Where Were You 40 Years Ago Today?

Was in HS and we remember it well...had newspaper articles on it cut out and posted on bulletin boards...we were really concerned that this was what was going to start happening to anti-war protestors....not going to look it up for accuracy, but weren't some students at Jackson St. shot and killed by police/national guard very soon after?
 
Tienamen Sqaure 1989:

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Kent State Ohio 1970:

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Selma Alabama 1964:

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Chicago Illinois 1968:

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Everyone remember, "tyranny" only exists when Barry Soetoro is in office.

The troops were right... because the government cares for you... even though I claim to want less of it when there's a negro in office.

These protests were just a bunch of hippies smoking weed and popping pills. Worthless bunch of drains on society.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THOSE NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ON THE STREETS IN CHI-TOWN!

WOOT WOOT!!!

SMFH.
 
National Guard was poorly trained for this type of disturbance and they overreacted when the crowd surged and pinned them in.

The crowd as a whole was far from innocent and had burned down a building two days before. It was a case of the Governor overreacting to try to control the student mobs. This was not peaceful protest
 
On May 5, 1970, the National Guard opened fired on student protestors at Kent State University and killed four kids, wounding another eight. Today's Memorial Service on the Kent State campus included eulogies and memories of the dead:

Sandra Scheuer, struck in the neck by an Ohio National Guardsman's bullet, was a girl with a bubbly personality who was always doing things for others, said a note from a friend that's preserved in a scrapbook kept by her sorority, Alpha Xi Delta.

"We think about her every day," said the Kent State chapter's current president, Sarah Franciosa.

Jeffrey Miller was a drummer and a radio DJ whose 5-foot-6 stature earned him the on-air name of "Short Mort," recalled his older brother, Russ.

On the night of the shootings, still unaware that Jeff had been killed, Russ Miller watched TV news reports about Kent State with their grandmother in the Bronx. She asked if Jeff had gone to the rally. "No doubt," Russ Miller answered, knowing his brother's strong feelings against the war. "But I wasn't concerned, because I knew he would keep his head down."

Miller died, shot in the mouth.

Florence Schroeder used a walker to make her way to the stage. "On May 4, 1970, I was 50 years old, with brown hair and good legs," she said. "Today, I'm 90 and can no longer pitch batting practice."

Her son William Knox Schroeder was an Eagle Scout and an honor student who was walking to class when he was shot in the back from a rifle more than a football field's length away. "The death of a child is very hard, but life goes on," his mother said. She read the last line of a poem he wrote: "Learning from the past is a prime consideration."

"I pray we have all learned that lesson," she said.

Allison Krause's long-ago boyfriend, Barry Levine, spoke of a "sweet, intelligent, loving, warm, intelligent, compassionate, creative, funny, giving, intelligent woman - and if I didn't use the word intelligent, forgive me. Allison was as bright as they come.

"She sat on the hill where you now sit," he said. "She walked on those paths where you now stand. Her laughter used to dance through the branches of these trees."

She was shot in the side as Levine pulled her behind a car for shelter from the gunfire. She fell, mortally wounded, in his arms.

Levine, who has rarely spoken publicly about the events of that day, made an impassioned and at times angry appeal for justice for the shootings.

Eight Guardsmen were indicted on federal charges, but a judge dismissed the case. A civil lawsuit was settled without an admission of wrongdoing.

In addition to the four killed, eight more were wounded.

Wounded (and approximate distance from the National Guard):

Joseph Lewis Jr. 71 ft (22 m); hit twice in the right abdomen and left lower leg
John R. Cleary 110 ft (34 m); upper left chest wound
Thomas Mark Grace 225 ft (69 m); struck in left ankle
Alan Michael Canfora 225 ft (69 m); hit in his right wrist
Dean R. Kahler 300 ft (91 m); back wound fracturing the vertebrae - permanently paralyzed from the chest down
Douglas Alan Wrentmore 329 ft (100 m); hit in his right knee
James Dennis Russell 375 ft (114 m); hit in his right thigh from a bullet and in the right forehead by birdshot - both wounds minor (died 2007)
Robert Follis Stamps 495 ft (151 m); hit in his right buttock (died June 11, 2008)
Donald Scott MacKenzie 750 ft (230 m); neck wound

One Guardsman, Sgt. Lawrence Shafer, was wounded badly enough to need medical attention before the Guard opened fire.

