In memory of Kent State
 

May 4, 1970....four students killed by National Guard troops at Kent State. I was thinking about that tragic day recently and saw a bulletin on Myspace today about it. A sad day in our history...also the shootings at Jackson State a bit later, as folks protest the Iraq war I can't help but recall those days! RIP!!

It was a very sad day. Both for the victims and the Ohio National Guard that were put into a situation that didn't call for their over reaction.
The "incursion" into Cambodia touched off a reaction that caused turmoil and distrust of government, that with some citizens, continues to today.

I remember it well...Worked for Westinghouse at the time and a co-worker friend in Pgh was the father of one of the four killed at Kent State..Her name was Allison Krause...I remember her dad on KDKA Pgh tv being interviewed that nite...Terrible day.....

It is to me still baffling about some of the twists in this trajedy.


One is a trajedy within the trajedy...an irony of ironies.


I went to high school with 2 really good guys who were brothers.One a year ahead of me and one a year behind me.Bobby was one brother and he lost his life in Viet Nam...I think in '69.

The other was Bill Zoller and he was one of the 7 guardsman who would stand trial for what happened.

Hard to imagine what their parents went through....and again..2 nicer guys you could not meet.

that is really sad.

I'm trying.



It still isn't good enough???

I meant your story was sad...as in heartbreaking to think about the agony of that family...for what even...

Oh..I see.




That was very kind of you.

And if you ever go there it is amazing to see how close everyone was to each other.I forgot any measures given,but it is surprising to see how compact this area was.


There is a Pagoda,I think it's called that, at the top of the hill and one of the metal squares still had a claimed bullet hole in it.

I say claimed because the guardsman say they were shot at first and this thing is just down and to the left of where they were.

When one thinks about the shootings at Kent State it seems so very very long ago. In another time. That act was so astonishing, so piercing to a nation.

Today, not anything seems truly safe, and no one is totally protected from becoming a victim of an act of violence. Not anyone, not anywhere.

As a nation, as a world, we have gone so far.

It's never good enough and it's never enough.



But, thanks anyway, for trying.