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Cultural Connection
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This Week
At Elon
Friday
■ U.S. Air Force Tactical Air
Command Wind Concert, Yeager
Recital Hall, 3 p.m.
■ Dave Miller, Comedian, Second
Floor, McEwen Cafeteria 7 p.m.
■ Love Letters, Yeager Recital Hall, 8
p.m. A dramatic valentine reading by
Catherine McNeela and Clair Myers.
Admission by ticket only. Tickets are
$5.
Saturday
■ Love Letters, Yeaget Recital Hall, 8
p.m. A dramatic valentine reading by
Catherine McNeela and Clair Myers.
Admission by ticket only. Tickets are
$5.
■ SUB Club Dance, Harper Center, 9
p.m.- Midnight
Tuesday
■ College Chapel, Whitley, 9:30 a.m.
■ Wellness Program is sponsoring a
nutrition education program, 12 p.m.
large lounge of Long.
■ John D’ Emilio, "Does Sex Have a
History?", 7:30 p.m. Fine Arts Theatre.
The speaker is a published author on sex
and politics. He is a history professor at
UNCG.
■ Young Democrats meet 7:30 p.m. in
senate room of Long.
Thursday
■ SUB Hair Cut Day, Large Lounge,
Long Student Center, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
■ JFK the controversial Oliver Stone
movie will be discussed - 8 p.m. Fine
Arts Theatre. Former Advance Man for
John F. Kennedy, Jerry Bruno, and
former U.S. Rep. L. Richardson Preyer
will lead discussion.
Murder Mystery
Dinner Theatre
At Nick's Cuisine,
Wednesday, Feb. 26
6-30 pm
Tickcts on sale now 1-4 p.m. in Long
202, Student Union Board office.
Call to reserve tickets, Ext. 2334.
' $lbl>erTlclcct ’ ^ ' " '
^ — ——
Johnson notes some of JFK's flaws ^
Tonya R. Taylor
The Pendulum
Interest in th^ assassination of
President John F. Kennedy has been
sparked by Oliver Stone's riveting and
controversial film, JFK.
It has led many people to inquire
about the role of federal government
agencies and other organizations in the
conspiracy to assassinate the president.
Ray Johnson, Elon College assistant
professor of communications, has done
extensive research on the assassination.
Johnson was in college when asked to
prepare a speech defending the Warren
Commission Reports, "I realized that any
defense of the Warren Commission would
be very weak," Johnson said.
Johnson read the entire Warren
Report, information in the National
Archives, and several books on the
assassination.
He is pleased that Oliver Stone
directed the film JFK because it has
generated interest in the controversy.
However, he does note the most
significant flaws committed by the
filmmaker, flaws not recognizable by
most audiences.
Stone's incorporation of several
different theories into the plot diminished
its value, Johnson said.
"If you believe Oliver Stone, there are
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>
Ray Johnson
-' i
thousands of people involved in this
conspiracy, and that's a trap that people
like Oliver Slone fall into," Johnson said.
"It's just impossible to believe that the
CIA and the FBI and the Dallas Police all
got together to kill John Kennedy, that's
ridiculous."
Johnson believes that the film does
point out significant errors in the Warren
Report. "It does get carried away and
comes up with theories that are
impractical, but that could have occurred,"
Johnson said. "It's almost like, who didn't
kill John Kennedy?"
This flaw in the film discredits the
work that Stone did in exposing the
inaccuracies of the Warren Report,
Johnson said.
Stone's blending of historical facts, ^
pictures and events created for the film has
been attacked because of charges of
misleading audiences. "The thing that
bothers me is, now anyone viewing that
film will mix fact with fiction and won't
be able to separate them," Johnson said.
Former New Orleans District
Attorney, Jim Garrison, is the man whose
book. On the Trail of the Assassins, the
film was primarily based on. Garrison's
motives have been questioned in the past.
Many claim that Garrison was seeking
publicity in his efforts to expose the
conspiracy.
"I think that it is unfortunate that
Oliver Stone chose to make a hero out of
Jim Garrison," Johnson said. "Remember
that he was a politician."
Ganison did uncover some valid
evidence in his research, Johnson said, yet
he may have been guilty of fabricating
evidence.
The film tried to encompass several of
the conspiracy theories and the
government agencies’ alleged connection
and involvement with Lee Harvey Osw^d,
Kennedy's accused assassin.
Slone tries to present these theories to
the audience with the introduction of
fictitious characters and events that never
See Johnson, Page 9
Stone movie awakens interest in JFK
Recently I went to see the movie
JFK. Little did I know, this movie would
grab my attention and interest in ihe way
that it has.
The director, Oliver Slone, did a
tremendous job of combining fact and
theory to create dozens of questions over
the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Following the movie, I went out and
bought Jim Garrison's book On the Trail
of the Assassins, upon which the movie
was based. I began reading editorials about
the movie and articles about the
assassination in national magazines and
local newspapers. I must admit that
researching the assassination has become a
hobby.
Many Americans have seen this film
and I hope that they don’t stop with the
movie but continue to research different
opinions about the assassination.
I would urge any interested people to
go beyond the theories of the movie and
look at different viewpoints. Obviously,
there are many people who have different
ideas than Garrison and Stone.
„ Jefry jBppo and L. Richardson Preyer
MacHenry
Schafer
are two men who have been very involved
with the events of the .assassination.
As Stone urged us in the movie to
preserve the spirit of youth by searching
for the truth, 1 urge you, the reader, to
listen to the Bruno and Preyer discussion
on February 20.
The Warren Commission, the
committee headed by Earl Warren to
investigate the assassination of JFK, made
a tremendous mistake by not doing a
thorough job of investigating the event.
Due to this blunder, so many more
theories and questions have been raised.
It is hard for me U) handle the fact that
Gerald Ford, our future president, sat on
that committee and the investigation was
so shabby. Who knows if the commission
;■■■■■•!• i i I I ■
was just in a rush or trying to cover up
certain things, but it left many holes for
people who were questioning the
assassination to jump on.
My questions are:
1) Why did Lee Harvey Oswald spend
his summer prior to the assasinalion in
New Orleans (home of the FBI, CIA, and
Navel Intelligence) working in and out of
the same officc of a former FBI official,
Guy Banister, who then had a private
investigation office?
2) How did Lee Harvey Oswald, who
defected to the Soviet Union, get back
into the country so easily? Surely
someone who defects to the Soviet Union
during the height of the Cold War would
have a very difficult time getting back into
the country, but why didn’t Oswald?
3) Is it true that Oswald took a
Nitrate test the day of the shooting that
showed he had not fired a gun in the last
24 hours prior to arrest?
4) Clay Shaw, the New Orleans
businessman Jim Garrison tried to connect
with the conspiracy to kill JFK, was
found to be a domestic contact for the CIA
following the -trial. Why was this not
See MacHenry, Page 9