I learned so much about the evils within the American body. Having lived through segregation, I witnessed how dangerous these evils were to everyone, particularly to African Americans, and the world.

Those evils remain today; we have the George Zimmerman’s and those who made him a hero. More troubling is the state of political discourse within our government, namely the Republicans and the Tea Party ilk that is not that much different from the Citizens Councils of old.

One thing that really surprised me as I researched the three week series “The Day Innocence Died”; there were countless people that died or were killed who knew too much about the murder of Kennedy. There were also many who benefited significantly that were presumed to be related in some way with or to the cover-up. Did you know that there were four presidents elected after the assassination that were mentioned by some researchers and experts as being connected or possibly involve in the death of Kennedy; Johnson, Ford, Nixon, and Bush that may well be the biggest sin.

I can only imagine if President Kennedy could speak to us today. I believe, he would say:

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future… Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable… Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies… The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” Actual words spoken by John F. Kennedy

It is my hope that you gained more knowledge about “The Day Innocence Died” because the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

The Day Innocence Died – Who Done It

Today is the sad anniversary, for lack of a better word, of the assassination of President Kennedy 50 years ago in Dallas, Texas. Over the past several weeks, I have written a number of articles concerning the numerous theories, myths, and some untruths regarding what happened leading to the remembrance of this monumental tragic event that occurred November 22, 1963.

In light of the information available most reasonable thinking people could to come to the conclusion that it was the day that innocence died. This event is so mired in intellectual dishonestly that the government sealed and locked away documents for seventy-five years and here we are fifty-years later wondering why. I'll suggest that it is because the media who continues to participate in what most see as a cover-up.

The world surely would have been very different if Mr. Kennedy had lived. Of all of the many theories, evidence, and experts whose research the assassination coming to varying conclusions. Of all of the information I have seen, the conclusion put forth by Professor/Author Jerry Kroth gives a reasonable and logical theory as to what may have happened and who done it.

The video below of Professor Jerry Kroth's giving a presentation that presents the single, most plausible theory of the assassination. It is based on the admissions of grassy knoll gunman, James Files, the deathbed confession of CIA spymaster, E. Howard Hunt, and the most recent scholarship to appear in the last decade. Dr. Kroth proposes that Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, and Mafia, acting in concert, carried off one of the greatest crimes in American history.

This talk comes from his latest book, released just this September, Coup d'etat: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It is a concise, well-documented expose of a brazen, as he says, overthrow of the United States government on November 22, 1963.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

The world changed “The Day Innocence Died” and spiraled downward from that day to this…

The Day Innocence Died – Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison is quoted as saying, “telling the truth can be a scary thing sometimes." In 1963, Garrison was the New Orleans District Attorney of Orleans Parrish.Three days after President Kennedy was assassinated he arrested David Ferrie as a possible associate of Lee Harvey Oswald and turned the investigation over to the FBI.

In the fall of 1966, Garrison reopened his investigation into the JFK assassination, after speaking with U.S. Senator Russell Longfrom Louisiana. Long told Garrison that it was his opinion that Oswald could not have acted alone. Garrison soon connected Oswald to Guy Banister, David Ferrie, and Clay Shaw.

During the summer of 1963, Oswald worked in Banister's office and was seen with Clay Shaw and David Ferrie in New Orleans and Clinton, LA. In March of 1967, Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans International Trade Mart director Clay Shaw with complicity in the murder of President Kennedy. To see a brief summary of Clay Shaw's trial and his life, click on the link Clay Shaw.

Oliver Stone's movie JFK mocks the doubtful veracity of the Warren Commission's findings on the Kennedy assassination and summarizes some of the myriad theories that have been proposed. Focusing on the investigation by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison into the activities of the FBI and other government agencies as well as their attempted cover-ups, Stone weaves fact and speculation into a compelling argument for the reopening of the case files.

Jim Garrison died believing the assassination was a conspiracy and authored several books; one being "On The Trail of The Assassins". Garrison was with the FBI, a district attorney, and from 1978-88 he was Judge of the Court of Appeal in New Orleans. Yet, we are told that the man was a paranoid fantasist, a publicity hound and a crooked DA.

