A Note From John Judge - Director of COPA - Coalition on Political Assassinations
50 YEARS OF SILENCE
Imagine the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy, November 22, 2013 , at the Grassy
Knoll passing without a word in the press about his assassination and who was
behind it, only a celebration of his life. That is what Dallas
authorities are planning now.
Every year, as you know, we hold a Moment of Silence on the
Grassy Knoll at 12:30 pm on November
22 to commemorate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and to keep
alive the knowledge and outrage about the injustice of his intentionally
unsolved political murder. After our event, which continues a tradition started
in 1964 by researcher and journalist Penn Jones, Jr., we speak truth to power.
We invite the best researchers to our annual meetings to
present the best new evidence in the major political assassinations of the last
five decades, and we encourage them to speak briefly on the Grassy Knoll. Our
event is not a circus or carnival atmosphere, it is not even “conspiracy
theory,” as the press commentators try to dismiss it. It is an event lest we
forget.
We will be there again this year, this time on Thanksgiving
Day. We invite you to join us for the conference and for the event in Dallas ,
from November 22-25th. We will be staying and meeting at the Hotel Lawrence
this year, as in the past.
PERMISSION DENIED
Imagine, on the 50th anniversary, when the attention of the
national and international press, the crowds who come to Dallas and Dealey
Plaza and the world that will be watching, that there would be no Moment of
Silence. We have been applying for the permit for the last three years in
anticipation of a major conference and huge crowds, and have been told
repeatedly that none could be issued more than a year in advance. To our
surprise a permit was then issued for the whole area of Dealey
Plaza for next year for a full week
in November to the Sixth Floor
Museum , without an event yet
planned. This permit is also exclusive of other events at the site, which ours
never was.
The director of the Sixth Floor Museum said she got the permit
to be “proactive” on behalf of the Mayor’s office in Dallas, which then
appointed a committee to plan “dignified” events to “celebrate the life of John
F. Kennedy” that week. We have attempted to coordinate with the Sixth
Floor Museum
only to be told that we should “move the national and international press
attention to [JFK’s] death to another moment.” That would be a trick, but we
all know that it will be gone at any other moment. We are also trying to
coordinate with the Mayor’s commission to exercise our right of free speech in
a public park that belongs to history and the American people. We want to be
there to be seen and heard, to be silent and loud. We don’t want to be in a
“free speech zone” a mile away where no one will hear our message.
The Director of the Sixth
Floor Museum ,
which gives a very imbalanced view of the evidence and the history of the
assassination of JFK to millions of tourists each year, told the Dallas Morning
News that they had no event planned but they might do a “moment of silence”. I
would suggest that if they do such an event to the exclusion of ours, it would
stretch into an eternity of silence regarding this assassination.
Penn Jones wrote four volumes on the evidence and strange
witness deaths in the Kennedy assassination called Forgive My Grief. Forgive
ours, but some things are not forgivable and should not be forgettable. We will
be there on November 22, 2013
in any case. Hope you will be with us.
THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
We also fight to release all classified records on these
murders, now decades past. Our support for the JFK Assassination Records
Collection Act and the Review Board it created has led to the release of over
6.5 million pages of classified records buried since 1964, but not all of them.
We have joined the call by the Committee for an Open Archives and the
Assassination Archives and Research Center
to expedite the release of all related files on JFK’s assassination by the 50th
anniversary next year, and not in 2017 or even later. All efforts to use FOIA,
Mandatory Declassification Review or even Obama’s Executive Order calling for
release of files classified for over 25 years to be implemented without review
have failed so far. The new agencies, created by his administration to
facilitate transparency and release, have decided that the JFK records are
outside their mandate.
An online petition to demand release can be found at
We continue to push for introduction of the Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Records Act to release hundreds of thousands of pages of the
House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation into his death, locked
up since 1978 until 2028. All their files on JFK are already released. The
Clerk of the House was approached to use her authority to release these records,
but their office has declined saying it needs Congressional legislation. We
have a new sponsor who seems ready to drop the bill and details will follow to
get support.
Our website features speakers from past conferences as well
as regular news updates about political assassinations, new evidence and
witnesses, legal developments, threats on the President and Secret Service
response, and in-depth articles from leading researchers and academics.
