Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Kent State Massacre
It happened on May 4, 1970. It started as a peaceful war protest, it ended with 4 dead and 9 injured. The dead were students. None of the protesters were armed. None of them. The outrage spread across our country and the "grown ups" finally realized we were right. The government was killing our children. On Hippie Hill, in Tucson, we gathered by the hundreds, we cried, lit candles and carried signs and we shouted at the pigs. We were outraged and hurt. And all across America young hippies everywhere rallied in the same manner. The jails could not hold us all. Nixon became the most hated president in history....and we changed the world. That incredibly long hidious pointless war was officially ended two years later. The United States did not win, but, our country was forever changed.
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And we did not protest our soldiers. We loved them and we fought for them here, just like they were fighting there, those brave boys. And every night we would gather in front of the news to see who's number had come up. It was a forced draft, you see, you had no choice. It was like a death lottery as Nixon took our brothers, our friends and sent them to the horror and death. And every day they would announce the number of kids who were dead. Unbelievable numbers. It went on for years! And America's youth had enough. And we fought the goverment. It was a volitile and amazing time to live. Young people today have little idea what we were about back then and wearing a tie dye shirt and bell bottoms will not put you there. You had to live it.
The hippies stopped Vietnam. Ha ha good one.
You're an idiot sometimes. You weren't even sperm then.
I wasn't sperm during WWII either but I still know what happened.
I was young at the time but I remember hearing on the news how many brave young men died everyday.
It was a very sad time for America. I remember the pow/mia bracelets. I still have mine somewhere.
We were fortunate that my brothers were too young to be drafted.
Okay, you're right, the hippies ended Vietnam. Sorry for arguing with you.
Crabbie, hon, you had to be there. I don't care what political journalists say, we know it was us. It started as a small thing and the adults laughed and told us to get a hair cut and listen to Ricky Nelson..and it ended in millions of dead kids and a country torn apart by riots and protests. The government was forced to end it, becuase we finally made sense to the whole country. It was an extremely volitile time, unbeliebable, looking back. A time where you could not buy birth control, but, you would die for Uncle Sam when you turned 18. No choices.
I'm just bored and trying to start trouble. With a stroke victim. Cause I suck.
Gawd, LMAO! I knew that anyhow, I was just bored.
KENT STATE!!! I just graduated from there! ;)
If anyone in the area wants a tour of the shooting area and how it unfolded, just let me know and we'll go on a 'historic' tour.....
when you go on the anniversary---the night before at 11pm they do a candlelight walk around front campus and then volunteers stand in each of the four's place where they died in 20 minute shifts until 12:24 the next afternoon when the shooting happen you just FEEL spirits all around you.....
on may 4 itself when you go up on the hill that energy is still there.....you can smell the sweat, the blood and the tears....
somewhere on my computer, i have a picture of me with mary vecchico [sic] taken a few years back....she was the 14 year old runaway in the famous picture kneeling in Jeffrey Miller's blood....
That photo tore America's heart out. I'd be very happy if you want to do a post here about it. Let me know.
And yes, you were the reason I thought of that time again and how much it affected our country and our history.
what really gets me is the 'may 4th task force' that is in charge of the yearly memorial....every year is the candlelight march which is beautiful, poignant and touching....but then the speakers they have usually are according to that year's member's agenda....one year they had the cop killer mumia give a taped speech! what does that have to do with may 4th!?!?!?!? ya know??? a few years ago they had cindy sheehan....i taped that....hard to see as i had to convert the video file.....but you can hear it well....that was an appropriate speaker....
in 2000, the year they had the cop killer's taped speech, they also had julia butterfly hill---the chick who lived in a tree for 2 years...what does she have to do with may 4th!?!?!??! they also had, appropriately, barry levine, who was alison krause's boyfriend and he read the most powerful poem and if you weren't in tears at the end you were heartless....
the university has taken awhile to actually treat the site properly....when i first went to kent state the parking lot only had little spray painted angels in the spots where the 4 died, and cars could park on those spots!!! when carol cartwright became president, i think really think because she was a mother, she worked with the task force to have memorial markers put in those spots---no more parking there!!!!! how disrespectful ya know? to park where someone died?!?!?
there was a big hullabaloo about the memorial there too....i was there when it was built....mcgovern? spoke at that....big protests over the memorial as it wasn't "Big enough".....it is rather weird....
anyway....here's my videos from 2007
ringing of the bell....they do this before the ceremonies start....that is the bell that called students to the field for the protest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGLJmicCCs
mary vecchio's speech...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qmFeLQfAko
jim russell and joe lewis's speech---2 victims of may 4th....last appearance here by jim russell as he passed away a few months later...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbfDOlEIvEQ
cindy sheehen pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL1CKf8xMbQ
cindy pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PZtEwrlK-E
I saw a documentary about this...it was so sad.
Thanks Tia. I just remember...all of it, you know? Like 9/11 it is something you can not forget if you lived in that time.
even if you weren't old enough then to remember it....if you go to kent state you FEEL it in that area.....you feel it more in the area where the guard were.....up on top of the hill....
this upcoming anniversary is the 40th.....i have no clue who they'll have speak....
in 1997? or 98? crosby stills and nash played on that field....of course they sang ohio and a few other songs....
i have attended the past couple years--since 2007....but i will be there for the 40th this year....
it really sort of bothers me as a history major that here is HISTORY in our own backyard and not much is being done to 'interpret' it, if you know what i mean.....it's very frustrating....
let's do a may 4th post this year, well next year, on the 4th! I'll play 'reporter'!!! :-)
You're on!
Even though I was young when Vietnam was going on, even I knew it was all a crock of shit and a waste of young lives, those that died there, and the families left behind to deal with it. One of the things that tore my heart out, was in Look or Life one of those mags, and they ran pictures of the dead solders to try and put a face to the tragedy. Any vets there, esp. Viet nam vets who may read this, thank you for your service to our country.
I second that. What a hard time they had and no choice. Turn 18, go to death in Vietnam. Gawd it was so so so awful.
They were like fucking kleenex to the government, you know? All those young lives..gone for nothing.
crabie and dd, pls do bitch more. it is funny!
Miss Tia ~
"it really sort of bothers me as a history major that here is HISTORY in our own backyard and not much is being done to 'interpret' it, if you know what i mean.....it's very frustrating...."
Part of the reason for this is so many people just want to forget/ pretend it ever happened - Vietnam, Kent State and the demonstrations on all the college campuses & city parks. It's the mentality of ... If I don't talk about it, it's not real and everyone will forget. Ex had just come back from a year (2/70) in the jungle when KSU happened. He never talked about being in Vietnam or being in the Army. There were lots of people who blamed the war and war protests on the military guys and treated them like crap. They weren't treated as returning heroes like the guys today. Yeah, right it was their fault! They received their draft notice and had to serve ... or head for Canada.
Yikes, Blogger just ate my post :(
No, CJ. I had to put it on mod. Troll attack. Yawn.
the city of kent itself is still divided and there are many who still believe that the students deserved to be shot!!!
I'll bet none of their kids were killed there.
nope, no residents of kent were killed!!
those video clips i've seen in documentaries of allison's father just sobbing always make me cry..."my daughter went to school and came home dead"....
Allison Krause, one of the students killed, was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. How sad for him (her father) to survive one atrocity only to lose his child in another...
It was a sad time. It tore America apart.
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