Garrison was resurrected in Oliver Stone's “JFK”. In the film, Garrison, played by Kevin Costner, is the archetypal underdog, a hero who sacrifices everything in search of truth. Although there are two contrasting views of the man but I will agree with Garrison in that the truth can be scary, although it is never as frightening as the power of a good lie.

It seems reasonable that the only man to bring anyone to trial for the murder of the president of the United States is a hero and that an error in judgment or otherwise can only be corrected by fixing it by revealing the truth.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 

Follow the series “The Day Innocence Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – The Autopsy

All of us have watched CSI and therefore know how important an autopsy is in any death  and is the most significant piece of evidence in a crime. The autopsy of JFK according to experts was, at best, the worst ever recorded. This study of the autopsy photos finds that JFK was shot four times from the right front by at least three different guns none of which were fired from the Sixth Floor School Book Depository. If any one of these bullets occurred as supported by the evidence of the autopsy photos a conspiracy existed.

Some claim that Oswald fired three additional shots one of which struck Connally in the back without hitting JFK thus creating confusion. At least seven bullets were fired November 22, 1963. Expert’s also claim given Oswald’s shooting record and the condition of the Carcano it is clear that Oswald could not have hit anything and was never intended to actually shoot JFK or even hit the car. Oswald was intended as a patsy to divert attention away from the true assassins by blaming Russia or Cuba.

When Kennedy’s body arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital an autopsy was conducted. The autopsy found the four bullet wounds from the right front as described above. The Kennedy family was informed of the findings as was President Johnson and Hover of the FBI but orders for secrecy were given to all others in the interest of national security. After Oswald’s death Dr. Humes burns the original autopsy report and his notes. A multitude of evidence is destroyed, lost, altered and fabricated. Once commenced the cover up cannot fail.

As a side note to what is known, Jackie Kennedy left some secret papers to be opened only after the death of all her children. Perhaps she will tell us what really happened and why. An error in judgment or otherwise can only be corrected by fixing it and in this case by revealing the truth.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 Follow the series “The Day Innocence Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – The Magic Bullet Theory

There are so many mysteries, myths, and dare I say lies connect to the JFK assassination, particularly as it relates to what the official story reports. One of the most interesting and unbelievable aspects of the Warren Commission report was what have been christened as the "Magic Bullet theory. If you believe what the conspiracy books say about the Warren Commission believed about the fantasy called the Single Bullet Theory, you would have to conclude the commissioners and staff of the commission were a bunch of fools.

The single (magic) bullet theory according to the commission went like this: a three-centimeter (1.2")-long copper-jacketed lead-core 6.5-millimeter rifle bullet fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository passed through President Kennedy’s neck and Governor Connally’s chest and wrist and embedded itself in the Governor’s thigh. This means the bullet traversed 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. Yet, this bullet was found on a gurney in the corridor at the Parkland Memorial Hospital completely intact and in nearly pristine condition. This bullet became a key Commission exhibit, identified as CE 399.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Fifty-years later the question remains “who done it”?


Follow the series “The Day Innocence Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – The Getaway

Conspiracy theorists have alleged when the new President left Dallas on the afternoon of November 22, 1963, it was more of a getaway than returning the body of the murdered president to Washington.

As a result of the fifty-year mark of the assassination of John F. Kennedy many different views and theories have been provided, over the past few weeks, to insert knowledge of the event to add to the discussion. With most of living America either too young or told an official story that was suspect, at best.

One such view comes from the son of a former Pentagon Counter Intelligence officer who tells the story of how his father, a Military agency insider Col. Christensen, reveals to his family what actually happened in Dallas on 11/22/63 and why it happened.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Follow the series “The Day Innocence Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – Secrets

Friday November 22, 2013 will mark one of, if not, the most monumental event of modern history – the assassination of an American president. From that day, America changed, which was I suppose was the purpose of the day innocence died. Those involved in perpetrating the crime and some say cover-up, may well have gotten away with the crime of the century.

In the attached video, the author asks a very basic question – after fifty years, why not release the more that fifty-thousand secret documents on the matter so that the truth can be revealed? 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Follow the series “The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – Kennedy and Race

Race relations in American history have been disgraceful and more horrific treatment imposed upon African America’s than any other people ever to walk the earth. People of African descent have been enslaved, segregated, and maligned for all of America’s history, yet have remained supremely devoted and loyal. I can now understand what it must have been like when President Lincoln fought to end slavery and then was assassinated. It must have felt like their last hope was gone. Respectively, when President Kennedy was killed most African America’s relived the pain of their ancestors.  

