RWB 67 The Consolation of History

Reality with Bruce de Torres 67
The Consolation of History

One of history’s consolations is the realization that life has always been fraught with peril. It’s normal to perceive danger all around. History shows us many who dealt with their dangers with grace, charm, courage, and a sublime appreciation for the beauty and love of life.

Reading the following passage from my book recently, which I pick up from time to time, gave me that solace once again, here offered. Enjoy. -Bruce

From the chapter called JFK in GOD, SCHOOL, 9/11 AND JFK: The Lies That Are Killing Us and The Truth That Sets Us Free:

Kennedy’s assassination was the Big Bang of the 1960s. The official story was seen for the nonsense that it was, and many rebelled; against authority in general; against the lies of Vietnam; against social and economic injustice; against the suppression of free speech on campus. If one bullet could zig and zag through two men, break bones, leave fragments, and be found in near-perfect condition - if President Johnson could say things were improving in Vietnam, but vets and reporters were saying that we’re killing innocent people, going back and forth - why not try to levitate the Pentagon and make it turn orange and vibrate, to cleanse it of its evil emissions and end the war, as thousands tried on October 21, 1967? The organizers of that event got a permit after agreeing to levitate the Pentagon only three feet, not the originally requested three hundred.
Give absurdity, get absurdity.
The civil rights movement was under way when Kennedy took office. But many Freedom Riders, and James Meredith - the first black American admitted to the University of Mississippi - and James Hood and Vivian Malone - the first admitted to the University of Alabama - and Peace Corp volunteers, and other change-makers in the years that followed, were inspired by Kennedy to care and to contribute. “Every man can make a difference,” his widow would quote him, “and every man should try.”
By late 1966, many articles and books were questioning the Warren Report, as previously mentioned. In October, Jack Ruby was granted a new trial for the killing of Oswald, for which he had been found guilty. By November, the New York Times and other mainstream publications had begun reinvestigating the assassination. On December 9, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital for pneumonia. The next day, doctors said he had cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain. Remember the fast-acting cancer Judyth Baker made with David Ferrie and Dr. Mary Sherman? Ruby told Dallas Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox that he had been injected with cancer cells. On December 15, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison questioned David Ferrie about the assassination. He had worked for the CIA and mobster Carlos Marcello.
Ruby died on January 3, 1967, three weeks after his diagnosis.
On January 4, the CIA created a plan to discredit critics of the Warren Report, using the media to disparage proponents of conspiracy theories. By the end of 1967, the CIA had produced, subsidized, or sponsored about 250 books, to help present a more positive view of the agency, as Lamar Waldron put it in Watergate: The Hidden History.
On February 17, 1967, Jim Garrison’s investigation of people and events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination was revealed in a local paper. The next day, David Ferrie was named as a prime suspect. Four days later, he was found dead in his home, which inflamed national interest in Garrison’s work.
On March 1, he arrested local businessman Clay Shaw, charged him with participating in a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, and accused him of working for the CIA. Over the next two years, Garrison was obstructed by many forces. According to James DeEugenio, the CIA already had a man in Garrison’s office misleading him, and documents later indicated that CIA director Richard Helms monitored and harassed Garrison’s witnesses up to and during Clay Shaw’s trial. Federal and some state governments denied legal and traditional help. People working for Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello also may have infiltrated Garrison’s team and diverted him away from those mobsters. A judge prevented him from presenting important evidence, and Shaw was acquitted. But the jury was shown the Zapruder film, and many of them said Garrison proved that Kennedy had been killed by a conspiracy. Garrison continued to gather evidence of Shaw’s guilt and the CIA’s involvement, and he wrote a book, On the Trail of The Assassins, which became a basis of Oliver Stone’s film JFK.

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