Kent State U, May 4, 1970-REMEMBER!

[Elphaba]

Here are the names of those who died at Kent State, so that they may not be forgotten:


ALISON KRAUSE

JEFFREY MILLER

SANDRA SCHEUER

WILLIAM SCHROEDER

for you youngsters who have no idea what I am talking about, go here. And for we who lived through the times, REMEMBER.

http://www.spectacle.org/595/kent.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_massacre

http://members.aol.com/nrbooks/chronol.htm


May 4, 1970 changed my life, it was the day I first realized how ugly things could be. It was the day I was forced into becoming an adult.

[bdwaygirl]

I was young, but I can still picture the cover page of the newspaper the next day.

Wow. 35 years ago.

[Elphaba]

I know...I can't believe it's been that long......

[Plum]

My family had an entirely different set of worries around that time, but I learned about this in history. What a tragedy.

[iflitifloat]

I began my Freshman year at Kent State in September of 1970, four months after the shootings. My (first) husband was actually out on the hill that day. He knew the people who died. My first boyfriend at college was indicted as one of the Kent 25. (One of our first dates was attending a fundraiser and meeting with the famous lawyer of the counter-culture, William Kunstler.) During the fall semester and after, I participated in many of the protests that took place as the war continued despite the fact that the majority of Americans opposed it.

That was a time unlike any other I have experienced; passionate sentiments against the war in Vietnam dominated our daily lives. The invasion of Cambodia, announced by Richard Nixon in April of 1970, had created a whole new wave of protests because it signaled a major escalation of a war that couldn't be won and was wrong to be fighting.

Back then, it was as if the shooting of four Kent State students brought the sense of danger home, and it rocked the worlds of many white, middle-class, or suburban young adults. Crosby Stills Nash and Young quickly released "Ohio" ("tin soldiers and Nixon comin', we're finally on our own, this summer I hear the drummin', Four dead in O-hi-o..."), the Ohio National Guard came under heavy scrutiny, Governor James A Rhodes proved to everyone what a bastard he really was, and every musician and politico with even the slightest leftward inclination was drawn to the campus as if by magnetic force.

I find the level of disinterest and apathy that exists today about our current war to be almost unfathomable. I suspect that the demise of the draft and move to an all volunteer army has made it easier to ignore that which isn't happening in our own backyard.

May 4th is still remembered by many as a national tragedy; and it was. But it should also be noted that a mere ten days later, at Jackson State (an all-black university in Mississippi), police opened fire on a dormitory in response to unrest that had occurred earlier in the day, and twelve students were injured and two were killed.

It is also a national tragedy that the Jackson State shootings seem to exist only as a footnote to what transpired at Kent.

[orangeskittles]

My aunt had transfered out of Kent State at the beginning of the spring semester that year, and that's always made me wonder what would have happened if she had stayed.

[Gothampc]

I had no idea what was going on that day, I was having my sixth birthday. The cake was a chocolate train with peppermint lifesaver wheels.

I remember...

that I was a junior in college

that I was on my way to geology class

that I was in disbelief when I heard what had happened

and

that I cried for 4 young people my age whom I might have known but had never met

[Elphaba]

iflit, great post and you are right.....people don't seem to care. Please convey my thoughts to your husband.

[Elphaba]

Jose I was a junior in high school.....and coming only a couple of years after Robert Kennedys assasination, it truly showed me what an ugly place man can go to

[iflitifloat]

There was a positive side, too, though. I remember truly believing that I had the power to change the things that were wrong. I still believe that as individuals we can make a difference, but the canvas on which I think it can happen is much, much smaller.

[Elphaba]

very true, it

[Dollypop]

I was an undergrad at Dowling College. I remember the day vividly.

[Jwei123]

I wasn't even a tickle in my pappy's sack...

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

I was 13 and in the 8th grade. It seemed we spent each class discussing this horrible event. The thing I remember was living through the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luither King Jr..............it it was just getting worse.