In the 1960s one would surely find three portraits hung in just about every African American home; Jesus represented unconditional hope, strength and love; Dr. King personified the moral crusade that ended legal segregation, and there was President John F. Kennedy, who holds an important, but complicated place in black history when we look back the time in which he lived.

It’s been fifty-years since the death of Kennedy and as time has passes we're still trying to figure it out what he might have done for civil rights had he not been killed. For sure, African American’s placed hope in this man akin to that invested in Abraham Lincoln in terms of our obtaining the long awaited equality, as they both sympathized with the black struggle like no other president before them.

During Kennedy’s time in office, he did speak eloquently against segregation despite resistance from Southern racists in his own Democratic party. Some even feel that his support for civil rights was one reason he was killed, even though racial motives seldom featured prominently among the many theories about Kennedy's death.

The impact of his death in many African American homes at the time was like that of losing a family member. Its effect was like a big cloud over the whole black community, an aura of hopelessness. Just look back at the pictures of the funeral, you see so many black people out there crying. Mind you, this was at a time when African Americans were barred from most, if not all, public accommodations.

In a speech soon after meeting Dr. King, Kennedy spoke of the "moving examples of moral courage" shown by civil rights protesters. Their peaceful demonstrations, he said, were not "to be lamented, but a great sign of responsibility, of good citizenship, of the American spirit." He went on to reference the growing "sit-in" movement, in which black customers demanded service at white-only restaurants, Kennedy said: "It is in the American tradition to stand up for one's rights even if the new way to stand up for one's rights is to sit down."

Let’s be clear; he was a white man and wanted to steer clear of the issue of race for political reasons. However, he endeared himself to the African American community when Dr. King was in jail. Over the objections of his brother and campaign manager, Robert Kennedy, an aide managed to convince the candidate to place a sympathetic call to King's pregnant wife, Coretta. Soon thereafter, Robert Kennedy called the judge. Suddenly, bail was granted, and King was freed.

The story of the Kennedys' involvement made headlines in black newspapers nationwide. King issued a statement saying he was "deeply indebted to then Senator Kennedy," although he remained nonpartisan. The Kennedy campaign printed tens of thousands of pamphlets describing the episode and distributed them in black churches across the country on the Sunday before the presidential election. He would get 78 percent of the black vote, won the election by one of the narrowest margins in U.S. history.

When Kennedy became president, his top priority was foreign policy. There were enormous Cold War challenges, from the Soviet Union and Vietnam to Cuba the site of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and of the crisis over Soviet missiles that threatened to trigger a nuclear war. At the same time, the civil rights movement was boiling and could not be ignored. "Freedom Riders" seeking to integrate Southern bus lines were mercilessly beaten. Whites rioted to prevent the black student James Meredith from enrolling at the University of Mississippi; two people were killed after Kennedy sent in troops to ensure Meredith's admission.

In Birmingham, Ala., police loosed clubs, dogs and fire hoses on peaceful protesters, and a church bombing killed four black girls. Images of the violence shamed America before the world and as African American blood flowed, Kennedy moved cautiously toward civil rights legislation. Publicly, the Kennedy administration was reluctant to intervene in the Southern violence unless federal law was being flouted. Privately, Kennedy's men urged protest leaders to slow down and avoid confrontation.

In light of foreign policy issues, civil rights simply was not a top priority. It could be said that he allowed J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, to deal with the Negro problem, which was a bad idea. Hoover believed the growing civil rights movement was under Communist influence and a threat to national security. He closely monitored King and others in the movement with surveillance, informants and wiretaps. He went so far as to refuse to warn King as it routinely warned other potential targets. In spite of Kennedy publicly working with King, even as his FBI tried to tear King down, he paid both sides of the issue.

Kennedy also opposed to the March on Washington using the argument that he wanted success in the Congress for any civil rights legislation. In the end, the peaceful mass march made headlines around the world. Kennedy watched it on television. Immediately afterward, he met with march leaders in the White House, where they discussed civil rights legislation that was finally inching through Congress. The leaders pressed Kennedy to strengthen the legislation; the president listed many obstacles.

