may 4th 1970

this is not an easy post to write. thirtynine years ago tomorrow, may 4th four students were gunned down at kent state university in ohio. it's an incident that should not be forgotten. america was at war with itself in the late sixties, early seventies. all across the land college students were protesting the highly unpopular vietnam war. it was a generation thing. our parents, the greatest generation could not understand their own kids. we, later dubbed the boomers, could not understand the world we were facing. then it happened. kent state. they're killing us. tin soldiers and nixon coming....four dead in ohio. words to angry song released just after kent state. i was 13 that spring, still in eighth grade. i saw the picture.....yes the famous picture of a 14 year old runaway with her arms spread, kneeling beside a fallen student. who fired the rounds? who ordered live ammunition? it was a crazy situation all the way around. national guardsmen, most only a few years older than the students had been called in by the governor of ohio. student protesters had burned down the rotc building the night before. all across the land students were decrying the expansion of the vietnam war. nixon had secretly ordered bombings in neighboring laos. when word leaked out everything fell apart. classes were letting out that day and students were passing through and wondering what all the commotion going on was. then the shots rang out. then jeffery miller, allison krause, william schroeder and sandra scheuer lay dead on the ground. they had nothing to do with the protests, nothing to do with anything. just college students passing between classes. then they were dead. its been almost forty years since that day in may, a day we should never forget. they would have been 58 ,59 years old this year. probably have their kids in college. every year for awhile there were rememberences held. it was a dark chapter in american history. it gets less coverage every year, its too hard to remember for some folks. i remember though, i still get angry, i still cry when reading accounts of that day. this country we live in is still divided, still haunted. say a prayer tomorrow, for the families and friends of jeffery, allison. william and sandy. we can't forget.......jack c