Andrew Winiarczyk
The Last Hurrah Bookshop
849 W. Third St. #1
Williamsport, Pennsylvania 17701

Phone, fax: (570) 321-1150
E-mail: JFKHurrah@aol.com; lroller@sunlink.net

As we slouch towards the next millennium wondering whether those rough beasts we call computers will crash, we should contemplate whether interest in the JFK assassination will be maintained. Will readers and researchers on John Kennedy thrive, gear up for a protracted struggle, or fall into the valley of the forgotten? Do we have the strength to actively engage the hearts and minds of individuals for whom November 22, 1963, is another generation's, indeed another century's, touchstone?

In order to speculate on future prospects, we need to examine what the assassination community (what a turn of phrase that is) has and has not accomplished. How successfully have we interacted with popular opinion? Have we been treated unfairly by the mass media? What should we have hoped for, anyway?

The last few years have seen the passing of both government/intelligence figures who had some knowledge of the dark events of the sixties, and early critics who challenged them (with apologies to Tom Brokaw, our "greatest generation"). Ranks have been thinned not only by death but also by an almost exasperated weariness. If we can't solve it, if we can't make people pay attention, let's declare a truce and go home. Even among the active, there is a vague longing for the '90s answer to absolution, closure. At such moments, I remember the words of Søren Kierkegaard: "Life must go forward, but can only be understood backward."

Back to list of speakers