During a speech at San Diego State College in June 1963 Kennedy said, "Our goal must be an educational system in the spirit of the declaration of independence — a system in which all are created equal," Kennedy said. "A system in which every child, whether born a banker's son in a Long Island mansion, or a Negro sharecropper's son in an Alabama cotton field, has every opportunity for an education that his abilities and character deserve." This was dangerous for the time and not acceptable language by the dominant culture. This put him on the enemy list not only for political retribution, but for death.

If it were not for the 50^th anniversary of his death few African Americans would mention his name. Young people barely remember him; there are no aging portraits on the walls, and certainly he is not remembered as a civil rights icon. It was his successor, President Johnson, who receives credit for hammering through the monumental Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, which ensured full citizenship for African-Americans.

Whether Kennedy might have achieved anything substantial on civil rights or for black people, we will never know but he was a breath of fresh air, youthful, dynamic, and in my view a new visionary type of leader full of optimism and hope.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

The Day Innocence Died – Oswald Is Shot

Every murder story has its mystery’s and in the case of the JFK assassination the plot continued to thicken. A major development in the case occurred two days after the assassination when the man arrested and charged with the crime was murdered himself on live television – Case Closed.

The man who killed Oswald was Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby known to his gangster friends as "Sparky" had been seen in the hallways of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. 

Ruby was actually captured on newsreel footage impersonating a newspaper reporter during a press conference at Dallas Police Headquarters on the night of the assassination. He even spoke that night correcting Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. Some have speculated that Ruby may have hoped to kill Oswald that night at the press conference.

On this Sunday morning, two days after the assassination, at 11:21 am CST, while authorities were escorting Oswald through the police basement to a private car that was to take him to the nearby county jail Ruby stepped out from a crowd of reporters and fired his .38 revolver into Oswald's abdomen, fatally wounding him. The shooting was broadcast live nationally, and millions of television viewers witnessed it. 

When Ruby was arrested immediately after the shooting, he told several witnesses that he helped the city of Dallas "redeem" itself in the eyes of the public, and that Oswald's death would spare "…Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial." Ruby's explanation for killing Oswald would be "exposed … as a fabricated legal ploy", according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Another motive was put forth by Frank Sheeran, allegedly a hitman for the Mafia, in a conversation he had with the then-former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. During the conversation, Hoffa claimed that Ruby was assigned the task of coordinating police officers who were loyal to Ruby to murder Oswald while he was in their custody. As Ruby evidently mismanaged the operation, he was given a choice to either finish the job himself or forfeit his life.

However, as a matter of record told by the Warren Commission they found no evidence linking Ruby's killing of Oswald to be part of a broader conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. Journalist Seth Kantor published a book Who Was Jack Ruby? In it he wrote: The mob was Ruby's "friend." And Ruby could well have been paying off an IOU the day he was used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 

Follow the series “The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – The Gun

There are not many people living today who remember the assignation except those Americans fifty-five or older. The problem then becomes, how much truth does either group really know about the most important case in history. What has been revealed since the official story is cause for a rethinking of the facts provided at the time. Or as one research called it; misinformation feed to the public. During this series leading to the anniversary, for lack of a better word, of the Kennedy assassination, experts have given varying points of view.

After Oswald was arrested the most important piece of evidence had come under intense scrutiny – the weapon. The video’s below are most interesting in that these researches believe the gun of record my not actually be the gun used to kill the president. See for yourself and you decide!

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 

Follow the series "The Day Innocence Died"

The Day Innocence Died – An Arrest

Within an hour of JFK’s assassination the Dallas Police had identified a suspect and just over an hour after he was murdered “they had their man”. In an age where they were virtually in the Stone Age in terms of technology, they were able to do what CSI could not do today. They got their man in seventy minutes. Great work right! I am sure the Dallas police department was in chaos. In fact, an FBI analyst said, “They lost control”.

The arrested man Lee Harvey Oswald was a former US Marine who defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959. He lived in the Soviet Union until June 1962, at which time he returned to the United States with a Russian wife. Oswald would be charged with killing a policeman and the assassination of President Kennedy. He denied involvement in either of the killings. Two days later, while being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail; Oswald was shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in full view of television cameras broadcasting live.

