Town's Grisly Reenactment

     Aims At Tourist Dollars

Boone: Daily City's Dexter Redfield is a man with a vision; a vision he has convinced his fellow citizens will bring tourist dollars to their small town. As he surveys the downtown, landscapers meticulously contour the side of a gentle knoll while up top, young trees and bushes are placed with equal precision along a cement wall. Redfield beams broadly.

     "Look around you," he says. "All of this cost less than $50,000! A little face-lift here, some dirt over there, some trees...Goddamn, it is Dallas in 1963!"

     Before him the stage is set from one of the most tragic dramas in American History, ready to be played out over and over again: the Assasination of President Kennedy in November, 1963.

     "We were all shocked at Redfield's proposal at first," explains Daily City Councilmember Mitch Higgans. "But he'd done his homework and he stuck to his guns. He brought in these big charts and photos and showed us that the old Granger Hotel was similar to the Texas Book Depository and that the layout of the downtown square with the curve in Elm Street was just like Dealey Plaza in Dallas 'cept for the grassy knoll. He said the whole thing could be done for under 60 grand, especially if we got a National Endowment for the Humanites Grant. It sounded too good to be true, but now we're looking at attracting folks from all over the world this fall---including Hollywood!"

     Visitors to Daily City can stay at the remodeled Granger Hotel. There, every facet of the Kennedy Assasination is celebrated---even the hotel's restrooms are marked as "Jacks" and "Jaquelines". Guests have the choice of luxury room suites such as "The Jack Ruby Room", "The James Tague Room" or the sixth floor "Lee Harvey Oswald Suite". Dining is availible in "The Single Bullet Bistro" and coffee in the "Governor Connelly Cafe". Informative presentations are given in the "Zapruder Auditorium".

     City Councilmember Millicent Fisher remains bitterly opposed to the plan. She thinks the whole idea is patently wrong.

     "It just isn't right to exploit such a horrible thing as JFK's Death. Sure, our town needs the money, but what we're doing is celebrating a terrible murder."

     While Fisher's opposition has not dampened popular public support for the project, a suit filed in Federal District Court in Des Moines by a University of Emmetsburg student has indefinitely postponed the opening day. Hilton Engles alledges Daily City's plans are discriminatory and should not have received the NEH grant. According to Engles, it's a purposeful celebration of rascist white male leadership.

     "Where is the Martin Luther King Assasination Reenactment? Where is the Malcom X Reenactment? What about Medgar Evers? People need to know about them, but the only reason their stories aren't being told is because they're African Americans!"

     "He's a jabbering liberal munchkin," Redfield snipes from under a shade tree atop the grassy knoll. "Our goal is to present and educate the public about a particular event in our nation's history. We not only enact the Warren Commission's findings but also several others. We will shoot Jack Kennedy dead six times a day. Each time, we interview our visitors about what they witnessed. It's a tremendous opportunity to test each assasination theory in this case. Hell, what we do here may even solve it!"

     The suit is slated to be heard in Des Moines on August 14.