May 4, 1970 -- Four Dead in Ohio

[GeezerSteve]

50 years. Yikes. I was in 8th grade, living 7 miles away from Kent State campus when they got gunned down. Governor Rhodes declared martial law in Kent and imposed sunset curfew in our town and other towns nearby. Our nation seemed even more divided then than now. Weird memories. I later met and hung with two of the victims when I attended Kent.

[old goat]

I was in college in Ohio at the time. They canceled classes for the rest of the semester (saved my ass from flunking Russian, wound up with a pass instead). We tried to go to Columbus in the back of Uhaul trucks. Highway patrol was stopping all the would be protesters from reaching Columbus so we never got there. Then rode to DC to join the protest there.
4 white college kids killed. I wonder how many unarmed poor black kids and men were killed by police that month and never made the news.

[Benny Profane]

Got away with it.

[bodywhomper]

a friend of mine was there. it was a major part of his life's narrative. he dropped out of grad school and moved to AK shortly afterwards. he's turned out great and a role model for many, but....

[Benny Profane]

At least he didn't get shot in some damn jungle on the other side of the world.

[splat]

There's a book called Nixon Agonistes written by Gary Wills, a very good political writer. Wills said in the book, which I read, that he had a source in the White House that said he heard a top Nixon administration guy answer the question of what the administration would do about student protest with, "We'll just kill a few and they'll stop."

[GeezerSteve]

If Nixon thought that, it didn't work. Indeed, it backfired. After the Kent State shootings, campus protests increased.

Anyway, based on my 100 or so hours of reading, I'm satisfied that the evidence does not support a grand conspiracy.

6 years after the shooting, while attending Kent State, I met a NG corporal who was there. He was an emotional wreck, PTSD from that day. He described a chaotic scene: A NG officer had foolishly walked his soldiers into a corner, where they felt trapped. (Note that most of the soldiers there had joined to NG to avoid serving in Nam, and many of them were college students, some attending Kent State.) He said he heard an order to turn towards the students, but heard no order to shoot. He agrees with the theory that the first shots were fired from a sergeant's sidearm, maybe warning shots, which, according to him, resulted in panicked shooting by others. He shot his rifle into the ground, as did many others, and said there was lots of "what the fuck is going on?" shouting among the troops.

[TBS]

And instead they created martyrs.
Sad times.

ETA -Steve beat me to it

[brutah]

Nowadays, shootings on college and school campuses are so common they barely get a mention in the news. We've really come a long way since then and we have all these protests in 60s and 70s to thank for that.....

[iceman]

I didn't know this existed 10 minutes ago. It's really good, check it out.

[schindlerpiste]

That was good. Wow I love the Isley brothers, this definitely had a little more of a Curtis Mayfield vibe to it then I am used to

[TBS]

Another song about the tragedy

[Millsie1]

The guy on t5he ground is Jeff Miller, which is my name. Get the chills everytime I see it.

[Danno]

Another song about the tragedy

that one almost brings me to tears every time I hear it.

[TBS]

It does bring me to tears every time I hear it...

[SB]

Ironically the colleges and universities are all closed.

[snowaddict91]

I always found it weird that growing up 40 minutes from Kent in the 90s, we never talked about this day in history or social studies.

[ill-advised strategy]

Just in case anybody thought the lessons from this were obvious, and we had gained ground in fifty years:

Local Marquette MI politician Dan Adamini tweeted this a few years ago:
“Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.”

Then on facebook: “I’m thinking that another Kent State might be the only solution...They do it because they know there are no consequences yet."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.det...m/amp/97668394

[iceman]

Who does he want to shoot?

[glademaster]

Who does he want to shoot?

Probably the same people ScottyB does. Although the real tragedy is that he doesn't just waste himself already.

[ill-advised strategy]

At the time there were various protests going on regarding the inauguration...
womens marches, pussy hats, etc.

[ill-advised strategy]

But does it matter?

Does any protester deserve to be murdered?

[iceman]

But does it matter?

Does any protester deserve to be murdered?

Of course not but I thought he had just said it, I was wondering who had pissed him off and all I could think of was the gun guys at the capital there and that kinda seemed like it might get messy, so I was curious.

[The AD]

This happened exactly one week before I was born. I turn 50 on Monday.

[mtnjam]

My aunt and uncle still live in Kent, as a matter of fact they owned the 2 A&W rootbeer restaurants there. Lived right behind one of them.

They really never talked about the Kent State murders, but then again my uncle is a supporter of that kind of action, my aunt, not so much, but now he has advanced dementia and couldn't even tell you who he is.