The Grassy Knoll
The Safety 2015 Meeting of the ASSE is taking place this week in Dallas, TX. It has given me the opportunity to walk around the downtown area of Dallas and of course, Dealey Plaza has to be on the list of places to see. While the assassination of JFK took place after I was born, it occurred early enough in my life that I cannot remember it (if I was even aware of it at the time). For the members of my parents' generation there is the conversational ingredient of "where were you when JFK was shot?" Personally for me, the two significant news dates are July 20, 1969 (humans first set foot on the moon, a challenge set by JFK [so glad my parents woke me up at 5:30AM to watch Neil Armstrong exit the LM on TV]) and September 11, 2001 (the day everything about the United States of America seemed to change [I was conducting an orientation to a statistical software package for my students]).
I might not have mentioned the Kennedy assassination, the Apollo moon landing, and the September 11th attacks in the same posting were it not for a common feature of these historical events, namely conspiracy theories. I had barely reached the grassy knoll when a gentleman approached me to deliver (unbidden) his theory of the assassination and sell me documentation of the theory. Even today people still believe the moon landings were faked (for my money, the most entertaining theory is put forth in the documentary Room 237). The number of conspiracy theories about 9/11 is astounding (my favorite was alluded to by the character Dobby in the Peep Show, "did you know that no one with an Apple computer died on 9/11?"). I understand the appeal of a conspiracy theory. They are fun. They are entertainment. Most people (or at a minimum, just me) like to think there is something bigger and unknown at work just below the surface. Just watch Blue Velvet (if you are old enough) to see what it is like to grow up in Everytown, USA and discover that things are definitely not as you thought. Alternatively watch almost any episode of the X-Files. As for me, I think Lee Harvey Oswald just got lucky, made a couple of difficult shots, and managed to kill Pres. John F. Kennedy.