Remember Dallas

From Yahoo:

"On 50th anniversary of JFK death, Dallas holds its first memorial"

 Dallas will observe the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination on Friday with its first official ceremony to mark the event seen as the darkest day in the city's history. Kennedy will be remembered with prayers, a speech by Mayor Mike Rawlings and military jets flying over the city's Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot.The ceremony, which starts at 11:30 a.m. (1730 GMT), is set to coincide with the time of day Kennedy's motorcade passed through packed downtown streets 50 years ago. Only 5,000 people will be able to view ceremonies in Dealey Plaza but video screens will be set up throughout downtown. For previous anniversaries, conspiracy theorists who say there was a plot to kill Kennedy have usually taken over Dealey Plaza, denouncing the official line that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and fired three shots at Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.They have come to Dallas in force this year but will not be part of the official event."His death forever changed our city, as well as the world," Rawlings said in a statement ahead of the anniversary. "We want to mark this tragic day by remembering a great president with the sense of dignity and history he deserves." Dallas was seen as a pariah city for years after the November 22, 1963, assassination and avoided any commemoration. That stigma started to fade decades ago and now, The Sixth Floor Museum in the former Texas School Book Depository is one of the city's largest tourists attractions. "Dallas came under a great deal of international criticism after the assassination. It was called the 'City of Hate,'" said Stephen Fagin, associate curator The Sixth Floor Museum Amid the Cold War paranoia and simmering racial tension of the 1960s, a small but influential group of arch-conservatives protested Kennedy's visit to Texas, saying he was soft on communism and should stay away. In recent days, the city removed a large "X" embedded into the pavement by an unknown person or people that marked the spot on Elm Street where Kennedy was shot in the head. The "X" had been seen as tasteless by many while the official observance - a small plaque on the plaza's noted "grassy knoll" - had been criticized as inadequate. After thousands of books, news articles, TV shows, movies and documentaries on that fateful day in Dallas, surveys show a majority of Americans still believe in the conspiracy theories, distrusting evidence pointing to Oswald as the sole killer. Hugh Ayensworth, a reporter in Dealey Plaza 50 years ago who witnessed the assassination and also saw Oswald shot dead by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, has spent a lifetime investigating the killings and debunking suspected plots. "We can't accept very comfortably that two nobodies, two nothings - Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby - were able to change the course of world history," he told Reuters.

^ Dallas (and the state of Texas) should be held partially responsible for JFK's death (along with Oswald's.) I have seen many interviews and shows about the events and they all say the same thing: that this was the largest security operation for the city and they were well prepared..They said that about Kennedy coming and then then the same thing about Oswald being arrested. Apparently, they didn't learn in the few days from Kennedy's death and Oswald's that they should do things differently. Of course the Secret Service and FBI are also to blame (along with Oswald.) The FBI Office in Dallas didn't do their job correctly in tracking Oswald (someone who defected to the USSR and then came back home with a Russian wife at a time where saying you were Communist was criminal.) The Secret Service didn't protect JFK on his car nor did they catch Oswald when they ran up to the Book Depository looking for the shooter and let him go (where he later killed a policeman.) The city and people of Dallas in 1963 are also to blame as there were countless threats against Kennedy before and during his visit. They were racist and arrogant (I have been to Texas many times and will never understand why the majority of Texans are so arrogant when most have no reason to be - ie not successful.) I have also been to Dallas and did not care for the city or its people (and it has nothing to do with JFK or his death,) ^

http://news.yahoo.com/50th-anniversary-jfk-death-dallas-holds-first-memorial-060658743.html