Conspiracy Theories Galore

A NEW BOOK ABOUT the assasination of John F. Kennedy, is by an author who was four years year old in 1963, and says he remembers the day. It must be a rather blurry memory. Two Thirds of Americans were not yet born when Kennedy was murdered. Someday, long about 2070, we'll have fun paying tribute to the last American still living who was alive on Novemeber 22, 1963. As of now, it may be, that we are almost ready to let go of our all our conspiracy theories. It turns out, upon close examination, that they are all mutually exclusive and contradictory. Hard to let go of, however. I was eight years old, in third grade, and to this day its just plain hard to swallow the notion that one little twenty four year old loser of a dude was able to inflict such heavy damage on history. But like we always said; the power of the inspired individual. His wife dumped him, and Lee harvery Oswald was angry, wanting to prove himself, wanting to retalliate. The most popular conspiracy theories have to be the CIA, the Cubans, and the Mafia. You almost want all of them to be involved, and, well, maybe, just maybe they were. If Lee harvey Oswald had had any brains, he probably could've gotten the CIA, Fidel Castro, and the Mafia all three to pay him big money to kill Kennedy, and protect him afterwards. But Lee had no brains, and acted alone. For sure all three of these entities,along with conservatives in general,had it in for Kennedy; the CIA because JFK wouldn't expand American involvment in Viet Nam and other places, and thus the CIA had nowhere to play with its toys. The Mafia, because brother Bobby Kennedy, theAttorney General (and a great one) had a war going on against them, and Castro, because Kennedy kept trying to kill him, so why not? For me the excitement was enormous, especially being out of school Friday afternoon, but the horrrible sadness of it sank in soon enough. I approached my older sister, who was in sixth grade, and told her that something terrible had happened, that some lady named "Linda Johnson" was now president of the United States. Sister looked at me with utter contepmt, and said "you stupid little squirt. Our new President is NOT some girl. Its an older man named Lyndon Johnson.", and straightened me out about exactly who Lyndon Johnson was. I would've found out soon enough anyway. For me, a true Beaver Cleaver moment. I was much relieved. I wasn't ready for a female president, not just yet.