Kent State
Thirty six years ago today the National Guard opened fire on students demonstrating at Kent State in Ohio. Four were killed.
With a war becoming more and more like Vietnam and a President becoming more and more like Richard Nixon, it's valuable to remember what can happen here in America when executive power goes unchecked.
It's important to remember Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glen Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, the four students that died that day.
Photo by John Filo for the AP.
5 comments:
Nice memorial post, I wasn't aware today was an anniversary. I read my parents copy of Kent State growing up and it was a big influenece on me.
I recommend David maris' They Walked Into Sunlight, awesome book.
Take care,
Cheers,
Candy
http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/
Oh hi again, thought I'd let you know I linked you to one of my blogs...
Cheers,
Candy
http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your posting.
It's important to remember that the Ohio National Guard successfully dispersed the demonstrators before they fired on the crowd that day.
The protest was over when the National Guard fired. They shot into a crowd that was walking away.
Yet the slain and wounded students themselves, and their families, often have been blamed for the events of that day.
The FBI concluded: "we have some reason to believe that the claim by the National Guard that their lives were endangered by the students was fabricated subsequent to the event."
And as the famously quoted conclusion of President Nixon's Scranton Commission report puts the matter:"The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."
It's really sad. I wonder if the man who survived, in a wheelchair, I believe, has ever written a book?
I'm not sure if any of the survivors wrote books - whether they were injured or if they were just involved.
I do know that some of those killed (two, I think) weren't involved in the protest, they were walking between classes.
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