Forty Years After Kent State

johnboland · May 2, 2010

The Kent state Shooting occued at Kent State University and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970. By some accounts, the guardsmen fired 67 rounds in a period of 13 seconds killing four students and wounding nine others. The students had been protesting the American invasion of Cambodia which President Richard Nixon had announced in a television address on April 30th of that year. One year earlier, the My Lai Massacre had been exposed prompting mass outrage and leading to even more public opposition to the Vietnam War. The shooting lead to protests on college campuses throughtout the United States and a student strike causing more than 450 campuses across the country to close with violent and non violent demonstrations. Five days later, 100,000 people rallied in Washigton DC to protest both the war and and the killing of unarmed students. Eight of the guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury. They claimed self defense. In 1974, a United States District Judge dismissed the charge on the grounds that the prosecution's case was too weak to warrant a trail. Many Civil cases were filled. If you were alive when this historic event took place, where were you at and how did it effect you? Do you think this event ended the peace love and happiness movement of the 1960's or had the Vietnam War caused too much damage for that bridge to be repaired. How should we reflect on this event forty years later or is society in 2010 too apathetic to events so long ago? If these events bring back bad memories for some, please feel free to refrain from commenting.

Notes From Wikipedia

celticGreen+ · May 2, 2010

joebatters · May 2, 2010

I remember that day so clearly. I grew up in Ohio, about 2 hours from Kent St. I was 13 at the time. I had an older sisiter and two older brothers and prostesting was kinda like a way of life at that time. After Kent St. protests seemed more rampant across the US. Some were pretty violent. It seems to me that people were much more compassionate toward each other during that time and weren't afraid to speak their mind. A big chage from 2010 where nobody seems to give a shit about their neighbor and people are afraid to stand up for something. If all that corporate crime that came about in the US in the 1990's and 2000's, came in the 60's and 70's, people would've protested the shit out of that. I'm sure there would have been a lot of broken windows(which was a big thing) in a lot of buildings.
Such a different time...I know I going to sound like an old man...but you could actually trust people. I started hitchhiking all the time when I was 12 or 13. Everybody else did too. Now I have a 13 year-old-son. If he told me he was hitchhiking to get around. I would probably be pissed.

johnboland · May 2, 2010

Thank you very much indeed JoeBatters for your reply. Yes how society has changed in those forty years. I was only three years old and we stilled lived with my grandparents. People in the South were very leary of these types of events because the students were potrayed as troublemakers and God knows we had enough trouble in the South going on during this time. I can remember my grandfather, a hard working man who tried to live a morally upright life, was probably wrong in his assessment of the events of those times. I suppose alot of grandfathers, fathers and uncles were mistaken in their beliefs. Many brave men though stayed the course and should be recognized for their courage and steadfastness. Once again thanks for the reflections.

joebatters · May 2, 2010

My pleasure, bro. Thanks for remembering1

punter · May 2, 2010

It was a time when all Americans came together regardless of race, region or economic situation. We all hated that war so we were all brothers.

DarkStar · May 2, 2010

"Tin soldiers & Nixon's coming we're finally on our own...4 dead in Ohio...you better run" Crosby,Stills Nash & Young

VIEJODINOSAUR · May 3, 2010

Was going to college in Iowa at the time....really pissed a lot of students off....hated the national guardsmen for a long time and the thought of going to war...

4 years later I joined the service...who knew?

blackbox · May 3, 2010

do you think anyone enjoys being drafted then? doing something the gov. tells you- treated like shit in USA for obeying the law????? these guardsmen joined thru their own freewill-mostly to avoid going to V.NAM-- alot of bitter vets-and a waste of young mens lives because of rich mens mistakes.freedom is not free- bullshit bullshit -- you want to help others-then vol. your time to a charity.. hell no - others can-but wtf anyway

DarkStar · May 5, 2010

Thats a great video.Went to one of these shows.Thats music!!!

BadCo · May 5, 2010

Back in that era what made the students so upset was some one you sat next to in class went on to get drafted shipped off to war and came home in a box.

They were playing sand lot sports just yesterday or so it seemed.

joebatters · May 6, 2010

BadCo said:
Back in that era what made the students so upset was some one you sat next to in class went on to get drafted shipped off to war and came home in a box.