As most of us were told by The Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination, they concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from a window in the Texas School Book Depository. Many Americans have questioned this conclusion. In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassination determined in its own inquiry that Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy”.

His-story tells us that Oswald left the Book Depository heading to his house picking up a gun and heading to a movie theater. In route to the theater he sees or is stopped by a police man shooting him sever times. Then, for some odd reason, he decides to go to the movies. It was a store manager, Johnny Brewer, who testified that he saw Oswald "ducking into" the entrance alcove of his store. Suspicious of this activity, he watched Oswald continue up the street and slip into the nearby theater without paying. He alerted the theater's ticket clerk, who telephoned police at about 1:40 pm.

The police soon arrived, the house lights were turned on and Brewer pointed out Oswald sitting near the rear of the theater. Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to reach Oswald and that Oswald pulled out a pistol tucked into the front of his pants, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger. The pistol did not fire because the pistol's hammer came down on the webbing between the thumb and index finger, and it was taken away. Oswald then struck him and McDonald struck him back and he was disarmed. As he was led out of the theater, Oswald shouted he was a victim of police brutality. He was taken to jail about 2 PM where he was questioned about the shooting of Officer Tippit.

Oswald was formally arraigned for the murder of Officer Tippit at 7:10 PM, and by the end of the night about 1:30 AM, he had been arraigned for the murder of President Kennedy as well. Soon after his capture Oswald encountered reporters in a hallway. Oswald declared, "I didn't shoot anybody" and "They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!" Throughout, he repeatedly professed “I did not kill anyone”.

Reporters were allowed all kinds of access. They had not only the suspect being paraded up and down the hall with everyone could shout questions. Hundreds of reporters packed the hallways leading into the homicide division to film and take pictures of the man who killed President John F. Kennedy, sometimes making it difficult for Lee Harvey Oswald to even walk.

Oswald was interrogated for 12 hours about the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Dallas police Officer J.D. Tippit. He revealed very little about the crimes.

A WFAA reporter at the time reported, "During most of the night he tossed and turned." Oswald’s wife, mother, and brother were allowed to see him. They came in, and Oswald actually used the phone to talk to them on the other side of this glass. The phone calls were monitored; police listing to what he had to say. However, there were no records kept.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 Follow the series “The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – Suspects

The list of alleged suspects who may or may not be involved in the murder of JFK are many, although as far as the Warren Commission was concerned there was only one – Lee Harvey Oswald, which some say was a rush to judgment. The former secretary of President John F. Kennedy made a list of suspects she believed were behind his assassination immediately after he was gunned down in Texas.

The JFK assassination in 1963 has long been the subject of conspiracy theories, ranging from those behind the murder to doubts about the lone assassin theory. But even before those conspiracies were aired Lincoln had her own suspicions. She was riding in the motorcade with Kennedy when he was shot dead allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

As Evelyn Lincoln Kennedy’s personal secretary flew home on Air Force One that day she jotted down the names of those she suspected of behind the killing. The suspects that topped her list were Richard Nixon and the country's vice president Lyndon Johnson. Johnson was sworn in after the murder that shocked the world.

Lincoln jotted down the names of people she suspected who could have been behind the killing. Other suspects on here list were Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, the KKK, Dixiecrats, the John Birch Society, South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem, CIA in Cuban fiasco, Dictators and Communists.

Few in the public have ever seen this note. On the back of the list is another note, written more than 20 years later when she passed on her letters to Kennedy collector Robert White.

'There is no end to the list of suspected conspirators to President Kennedy murder. Many factions had their reasons for wanting the young president dead. That fact alone illustrates how the world suffers from a congenital proclivity to violence,' it reads.

The 10-month Warren Commission set up to investigate the assassination concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating the president. There are many others but I talked about Mrs. Lincoln because it shows she believed from the very beginning “this dog just don’t hunt”. The video’s below talks about other suspects – take a moment to view – you decide.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

  More to come on “The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – Umbrella Man

The JFK assassination is full of mysteries, untruths and some say lies. One of the strangest elements that happened that day in Dealey Plaza was a man standing holding an umbrella on this clear sunny day just before the motorcade came into the kill zone. Kennedy assassination experts profess that it was open before the shots were fired. They say when he closed it the gun fire began. This man came to be known as the “Umbrella Man” and his curious behavior at the scene of the JFK assassination has lingered for fifty-years.

