REMEMBERING KENT STATE

John Filo's Pulitzer Prize winning photo from Kent State, May 4, 1970

It is important to remember and learn from occurrences in history.  Having attended Kent State University, each May, I sit and ponder over the events which took place back on May 4, 1970.  Although I attended Kent years after the shooting, I thought long and hard before deciding to attend the University because of that infamous day.  I have to admit, that while I was there, the ghosts from that day seemed to roam amongst all the students, as it was so hard to walk the campus, and all the areas where the events occurred, and not think about those anti-war protests, the national guard, the shootings, and the horrors of that day. 

Protests against the war were at their height in the United States, especially with President Nixon’s’ declaration of sending additional troops into Cambodia just days before.  If nothing else, it is good to remember just how easy it is for things to get out of hand.   The days preceeding the shootings, much destruction occurred in the small quiet town of Kent.  Demonstrations were had, bottles and rocks were thrown, windows were broken, fires were started.  I hate to think of those days, knowing 4 students died that day.  The thought of 4 young lives ending that day, two of whom were not even part of the protest.  Such a tragic, unnecessary loss.  I wish I knew just how it all happened, but I doubt the real truth will ever surface.  All I know for sure was that in a short time span of just 13 seconds, 67 rounds were shot, killing 4, and wounding 9, and changing the lives of so many others.  It should have never happened, but it did. 

Students killed May 4, 1970 - Allison B. Krause, William K. Schroeder, Jeffrey G. Miller & Sandra L. Scheuer

 It was so hard to fathom that something like that could happen in America.  I look at what is happening today.  It is hard for me to compare those events at Kent State, with what is happening now,  but I feel right now what is happening to America is in many ways so far worse than all the anti-war protests of that era.  We hear all too often of terrorist attacks around the world, terrorist shootings in our own country.  Attempted bombings, etc.  The worst of it seems to be the nonchalant way that the current Obama Administration seems to be sugar-coating these events.  Instead, Americans are being treated as the terrorist, and the terrorists are being given special rights.  We are loosing so many things that American’s hold so dear.  Our government has decided that they need to govern every aspect of our lives.  Each day we seem to lose more and more of our freedoms.  More and more corruption seems to surface in Governement on a daily basis. 

We have all worked so hard to make a better life for our children, and I fear their lives will be spent digging themselves out of a hole of debt.  Yes, again we are at war, but I myself think that with the memory of the 911 attacks, it is hard to say we should not be fighting the terrorists that seem to hate those that believe differently than they, so vehemently that they feel they have to kill us all.  

So again, we are protesting in America.  We are protesting for our rights and our freedoms.  We are protesting the debt of our country, we protest the Government control and Government corruption.  So far it seems our Government does not hear our voices.  Come November, our voices will be heard, and with the correct people voted into office we will hopefully gain some of our freedom back, and begin to turn America back into –  America the free. 

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