" X Marks the Spot " Dealey Plaza - Dallas, Texas Jan 2007
It was a cool clear day - probably quite similar to that fateful day on November 22nd 1963, and it was a sobering experience to see with my own eyes the buildings, landscape, and stretch of highway that have become so familiar to us who have seen the pictures and viewed the horrific Zapruder film enough times that they are unwillingly etched in our memory like a scratch on an old Beatles record. Not much has changed and I am glad the city has left this historic area undisturbed. It was a Sunday, and the traffic was light, giving tourists plenty of opportunities to run out in the road and get their picture taken while standing on the white "X" painted on the highway where the fatal head shot occurred...a stunt that I found to be rather disturbing. Perhaps even more disturbing was the banquet that I saw being prepared on the seventh floor of the School Book Depository while I was taking my tour. Somehow the thought of people drinking wine, making toasts, laughing, and stuffing themselves full of filet mignon one floor above the snipers' lair seemed rather disrespectful. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I went and saw Dealey Plaza and took the tour of the sixth floor. You can't help but imagine what it would have been like to have been there on that horrible, horrible day. It reminded me of how precious life is - it can be taken away from us in an instant: Mrs.Connally's remark, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you", where perhaps the last words that he ever heard. |