It has been said that the light that shines brightest, shines but for a short time. This was said about Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendricks, Jim Morrison, and a few other musicians. Before a conspiracy starts to assemble in your mind about the letter "J", hop back on my train of thought. Let's discuss something a bit more important than the world of entertainment and the possible evils that befall folks that have names that begin with "J". There was a light that shone for a brief period in the mid- 1900's that has slipped from memory. The few who do remember this beacon of financial freedom may only see a glimmer nowadays. After all, events of over forty years ago fade. People live their lives and are bombarded with home, family, work,  and the occasional medical crisis during a stretch of time such as

this. How can one accurately remember, especially something that happened in the sixties. I'm sure that this light that once gave Americans pause and filled up their battered spirit with hope must seem like a hallucination, blurred in the haze of ganja  smoke, fading LSD flashbacks, and the effects of tear gas so often used to "quash those unruly hippies."

The year was 1963. The country's first disco was opened in Los Angeles. I know, I thought it started later with John Travolta and his funny walk. George Wallace was elected as Governor of Alabama. Patsy Cline, for my younger readers, the Cheryl Crow of...ahem... my time, dies in a plane crash. All in all, the sixties would be a very  turbulent time, socially. All of the actions up to 1963 were just a preview of bigger and worse things to come.

In 1963, the nation was hopeful and looking towards the future. There was the Cuba question and the Soviets, we were told, were hell-bent on our destruction. But still, we had hope. We had elected a new president. He was like us (we thought). He had a dynamic vision of change and development for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We liked it. It made us feel warm inside. It made us feel patriotic. Yes, John  Fitzgerald Kennedy, a war hero, the son of an ambassador, a man with a beautiful family, made it all seem like the magical Kingdom of Camelot. But there was something bubbling under the surface of this kingdom that bothered our Don Quixote-like leader. President "Quixote" saw an evil of such magnitude that he knew his "Kingdom" was doomed to a life of servitude and despair if left unchecked. Realizing that he had the power as President of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, John  Fitzgerald Kennedy courageously, though he probably didn't realize it at the time, decided that he would "tilt at windmills."

If you're a victim of Public Schools, as I am, perhaps you have never come across this term; "tilting at windmills." The expression is defined as: "attacking imaginary enemies, or fighting otherwise-unwinable battles." John F. Kennedy was soon to discover that perhaps he had fallen under the spell of this idiom.

In the sixth month of 1963, as President Kennedy was gearing up for the upcoming re-election campaign, he made a decision to assist Americans in their pursuit of happiness. I don't know if this was something that had been on his mind for some time or if he had discovered it while hooking up the "red phone" so that nuclear  annihilation could be avoided with the Soviets and their new toys. If this wa  a revelation of long ago, it would seem strange that a son of Joe Kennedy, a known liquor smuggler, Wall street speculator, and a perceived member of the "ruling class", would have such a notion. Regardless of the timing, President Kennedy began to tilt with the windmills of the very powerful "Money Interests" of the day.

On June 4, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signed an Executive Order that gave the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD notice it would soon be looking for a new country to exploit. By signing Executive Order 11110, the FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD would no longer be in control of printing, issuing, accepting and funding the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA's loans for currency. As the Constitution of the united states of America mandates, the power to issue currency would return to the Secretary of the Treasury Department of the united states of America without going through the Federal Reserve Board first. A collective sucking of air must have rang piously through the hallowed halls of the Central Banks of the world. Others had taken a stab at the illegal, privately owned, Federal Reserve. Even Thomas Edison had expressed that if the U.S. Government could issue a bond for currency, surely it could issue a dollar bill. Upon the eve of the creation of the Federal Reserve Board, Congressman Charles Lindberg Sr.( the grandfather of the famous aviator of the same name) said "The money trust deliberately caused the 1907 money panic and thereby forced Congress to create a National Monetary Commission which led to the ultimate creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank.  The Federal Reserve Act establishes the most gigantic monetary trust on earth. When the President signs the bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Powers will be legalized. The people must make a declaration of independence to relieve themselves from the Monetary Powers, by taking control of Congress!... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill.  The caucus and the party bosses have again operated and prevented the people from getting the benefit of their own government!"

Harsh words, yes. Now these words, in effect, were coming from  someone who held the power in his own hands to actually back them up!

Now the Department of the Treasury had been given the authority "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." As the "Moneychangers" of

the world scrambled and scoured the want ads for countries in need of a parasite, the nation's new currency, backed by the existing silver in the vaults of the treasury was starting to hit the streets. $4  billion dollars of the newly resurrected United States Notes were now in the hands of the people. New $2 and $5 bills were crunching and smelling of fresh ink, unencumbered by the interest that  fouled the smell of the notes from the Federal Reserve.

Now there was real hope and tangible change being presented to the United States. This wasn't some dream or vision that a high ranking official had received while resting. This was showing promise. The new notes issued by the united states of America were interest free and tax free. They were backed by silver and so carried intrinsic value, unlike the Federal Reserve Notes that were worth about three  pennies (what it cost to print them). President Kennedy had beaten the "windmills" of finance. A light shone brightly from within Camelot!

On June 02, 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated following a military coup. This set the stage for what was to come later in the decade of the sixties. Ten days later

President Kennedy was reported to have stated,"The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the Americans freedom and before I leave office I must inform the Citizen of his plight." President Kennedy chose not to listen to the agents of the  "moneychangers" that most assuredly were whispering warnings, offering concessions,and desperately trying to keep the beast alive from deep inside their "windmills."

Ten days later, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot and killed while traveling in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

As quickly as the new U.S. notes were handed to the people of the united states of America, they were gathered and replaced with the Federal Reserve Note, born in interest and iniquity. The new $10, $20, $50, and $100 U.S. notes were never released from the mint and faded away without another thought. According to the U.S. Secret Service, 99% of all the notes circulating in 1999 were Federal Reserve  Notes. All this in spite of the fact this Executive Order was never amended.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Texas school teacher, would become President of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. War would escalate in Asia. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would engage in a nuclear arms race that would devastate the economies of both countries while the "Money Interests" filled their coffers with the blood and the gold of both lands. But there was a time, not that long ago when hope sprang up for the  free people of the united states of America. There was a time when a people slightly better off than slaves were given a shred of compassion. For one, brief, shining moment, there was hope. There was Camelot.

hho@uniontel.net