Was this fellow, standing in Dealey Plaza with an open umbrella and no rain in sight part of the conspiracy? Here are two video’s that captures umbrella man from the NOVA documentary: Here is the first one, and here is the second. It is worth mentioning that some conspiratorialists claim that the umbrellas are different, having a different number of spokes. Decide for yourself.

What was the point of an umbrella in Dealey Plaza? It is said that it was an attempt to heckle Kennedy with a reminder of the appeasement policies of British Prime Minister Nevill Chamberlain, whose weak posture toward Hitler was supported by Kennedy's father.

One of the more bizarre theories about the Umbrella Man comes from Robert Cutler. Cutler claimed that the umbrella was a weapon firing a flechette (poisoned dart) that hit Kennedy in the throat, paralyzing Kennedy to set him up for the head shot. Here is Cutler's drawing of this concept.

There was also another man with Umbrella Man that day that came to be known as the so-called “Dark Complected Man”. He was named that because his complexion was his most readily identifiable feature in photos from November 22. The Dark Complected Man is without question an extremely important character and maybe even more deserving of scrutiny than Umbrella Man.

Dark Complected Man, like Umbrella Man, was on the Grassy Knoll, and, like Umbrella Man, appears to reasonable observers to have been signaling. At the precise moment that JFK’s car passed the Umbrella Man opened and pumped his umbrella repeatedly while the Dark Complected Man shot his fist up into the air. To some, this man seemed to be calling for a halt to the presidential limo, which did in fact either come to a complete halt or slowed down to a crawl.

It’s not just their actions at the moment that Kennedy’s head is blown apart. It’s how they behave afterwards. You will see from the videos below that both acted very different than everyone else after the shooting.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

“The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – A Brief Recap

Prior to the assassination of John Kennedy most Americans believed everything the government told us. Since the assassination, particularly since more and more information is revealed on this situation and others since, more Americans suspect the government of at best misinformation. 

Most now question much of what we have been told regarding so many situations from that day to this, which is why on that day in November 1963 – innocence died. With regard to the assassination two-thirds of the Americans surveyed have doubt about what has and is being recorded as fact. How about you?

Let’s recap and based upon what history have been told us; look at what really happened according to the first video. Then in the second video there are questions you may want to ask yourself.

hmmmm! And that's my thought provoking perspective...

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

“The Day The Dream Died”…

The Day Innocence Died – The Colonel

Everyone remembers where they were on the day JFK died. Here is an account from military security analyst Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty, like almost everyone else alive at the time, remembers exactly where he was when he first heard news. He was the inspiration for the character "Mr. X" in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. Concluding an assignment to Antarctica, he was in Christchurch, New Zealand where he was sent on government business when read newspaper reports of the tragedy.

According to Prouty, people within the intelligence and military communities of the United States government conspired to assassinate Kennedy. He maintained that their actions were a coup d'état to stop the President from taking control of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs. Prouty stated that the assassination was orchestrated by Edward Lansdale (Gen. Y" in Oliver Stone's JFK) and that Landsdale appeared in photographs of the "three tramps.

In 1975, Prouty appeared with Richard Sparague at a news conference in New York to present what they believed was photographic evidence of a conspiracy. According to Prouty, the movement of Kennedy after a bullet struck his head was consistent with a shot from the grassy knoll. He also suggested that the actions of a man with an umbrella, the "Umbrella Man", were suspicious.

Prouty provides a very interesting perspective. He said, based on his experience he is convinced that there is more to the initial news accounts than meets the eye. Let us remember that Oswald was arrest for the murder and in less than seventy minutes after the president was shot. He was in custody – case closed!

Most view this as the most remarkable capture of the suspect, considering having in this short period of time, an entire account of his whereabouts and history. It is important to remember this was at a time when there were draconian communication resources and the most important murder case of the century was supposedly solved in an hour, which leads some to wonder if the suspect was known before the “The Big Event” occurred. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

More to come as the series “The Day The Dream Died”…