JFK

[Alan Olson <washngtn@po-1.star.k12.ia.us>]

I was in Dallas just last week.  While there I had a little time and went
to visit the Texas Book Depository and Dealy (sp) Plaza.  The Dallas County
Historical Society has made an excellent display  on the sixth floor.
I was there with a group of about 15 adults all of whom were alive on that
November day.  I think every one of them remembered where they were that
day.  I happened to be a sophomore in college in a small state college in
Dickinson ND.  We were in a Theatre Set Design class and were meeting in
the instructor's large office.  We had never listened to the radio during
that class but this day we just happened to have the radio on.  We heard
the first announcement that the President had been shot.  Then shortly we
heard that he was dead.
To say we were stunned would be an understatement.  There was absolute
silence in a class of theatre majors.  There were not a lot of tears but we
all felt like we had been kicked in the stomach.  There were no more
classes that day.
To visit the place where the President was killed some 25 or 26 years later
was a chance to relive some of that emotional time.  The one thing that
really struck me when I was in Dallas was the size of the area.  From all
of the television footage and movies I have seen, I have always thought
this area was very large.  I always thought the gunman had a very difficult
shot.  Not so.  I was amazed how close the gunman was to the car.  It
always looked so far on TV.
There are still people who hover around the Texas Book Depository selling
books with graphic pictures and telling anyone willing to listen their
theory of the conspiracy.  For $5 you can buy their book but for an
investment in time they will tell you about the number of people who were
on the "grassy knoll" who died shortly after telling their story to the
Warren commission.  One book salesman told me that 30 people had died
within 2 years of their testimony.  A man was in a nearby railroad depot on
the second floor.  He was dead within 30 days after he told his story.   A
vendor sells hot dogs from a cart on the street near where the shooting
took place.
So the stories are plentiful and the truth is scarce.  We do know that a
lot of information was withheld from the investigators.  We will probably
never know the exact way this happened but we have to accept what has been
told to us.

Alan Olson, Media Specialist
Washington High School
P.O. Box 271
Washington  IA  52353
washngtn@po-1.star.k12.ia.us