Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. The assassin was taken into custody the same day and charged with the crime early the next morning.Despite these facts, there are still questions surrounding the event. Almost 50 years later, a majority of Americans believes Oswald was not the only shooter, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in April.The United States government left its citizens confused.The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy presented its results to President Lyndon B. Johnson on Sept. 24, 1964. It found Oswald acted alone. Yet, the 1979 report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, another group authorized by the government, concluded the president was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy,” but they could not identify the other gunmen.The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 stated all assassination-related documents should be in one public collection with the purpose of allowing and promoting research. The Act also mandated all of the records are to be opened by 2017 except “documents certified for continued postponement by the President.”          Thousands of pages of reports relating to the investigation are still sealed, according to a recent story by the Associated Press, fueling the fire of conspirators and researchers. Some of the files are said to contain information about what intelligence agencies knew about Oswald before the assassination.The decision to keep these reports away from the public leaves many to wonder what is contained in the documents and why they are still being withheld.The Kennedy assassination is a lesson in transparency. The concept is simple: if there is nothing to hide, then there is no reason to keep things locked away. This applies to people and organizations other than the United States government. Answer the calls of reporters and readers will be less likely to think something more is going on; the short phrase “could not be reached for comment” implies so much.If the government released the documents pertaining to the Kennedy assassination, interested parties could sort through them and answer the questions they have. The curiosity would be quelled, and conspiracy theorists could move onto the next potentially questionable event in history. But the government keeps its hold on these answers, leaving the public questioning what actually happened and possibly implicating the government’s involvement in the assassination.Among recent security leaks by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, the American public has more reason than ever to be probing what information the government controls and what is being done with it.With the anniversary of Kennedy’s death only a few weeks away, now would be a great time for the government to start gaining back the trust of its citizens. What do you say, U.S. government? Let’s inject some sense of confidence back into your citizens and finally put one of their beloved presidents to rest.