Comments
by the students
(In alphabetical order)
Sara Bendoraitis
Sben9226@postoffice.uri.edu
I think that overall, the conference went very well, yet many people were
very defensive the minute a comment or question arose that contradicted their
views. It seems that people took the comments as if this were all they were;
their whole lives revolved around JFK and if you challenge their views, you
challenge who they are.
I was also rather insulted that Charles Drago left on Saturday and missed the
two student presentations. Considering that he was one of the conference's
biggest critics, I don't see why he did not stay to see the student
presentations concerning our class. It gave the impression that he could only
insult people via the Internet, not stand up to a personal confrontation.
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Jennifer Carusone
jcar2738@postoffice.uri.edu
I felt that the conference went well. I was only able to attend on Sunday, so I can only comment on the student presentations and the closing remarks. For the most part, I thought that our presentations were well thought-out and prepared. I did not particularly care for Charles "Conspiracy is historical fact" Drago's mannerisms during the presentations, nor did I care for his closing remarks. I felt that on the whole, feedback and commentary were courteous and respectful.
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Kim Darigan
URIKim00@aol.com
Subject: Providence Conference a Success
I would like to express my gratitude once again to the members of the JFK
community who took the time to attend the conference. I was very impressed by
the number of attendees who came to see our presentations on Sunday. Your
dedication to the JFK case was shown by your genuine interest in our projects.
Many of you have asked for the name of the computer program I used in my
presentation "Polling the URI Community." The program is called MicroCase.
It is a graduate level program. If you would like specific details on how to
obtain this program or if you would like a copy of my data, please feel free to
E-mail me and I will respond accordingly to your request.
Finally, I would like to say how successful the conference was. The
"Open Discussion" format was truly the key to its success. My belief
is that the success of the conference can also be attributed to one man—Ken
Rahn. Without his continuous dedication to the conference, none of this would
have been possible.
Thank you all. Happy Head Hunting!
Kim Darigan, URI Political Science Major, Class of 2000
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Jean-Paul Dujardin
JPDujardin@aol.com
It was a very good conference. People were much more open minded, save a few, than I had felt they were going to be. Several members of the JFK community and several students impressed me. The facilities were more than adequate. All is good, all is fair, and all is well.
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Matthew Frank
Mfra9340@postoffice.uri.edu
The JFK conference was quite an interesting event. Never before have I seen so many people unwilling to see the other guy's point of view. There were a few exceptions: Barbara La Monica and Robert Young, Martin Kelly, and Gary Loudenslager. The rest seemed so disappointed that people could disagree with them, especially Charles Drago and Anthony Marsh. I believe that many members of this community, if this conference was a good representation, are very fragile and fear opposition to their beliefs. Ken Rahn has taught us to look at scientific evidence; too bad most people in the JFK community wouldn't know scientific evidence if it bit them on the butt. If they did, then perhaps they would have kept an open mind as science teaches us to do.
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Elizabeth Gamble
Egam9691@postoffice.uri.edu
I personally feel, never having attended a JFK conference, that on the whole everything went well. I felt that everyone respected one another and their opinions. The few members of the audience that decided to attend on Sunday were for the most part very encouraging. However, I still stress that I felt that a lot of arguments were basically going in circles and that wasted a lot of time that could have been used to present facts, facts that some felt that we as students had not seen yet. But I guess all in all everything went well, and I think that everyone who attended gained a least one "fact" that they could use to support their opinions.
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Jonathan Gruca
Jgru3264@URILibrary.edu
The Providence Conference, being the first JFK conference I've been to, was quite interesting. I thought some of the attendees were gracious, and most gave complete attention and logical comments and questions. Student presentations were excellent, at least the ones I witnessed on Sunday morning. If the conference repeats next year, I would gladly attend, because the points of view varied, but all were interesting and worthwhile.
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Colin Mulcahey
cmul7652@postoffice.uri.edu
I thought the conference was a good forum for discussion. All participants seemed reasonably considerate of other viewpoints, which for a student was a definite plus.
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David Perotta
Dper1176@postoffice.uri.edu
My thoughts on the conference:
In general it was very well set up and was a pleasure to attend. I only wish
I could have gone on Saturday. Everyone listened to what we (the class) had to
say and respected us as adults.
The downsides to it were:
1. My partner and I were rushed by Mr. Drago, causing us to, I guess I would
have to say, to edit our presentation.
2. When questions went to the crowd, it at times became a free-for-all. I feel
the questions should have been presented to the presenter and only the presenter
answer, not the crowd.
Some of the participants (Tony Marsh) were a little rude. A way of keeping
control of the crowd should be thought about and enacted.
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David Sullivan
dsulliv2@ix.netcom.com
The conference was quite an interesting event for me to attend. I really
can't compare the Providence Conference to others due to the fact that I haven't
attended any others, but I will remedy this in the future I hope. As for the
attendees, I found many to be very nice and quite helpful and polite to us as
students. To name a few: John Hunt, Tony Marsh, The Gloucester County College
guys (Bruce Getzan and Gary Loudenslager), Bill Cheslock, and finally Dr. Martin
Kelly. To anyone I left out, I apologize.
The only real problem I had was that arguments got bogged down and
repetitive. The nitpicking was kind of annoying, but once a dialogue of
substance was established I learned a lot.
Although most people left due to the lateness of the evening, the round table
discussion was very enjoyable. The instructors of the JFK courses and their
styles differed but were all interesting. I also like how most instructors left
it up to the students to form their own opinions on the assassination and to
research it on their own.
To close, I would like to say I expected the conference to be much nastier.
On the whole, people were friendly, helpful, and interesting. The experience as
a whole was enjoyable, and I would like to attend more in the future
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John Young
Jyou2957@postoffice.uri.edu
I would first like to say that I enjoyed the Providence Conference very much. Everyone who presented was very interesting. The lively debate style of the Conference was truly thought provoking. It was a delight to be able to participate. I would like to address a down side of the conference. At the end of our session on Sunday, certain attendees were concerned with the fact that they would be ostracized for attending the conference by others in the JFK community. Some people did not attend the conference due to the fact that it was co-chaired by Ken Rahn, who some might say is a Warren Commission sympathizer. As a student in his class, I can say with great confidence that Professor Rahn gave us a plethora of varied evidence and theories about the assassination and left it up to us to decide what the truth is, and the conference was no different. To all those out there in the JFK community who will ostracize certain attendees; YOU ARE COWARDS! I think that it is a shame that the attendees will be perceived in a different light because they attended the conference. I am grateful to all who attended because you helped me understand more about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I would assume that folks in the JFK community would want to attend to present their side of the argument and to positively influence students. Instead these folks ostracize themselves with the exception of infrequent, useless, and uninformative postings on the Internet. Here is a piece of advice for all who purposely did not attend the conference: The next time you feel that an injustice to the assassination has occurred, put down your keyboard, turn off your computer and stop hiding. Once again, for all those who did attend, thank you and please come again.