The month of May in Ohio ushers in the blossoming of flowers and long-awaited warmer Spring breezes. In 1971, however, May Day began a series of events that turned ugly and forever branded Kent State University.
On Friday May 1, a drunken downtown mixture of students, transients, bikers and others began a rampage. The Mayor declared an emergency and called in Ohio’s National Guard. Thus began the tragedy of Kent State and a May memory we would rather not have.
On Saturday, National Guard troops were activated in response to rioting on campus. They arrived at 10:00 pm, too late to prevent the burning of one of the three buildings housing the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). On Sunday a curfew was established in an attempt to prevent more violence.
Attempts to disperse a Monday on campus-crowd by the National Guard resulted in the killing of four students and wounding of others. Kent State University has never been the same.
In the aftermath, some students would “open our windows and play CSNY Four Dead in OHIO. Through this writers eye, it was nothing to sing about. However, if you HAD to, a more appropriate Crosby Stills, Nash and Young tune to play would have been “Teach Your Children.”
American families have suffered war losses since our founding. The Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Spanish-American War, WWI (nobly called the war to end all wars), WWII, et al. My family argues that war is NOT the natural state. Unfortunately, I believe it IS, but does not have to be.
Were I to sing a song today it would be for ALL families throughout the world who have suffered, and do suffer, because of war - Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” I would sing it for our servicemen and women, for our children, our grandchildren and for We, the living.
Lest I be criticized for my views, I have paid my dues to say so. I AM an honorably-discharged American veteran who carried a gun for this nation here and overseas.
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