Tuesday, May 4, 2010, marks the fortieth anniversary of the murder of four students (and wounding of nine others) at Kent State University in Ohio. There is something about this horrific and surreal moment in time that is still chilling, as I vividly remember this picture on the front of the New York Daily News the next day.
I had heard about the shooting on the radio as I ate breakfast, but seeing the now iconic image of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller shook me in my seat. I still can’t believe what happened, just as Mary Ann could not believe it at that second the picture was taken, her incredulous expression showing the outrage so many Americans felt after this senseless shooting of students by the Ohio National Guard.
Photographer John Filo won the Pulitzer Prize and deservedly so, for the photograph’s sheer power still grips you even looking at it 40 years later. I remember putting that newspaper down, going to school (where I was in fourth grade), and thinking that something was truly wrong with the world. I haven’t changed that opinion much 40 years later.
School is supposed to be a safe haven, but that shooting kind of shattered the rules. Wasn’t the Ohio National Guard supposed to be protecting American citizens and not shooting them? We hear great indignation from our elected officials when things like this happen to protesters in Tehran and Tibet, but let us not forget that the blood shed that day was caused by our own troops.
According to the web site May 4, a total of 67 shots were fired in 13 seconds. This was after the guardsmen had lobbed tear gas on the windy campus to disperse approximately 500 protesters and, as the smoke streamed all over the place, the shots started ringing out. What were these guardsmen expecting from these unarmed students? They weren’t stuck in the jungles of Vietnam waiting for a vicious enemy; they were standing on an American college campus. Did they think the students were going to attack them with textbooks?
It still boggles the mind to think that they actually fired their weapons that day, sending live ammunition into students. Later on all charges against the Guardsmen were dismissed based on their testimony of firing in self defense. Yes, it’s hard to believe that any court could accept such an outrageous claim, but it did.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
Well written article, Victor. I remember that day also. The day after the shooting, the entire City University of New York went on strike. Two of the colleges, Lehman and Baruch, stayed on strike for the rest of the semester. The "P's" on my transcript (for "pass") from that semester testify to the fact that no finals were given in the Spring Semester of 1970 at Lehman College.
It turned out that the National Guardsmen had been sent from a strike in Ohio that threatened to turn violent - but didn't. This was the reason they had live ammo in their guns. Beyond this, the why's and wherefore's of all this are beyond me - but I, attending college at the time, got one message loud and clear. Revolution and civil disobedience was something one should do with the clear knowledge that one could die in the process. That little fact has remained with me for the last forty years, and has helped shape my attitudes.
2 - Jet Gardner
Jet submitted this to Digg and wrote: Victor Lana, one of BlocCritic's best writers, pens a rememberance of that fateful day at Kent State that inspired a generation to pay attention to the world around them
3 - Jet Gardner
Ruvy if you liked it so much why didn't you digg it?
4 - Victor Lana
Thanks very much, Jet.
5 - roger nowosielski
Thanks for remembering Kent State, Victor. Speaking for myself, it was this event, more than anything else, that turned me around.
6 - El Bicho
Touching remembrance, Victor.
Jet, if you are trying to help, it would be beneficial if you knew how to spell and punctuate the site's name properly.
7 - Kate
Kent State raised questions about the use of military action in a strictly civilian setting - questions still not answered. Thanks for noting the anniversary!
8 - Arch Conservative
"We must remember the stories of Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller, and Sandra Scheuer."
We must also remember Vicky Weaver.
9 - zingzing
even if we can't remember how to spell her name, eh, archie?
10 - Arch Conservative
Touche.
I sure as shit never spell Lon Horiuchi wrong though!
11 - zingzing
neither do i...