Excellent, Iflit, and so true.

We all believed we could change the world, and it's easy to argue that we did, but in ways none of us could have ever imagined.

[mebice]

Well, I am at Kent State now. I walk by the infamous parking lot every day. I live not 10 yards away from these tragic events. We have to remember...but also Jackson State.

Sometimes, very often actually, I wish that people would stop focusing on Kent State as nothing but that tragic event. I say I go to ksu and people only think of that and NOTHING else. You have to remember that that this school is not just a memorial. It is not a dead cell. People still live and work here and it still thrives. We need to also look to the future, yet people focus (don't get me wrong, rightfully so) on the past. Its become a something in text book rather than a living breathing thing.

I live here, I am haunted by those grave markers everyday. Not just on May 4th, but everyday for the past 3 years. Its mentioned in every class, and will be mentioned in every interview I go in to.

I am very mixed on my emotions about may 4th. I still have class and I still have to study for finals and every may 4th we are bombarded with media. so much media, we can't even think straight.
We NEED to remember here what happened so it doesn't happen again.
So there is it...
I am sorry if I have offended anyone.

[PalJoey]

I was in 9th grade and a "Rockefeller Republican," but I remember thinking "This government has gone too far. President Nixon does not have the best interests of the country at heart. I have to protest. I have todo something."

When the killings at Jackson State happened, it was almost too much to process: What was happening in America was clearly wrong. America had to change.

Yes, Mebice, you need to go to class. You need to study for your finals. The best tribute you can do for your schoolmates Allison, Jeffrey, Sandra and William is to do well. And make sure this never happens in America again.

Unless of course it's already happening.

[brdlwyr]

PJ - I knew that you were a closet something.

I do not remember Kent State, but do remember Nixon's resignation vividly. I know that it is just a song, but I love teh CSN song - "Four dead in Ohio."

Another great thread today.

[NYadgal]

I was in school and the day following the tragedy we spent the day in a school assembly talking about it and discussing what we could do to change things.

I remember it so clearly.

I learned how to play 'Blowin in the Wind' on my guitar that week. I taught myself.

[brdlwyr]

Addy - you really are a hippie.

[Rose_MacShane]

"I find the level of disinterest and apathy that exists today about our current war to be almost unfathomable. I suspect that the demise of the draft and move to an all volunteer army has made it easier to ignore that which isn't happening in our own backyard."

Iflit, while I don't like to hear that, I think you're right. This youngster is very much against the current war and the thought of a draft being reinstated, and having women included (the downside of women's lib) horrifies me.

[Plum]

I'm pretty open to the idea of a universal draft, actually. But if they're going to do it, they need to do it right- no exceptions for college students that pretty much amount to exceptions for the middle and upper classes.

Fact is, our military is currently stretched beyond its capacity. We shouldn't have gone into Iraq, but we are there, and that's not going to change. We need to finish what we started there, and if a draft is necessary to get enough personnel to accomplish that, so be it.

Then again, I'm an Israeli weirdo, so my perspective on this is "what's so strange about it?"

[NYadgal]

I've been trying to find Ginsberg's poem Hadda be playin' a Jukebox...

[iflitifloat]

Rose, I didn't mean is as an indictment of individuals as much as I did of a group dynamic. I know that there are lots of people opposed to the war, but there's no group sentiment or force behind it like there was back then. The anti-war movement back then had a feel of spontaneous combustion to it...individuals don't have the ability to make that happen.

Again, I think that the draft made it more of a palpable threat back then. Also, the news actually covered the war. Every night there was graphic war footage and body counts were broadcast. News magazines had pictures that kept it real. You can watch the news tonight and not be able to tell we are at war. There is a lot of censorship going on that is making sure that the visuals of the war are kept from being imprinted on the American group psyche.

[Plum]

I think that the Vietnam precedent also makes the reaction to this war more muted. It feels like a kind of backlash, or a regression to the mean. This generation doesn't want to rebel like its parents did.