Observance of 40th anniversary of Kent State shootings is part political rally, part remembrance | cleveland.com

Kent State shootings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When I heard the news of the Massacure, I was still in high school but I was already a seasoned protestor. Civil Rights, End the War in Vietnam, Free Soviet Jews, Women's Liberation...you name the social injustice of the era, and I was protesting it. So were all my friends.

I still remember my first thought when I heard:

Oh God. I knew that they were angry at us. But not enough to kill us.

What are your memories of the Kent State Massacure? Or if you are too young, how were you taught to view this event?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xos7-vEWsxg]YouTube - Crosby, Stills & Nash "Ohio"[/ame]

watch


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The photographer who took this picture won the Pulitzer prize that year for it.

this happened a mon after i was discharged. forgot all about it
 
Put a gun in the hand of someone that's not trained is a bad idea.

National Guardsmen are an accident waiting to happen.

I'd like to see you support this contention -- that Guardsmen lack tactical training -- with factoids. It sure seems odd to me, if you are correct, that they haven't massacured any other Americans in the past FORTY years

Is that what you were taught in school about the Massacure?

I've trained alot with them throughout my military career.

This was probably just a case of someone who wasn't properly trained.

Give someone a gun that hasn't fired it is bad enough...give someone a gun under those conditions when people are screaming at you and spitting at you...you tend to take it personal not to mention being scared yourself....well you figure it out.

This was not a planned thing.

We didnt call them No Go's for nothing.

But today's NG isnt the Guard from forty years ago.
 
I was in in school in the fourth grade and Sister Joseph Salvatore was my teacher. She was terrific. I have no recollection of Kent State. Yes, I was an oblivious child . . . that was terrific too.



:lol: Me too! I was in kindergarten.
 
My father, ex military, said they were ordered to shoot over the students heads, as they were being attacked by the students (pelted with rocks). Of course, I was only 13 when this happened. I lived one block away from where I live now. I could be remembering wrong, but everyone was talking about it.

Even in the audio the order was to shoot, but not an order to "shoot to kill". Too bad they didn't have those rubber bullets back then, it might have had a totally different outcome.
 
i dont remember...it has never had the impact that other events had on me....jfk...bobby kennedy...the events were just coming at you mlk...race riots shutting down detroit...on and on..kent state was just a minor event in many ways
 
In 1970 I was living in Grand Junction Colorado.

Those were probably the most horrific 2 years of my life. At 5, I learned about physical, mental and other forms of child abuse from my stepfather.

Was also forced to go to Catholic school. That, combined with the regular beatings kinda made life suck for those 2 years.

What followed wasn't so much of a picnic either.
 
In 1970 I was living in Grand Junction Colorado.

Those were probably the most horrific 2 years of my life. At 5, I learned about physical, mental and other forms of child abuse from my stepfather.

Was also forced to go to Catholic school. That, combined with the regular beatings kinda made life suck for those 2 years.

What followed wasn't so much of a picnic either.

I feel you, ABikerSailor. When I was only 5, my folks passed on and my immigrant family sent me and my brother to a Catholic orphanage.

Amazing, isn't it, now to listen to people try and excuse their bad behavior or evil deeds by claiming they had crappy childhoods? The Menedez Brothers would not have lasted a week at St. Joesph's.

When a child is treated cruelly, the adult they become is either evil as well, or fantabulous by force of will. The really startling thing is, 99% of such people are able to leap the Great Divide and remain human, and humane.

 

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