Every year we gather in Dallas ,
and some years in Memphis , Los
Angeles and New York ,
to present and discuss the best new evidence in the murders of Malcolm X, the
Kennedy Brothers, Dr. King and others. We invite renowned legal, medical,
forensic and ballistics experts, academics and noted authors, and citizen researchers
whose work over the years has shed light on these crimes and rewritten our
history. We make many of the presentations available by livestream on our
website, but being at the event, networking, getting the latest books and
resources and meeting those seeking the truth is an experience not to be
missed.
This is a critical time because these assassinations are
fading into history for later generations. The approaching 5th decade mark may
consign active concern about the assassinations of the 60s to past history and
indifference, despite widespread acceptance in the public that a conspiracy of
some sort was involved, not the actions of a lone, crazed gunman. We are the
ones who are left to make sure that this history is not lost and its impact on
the present is made clear. November
22, 1963 marked a turning point in America
and the rise of the Military Intelligence Industrial Complex that President
Eisenhower warned of and Kennedy opposed has defined our history since. The
political assassinations that day and others that followed were instrumental in
destroying hope for a different future and movements for social change. All
those killed had challenged militarism, war, racism and poverty, the
"pillars of oppression" defined by Dr. King that still plague us
today.
50 YEARS IS ENOUGH!
Imagine instead a major conference in Dallas
that we have titled "50 Years is Enough!" –
with all the key researchers, authors, legal and
medical/forensic experts who have broken the cases open in the past decades
there to speak the truth about them, to those present and on the internet to
the rest of the world. Imagine a crowd of thousands in Dealey
Plaza , along with the world press,
seeing our banners calling for release of records and hearing our speakers
calling for justice and an independent investigation of these unsolved
homicides that would hold those responsible to account and take the sordid
history since to task. Imagine a future where the assassination of fairly
elected leaders and purveyors of hope for social change would never again be
tolerated and would demand full investigations and exposure of the forces
behind them. We cannot celebrate the life of John F. Kennedy while we forget
his death.
Our Dallas
meeting this year will be held from November 22-25 at the Hotel Lawrence, just
off Dealey Plaza .
We will announce hotel reservation information and rates soon. Information on
speakers and other details are being posted at our website as well. Next year
we plan to hold a national conference in Dallas ,
and we may be doing meetings in Memphis
and Los Angeles as well if there is
interest.
We can't do all this without you. Since 1994, we have worked
to present serious research, new evidence, force release of records, support
legal challenges and forensic testing, and to keep these cases alive to the
public and a new generation. We do all this with the help of a very few donors
and on a tiny budget. No foundations sponsor us, and certainly no corporation
or government funds. We are volunteers, no paid staff.
HOW TO HELP
This year, anticipating the need to have a major conference
on the 50th anniversary, two donors have put up a challenge grant, which will
match all donations made before that up to $2,000. This means a donation of any
size will double for us right now and make it possible for us to be visible
next year and to bring the best speakers.
Donations of $50 or more will get you a copy of a DVD
set of our jam-packed 2011 conference in Dallas .
$100 or more will also automatically register you for this year's conference
events, a real bargain. Donations are not tax deductible. Checks can be made to
COPA at P.O. Box 772 , Washington ,
DC 20044
or credit card donations can be made to our Paypal account from the website (www.politicalassassinations.com).
We need you. Will you join us now with your support? Will
you come to Dallas this year and
next? Will you stand with us on the Grassy Knoll to speak out and be visible
and help get out our call for an Occupy the Grassy Knoll in 2013 (see www.occupythegrassyknoll.com)?
COPA has been a leader in this work for nearly two decades
and our work is not finished yet. I hope you will contribute now to both the
hope of the future and the continued visibility of the past.
Thanks for your support!
John Judge, Director
Coalition on Political Assassinations
Check out our website:
Annual meeting in Dallas
in November
Hotel Lawrence - 214-761-9090
- discount room reservations
Speakers, films, books, resources, email for details
National organization of medical and ballistic experts,
academics and authors, researchers and interested individuals investigating
major political assassinations in America
and abroad. Responsible for creation and implementation of the JFK
Assassination Records Act. Promoting a Martin Luther King Records Act and a
grand jury process to reopen all the major assassinations.
We are not allergic to donations, donations NOT tax
deductible. DVD set of last year's COPA
meeting in Dallas for any donation
of $50 or more.
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