Dallas Mourns a Day It Cannot Escape

By MANNY FERNANDEZ 2:14 PM ET

Thousands joined to honor President John F. Kennedy in a tribute leaders hoped would also help heal a city long stigmatized by his death.

DALLAS — This Texas city, long scarred by the guilt and shame of being the place President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, stood in silent tribute on Friday. ... 

It is a day that has forever haunted Dallas, and Friday’s ceremony was as much about moving on as it was about remembering. Never before has Dallas marked the assassination with such a large, costly event. 

John Angle, 23, a senior at Southern Methodist University, who was at the plaza Friday, said the city — though a far different place now — was still seeking redemption. 

“I think this is Dallas’s day to try to redeem itself to the world,” Mr. Angle said. ...

Few cities in the United States have lived under the kind of stigma that has marked Dallas for half a century. Labeled the City of Hate after the assassination, Dallas had been a hub of right-wing, anti-Kennedy extremists who attacked visiting public figures before the president’s visit. 

Next up: three articles in the NYT on how Manhattan murdered John Lennon.* Oh, wait, no, that's not going to happen ...

P.S., the Washington Post has been less hallucinatory, but today it follows the NYT's lead, too:

In 1963, the roots of a political extremism 

Bill Minutaglio 

ESSAY | A University of Texas professor describes a Dallas that was seething with hostility and suspicion toward the president.

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* Now that I think about it, a man inspired to kill by Holden Caulfield did have a fair amount to do with Manhattan's culture, as did the next big assassination attempt two months later by a man inspired to try to kill by Scorsese's Taxi Driver.