Conspiracies surrounding the JFK assassination in 1963 seem to be more prominent now since President Trump released 3,100 documents on October 26th that had been previously withheld from the public. The release of these documents might have come as a surprise to some people considering that these files had been under wraps for more than 50 years where people have been apprehensive about the secrecy associated with the assassination. What people may not have known is that former president George H. W. Bush signed a law on October 26,1992, requiring all documents related to the assassination to be released in 25 years (2017), which just happened during the Trump Administration. President Trump has said that he would like all of them to be released but, some of the documents have been redacted because some who were involved with the files are still alive. If these names are released, it could potentially harm them and their families. Trump said he wanted to release the documents “For full disclosure, transparency, and to put any or all theories to rest.”
The documents being released will have no life-changing information, but will have new interesting details in order to ease the public’s mind on such a sensitive case. One thing that should be taken into consideration regarding the release of thousands of pages from over 50 years ago, is the total lack of transparency the American people have been under for so long. Yet, whether or not the theories about if the government was behind the assassination are true is not the point. This is all just speculation and has nothing to do with the so called controversy about Trump’s release of the documents. One question that the American people need to ask is if the public needs total transparency and complete knowledge of such discerning information?
Thomas Homan, sophomore at Riverbend said, “I don’t fully agree that the American people need total transparency, as with certain subject matters people may not approve of or may not be able to handle the truth, but in reality, it depends on the situation and what exactly is becoming transparent.” Government teacher, Mr. Morello, states, “The transparency of the government in general is important—-currently, too many Americans have lost trust in our government.” Now what’s left to wonder is whether this was a good move made by the President. Michael Luciani, senior at RHS said, “I think it was a good move by the President; I don’t think there was any harm in it and it made a lot of people happy.”
With so much secrecy involved with the government, the public often wonders what’s being constructed behind closed doors and if they could be potentially harmful inside the government, and to the people. How much information should the public receive if any or at all? The reason America is the way it is, is that people do not have to follow blindly and are capable of making their own decisions and ideas without the government’s consent. America has been prosperous so far because of this and hopefully America never gets to the point where it is solely dependent on the government for information.