Why Always a Conspiracy?
Doves scattered from the southwest corner of the Texas School Book Depository at 12:30pm. The sky was light blue and crystal clear. The wind had a slight southern breeze. The crowds cheered and then screamed in horror. The excitement of seeing a real, live celebrity had been the reason for the crowds. The day seemed perfect before the sound that sent the doves into the sky. Now the world would never be the same. Especially the country of its fallen leader.
The assassination of the 35 thPresident of the United States in Dallas, Texas just a few days before Thanksgiving 1963, sent the world into turmoil. John F. Kennedy was a star. He was a handsome, young man. His life was a fairy tale to many around the globe. His marriage to Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy, externally looked like the perfect fit for the leader of the free world. Camelot in appearance, even if there was turmoil behind the doors of the White House. It all came to an abrupt end on November 22, 1963.
What transpired after Kennedy’s assassination would set the tone for the distrust that we have today in the twenty first century for our own government. We expected the truth. “We the People” were to be told what happened that terrible day just south of downtown Dallas. We trusted the people we elected to do what was right, tell us what happened, and give us the details of what really happened. But that didn’t happen; and it began a fast and slippery slope towards us not trusting anything we are told by our representatives. It was not supposed to be this way.
The investigation commission put together by the new President, Lyndon Baines Johnson was to investigate the Kennedy assassination. The head of the commission was Retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren. The published work of the “Warren Commission” was one of the grosses misjustices ever pushed on the American people. Many witnesses to the assassination were either never called or their stories changed. The number of shots were clearly over the three the commission pushed, but the commission did all it could to preserve the “Lone-Nut”, one shooter by coming up with the now infamous, better described as stupendous lie, “Magic Bullet” theory. Lee Harvey Oswald was the patsy needed. Jack Ruby, the Dallas Mafia strip-club owner, the silencer of the patsy. Never-before had our leaders spent so much time to prove their lie so they could cover-up a Coup d’état on our nation’s leader, JFK.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee in 1968. It was one shot from the front, into his neck and chin that killed the great Civil Rights leader on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was staying. The police started searching for the assassin immediately. Within a few weeks, James Earl Ray was arrested for the murder. This should have been an open and shut case. But, within the first few days many were questioning the validity of the arrest. Could we have a second, single gunman assassin, kill one of our leaders, as with the governments story of the same type of situation in Dallas just five years prior? Were Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray both just crazy, lone assassins? Or were both as they claimed afterwards, just patsies of a larger conspiracy?
Robert F. Kennedy was at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The spirts were high for the next Kennedy in line for the White House. He had just won the California Democratic Primary and was addressing his supporters. As he left the stage and was being taken through the kitchen to an awaiting car, shots rang out. In the hysteria that followed, Robert Kennedy was mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet to the head. He died the next morning. A Palestinian named, Sirhan Sirhan, was detained and arrest for the murder of Kennedy. He had an eight-shot revolver in his possession. He was the single person arrested for the murder. The lone assassin would be convicted. There were thirteen bullet holes and or wounds. No other person supposedly shot back. Again, we were told by the government what to believe. The distrust was getting wider and wider.
Duct tape was the reason the security officer knew someone was inside the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. Inside were nine people searching the files of the Democrat National Campaign office. The security officer called the police, and it began on of the most incredible couple years in our country’s history. The cover-up attempted by our leaders for their crimes, was incredible. Even the President of the United States, Richard Nixon was personally involved in the cover-up of the crime. Our leaders were trying to keep truth from the people that put them in power. The distrust in our citizens and its leaders was been divided even more than ever. As Richard Nixon resigned after the House of Representatives impeached him, the house of cards in the cover-up of the century once again let the people know that we couldn’t just trust what the government was telling us.
One thing that we must remember is that the First Amendment helped bring down President Nixon. Freedom of the press is one of the beginning rights that the Bill of Rights give us. The Washington Post and its two-star reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, investigated and wrote the articles that eventually led to the resignation of a President, cabinet members going to jail, and the lying of our government officials being brought out into the light by the newspaper. Now, no one seemed to believe anything the government or its officials said because there were now over two decades lies of our leaders being found out by its citizens. Now the trust had eroded to unheard of levels. What next?
Oliver North stood and raised his right hand. He swore to tell the truth. But in reality, he told lies to protect, in his eyes, President Reagan, the country and its interest. He was in front of Congress because of the gun deal with the Contras, better known as the Iran-Contra gun deal. Again, our leaders, elected and sworn to an oath in the military, were being caught lying to the American public. Whatever side you were on in the Oliver North, Iran-Contra Hearings, you must admit we were lied to. Why do they continue to do it? Why do we continue to allow it? It is the question not being asked, but what is happening is more distrust in our leadership. They cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
“Do you still have the dress”? Linda Tripp was asking White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, about the dress she said she was wearing when she said she gave oral sex to the 41 stPresident, Bill Clinton. Lewinski answered, “Yes”. She was being secretly recorded. This started a whirlwind investigation that ended with Special Counsel, Ken Starr, recommended impeachment against the President for lying under oath in a deposition of the Paula Jones case. Even after Clinton went on national television and uttered the famous lie heard round the world, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, the leaders still tried to minimize the out right lie to us all. Again, the divide between the government and the people went further apart. Cigars, blue dresses, semen, and secret meetings became part of the country’s nightly news. Thanks again Slick Willie.
Bush’s Iraq war, Obama’s “Fast and Furious” and Benghazi cover-up, George Herbert Walker Bush’s, “Read my lips, no more taxes”, The Russian “Hoax” investigation against Trump, and many other lies to the American people by the ones we trust as our leaders have continue the division to a point of no return when it comes to trusting the government. Now we overlook some of the lies because they are lies told by our political affiliation. It is OK to lie if it forwards our political agenda. “The other side does it so we should be able to do it to”. We have no idea what to believe anymore. The truth is so objective and skewed.
It has been almost sixty years since the murder of our President on Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. There was a sense back then that the government was for the people and were stewards of the truth for us. But, somewhere in the 20 thCentury leaders began a program of a, “We know what is best for the country” mentality. The country has suffered. The relationship between the government and the people have surely suffered. What can bring back the trust? Sometimes things cannot be undone. The snowball can’t be rolled back up the hill and the snow come off in rewind. Once, it starts it does not just go away. This was not the way they wanted it to be when those great men held talks on upgrading the Articles of Confederation, inside Independence Hall in the middle of the heat in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. They wanted a government that would be small, not too big for their own britches. Maybe a Washington, Adams, or Jefferson type could instill trust again? I just do not think they could maneuver through the divide any better than the ones trying to do it today. What do I know? I guess I only know what they want us all to know….
Coach Bockmon
Originally published at https://shop.thecoachandthevet.com on January 8, 2021.