They were playing sand lot sports just yesterday or so it seemed.

Good point...and others seemed more compassionate because they know it could have been them.

8ate · May 6, 2010

Dark Star said:
"Tin soldiers & Nixon's coming we're finally on our own...4 dead in Ohio...you better run" Crosby,Stills Nash & Young

..

Actually..>> "How can you run when you know?"

The end of the true student anti-war movement..>>>
A lotta protesters turned in their resignations after this massacre..

jmho

Amazing how many young people don't even know what Kent STate, May 4, 1970 was; ans meant to my generation ( I graduated from High School in Ohio in 1970..

jmho

gl

(Some Nixon supporters would hold up 4 fingers to us longhair hippies; signifying:"We got 4 of you traitors."

gl

festeringZit · May 6, 2010

New light shed on Kent State killings

Shots fired at Guard, declassified files indicate

By James Rosen SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.
As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.
The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.
Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.
An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets — the worst in Kent's history — was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."
But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation — never before reported — between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.
"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."
The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."
This was 20 hours before the ROTC headquarters on the Kent State campus, an old wooden frame building, was, in fact, burned to the ground.
"What about the flare?" the second man asked before the leader spotted the coed listening to them and abruptly ended the conversation. Dozens of witnesses later told the FBI they saw a flare used to ignite the blaze.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/04/new-light-shed-on-kent-state-killings/

EinsteinSys · May 6, 2010

festeringZit said:
New light shed on Kent State killings

Shots fired at Guard, declassified files indicate

By James Rosen SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.
As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.
The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.
Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.
An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets — the worst in Kent's history — was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."
But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation — never before reported — between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.
"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."
The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."
This was 20 hours before the ROTC headquarters on the Kent State campus, an old wooden frame building, was, in fact, burned to the ground.
"What about the flare?" the second man asked before the leader spotted the coed listening to them and abruptly ended the conversation. Dozens of witnesses later told the FBI they saw a flare used to ignite the blaze.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/04/new-light-shed-on-kent-state-killings/

hno: LOL. Yea and it's SUGGESTED that Jesus Christ came from outer space. Why am I not surprised this article was in a Sun Myung Moon owned newspaper. Better know from the religious cult - The MOONIES. For people who don't know, google it.

DarkStar · May 6, 2010

Crosby is still outraged 30 years later...great to see a group pour their hearts into a song....they broke the mold with these guys!!

festeringZit · May 7, 2010

EinsteinSys said:
hno: LOL. Yea and it's SUGGESTED that Jesus Christ came from outer space. Why am I not surprised this article was in a Sun Myung Moon owned newspaper. Better know from the religious cult - The MOONIES. For people who don't know, google it.

Hey smart-ass, it took me 30 seconds to debunk your bullshit comment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times

On November 30, 2009 the New York Times reported that the Washington Times would no longer be receiving funds from the Unification Church and might have to cease publication or go to online publication only.<sup id="cite_ref-nyt1212009_43-1" class="reference">

hno:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times#cite_note-nyt1212009-43</sup>

punter · May 7, 2010

How come Wikipedia is garbage when you disagree with what it says?

EinsteinSys · May 7, 2010

festeringZit said:
Hey smart-ass, it took me 30 seconds to debunk your bullshit comment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times

On November 30, 2009 the New York Times reported that the Washington Times would no longer be receiving funds from the Unification Church and might have to cease publication or go to online publication only.<sup id="cite_ref-nyt1212009_43-1" class="reference">

</sup>

You've heard of the old saying "Leopards don't change their spots". Well neither will the Washington Post just because the real "Jesus Christ" the reverend Sun Myun Moon has stopped funding them. Their editorial board will not change. It's the same old, same old with out the funding from someone who was just as corrupt as Nixon was.

There's no fact in what the article says. It's just "SUGGESTED". Of course it's well documented that the FBI infiltrated all the activist groups during that era. It was probably the FBI informants who fired those "mysteries" shots.

And why the heck are you quoting from that communist rag, the New York Times?

Your going to have to do a lot better then that to try and discredit the students who were shot back at Kent State.