4 Dead in Ohio - May 4th, 40th Anniversity

[pohibaba]

40 years ago America was reminded that our Freedom of Speech is simply a guarantee afforded to us by a piece of paper and it can be taken away in the blink of an eye with a senseless act of aggression.

Here is how this day affected one mother:

What I lost at Kent State


Elaine Holstein is a retired school secretary and social worker

On Tuesday, it will be 40 years since my son Jeff was shot and killed on the campus of his college. He and three of his classmates were murdered by the National Guard at an antiwar demonstration at Kent State.

During a 13-second fusillade of rifle fire, Jeff, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder were killed and nine of their fellow students were wounded.

The students who had gathered that day - all unarmed - held a large range of opinions about the seemingly endless war in Vietnam.

Some, including Jeff, objected intensely to the increasing escalation of a war that had begun when they were barely in their teens. In fact, Jeff had written a poem about the war titled "Where Does It End?" in February 1966, shortly before he turned 16.

Others in the crowd had mixed feelings. Some were just onlookers. Some, like Sandy, were on their way to their next class.

And so, May 4, 1970, became one of the blackest days in the history of our country.

It was the day I not only lost my child but also lost my innocence.

I could no longer take on faith what I had been taught all my life about my "constitutional rights," the rights that supposedly made our country different from so many others.

The decade that followed was filled for me with grief, anger, disillusionment, and lawsuits. At the end of our legal battles, we were pressured by the judge and by our lawyers into accepting a settlement in which the parents of the dead students discovered that their sons' and daughters' lives were worth a mere $15,000 each.

It was never about the money for me. I wanted an admission of culpability, and more than that, I wanted an assurance that no mother would ever again have to bury a child for simply exercising the freedom of speech. But all we got was a watered-down statement that better ways must be found, etc., etc.

I also discovered what I perhaps should have known already: that so many of my compatriots did not feel as I did. They believed that the students who were killed or wounded got what they deserved and, as I heard far too often, the National Guard "should have killed more of them." And now - 40 years later - those wounded students are almost senior citizens.
Jeff, however, remains in my memory forever as that bright, funny, passionate 20-year-old.

I have spent 40 years watching my son Russ, Jeff's big brother, grow older. I've valued (perhaps more than I would have if Jeff had not died) the close, satisfying relationship we share.

I've had the great joy of seeing my grandchildren, Jeff (yes, another Jeff Miller) and Jamie, evolve from cute little children into a couple of the most admirable adults I know. I've danced at their weddings and have been made happy by their happiness.

But, once in a while, I wonder about my son Jeff's future, which had so needlessly been cut short.

What would he have been like now at age 60? What sort of career would he have had? Would he have married? And what about those other grandchildren that my husband and I might have enjoyed? Now, as I watch the news on TV each night, I deplore the increasing ugliness of politics, and I'm afraid. I know too well what can happen when hatred takes over.
Please, let us lower the volume and be civil toward one another. For Jeff's sake. And for all of ours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OmZvyNrzAs

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

That's rough man, I hope this doesn't turn into a partisan debate but that's like asking Sarah Palin to say something thoughtful... well there goes that concept.

[Kuya]

To think that the national security State has only been getting stronger.

[Elvis]

America-hating hippies. Let me honor them by kicking around the hackysack and listening to Dave Matthews. Oh and wearing lots of green flanel.

[Sepukku]

If only the Natl Guard had better aim.

[Sylvrdragon]

During a 13-second fusillade of rifle fire, Jeff, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder were killed and nine of their fellow students were wounded.

13 second barrage and that's all they managed to do? I suppose that's why they're in the national guard... And poor Jeff doesn't even get a last name.

[Yuri-G]

thanks for reminding me. listening to Ohio now and getting chills. I'm glad some people can find humour in anything, but count me out on this one.

[izembo]

13 second barrage and that's all they managed to do? I suppose that's why they're in the national guard... And poor Jeff doesn't even get a last name.

it says last name is miller

[Mizango]

That'll teach them to protest in a war zone.

[Chun Liroy]

Wouldn't have happened if they had guns. owai-

[Mizango]

I wonder what our reactions would be had this taken place in Afghanistan?

"Fucking retards, they warned them to leave."

"That guy clearly had a gun.."

[Mizango]

[tyven]

That'll teach them to protest in a war zone.

where does this meme come from, it is fantastic

[Penthesilea]

I bang banged a chick from Kent State a few days ago... Shoulda waited to commemorate huh?

[Mizango]

where does this meme come from, it is fantastic

From the US gunning down Reuters photographers from a Helicoptor. They proceeded to shoot at a van that was picking up the injured that had small children in it. When our soldiers discovered the children inside the destroyed van someone replied, and Im paraphrasing, "That'll teach them to bring children into a war zone".

So now anything fucked up that happens I sort of equate to a war zone lol.


Again, that was not a verbatim quote, I dont need dicks in knots.


Edit: For example: http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showp...69&postcount=5

[tyven]

From the US gunning down Reuters photographers from a Helicoptor. They proceeded to shoot at a van that was picking up the injured that had small children in it. When our soldiers discovered the children inside the destroyed van someone replied, and Im paraphrasing, "That'll teach them to bring children into a war zone".

So now anything fucked up that happens I sort of equate to a war zone lol.


Again, that was not a verbatim quote, I dont need dicks in knots.


Edit: For example: http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showp...69&postcount=5

nice. i remember it being used in the nyc thread about "that will teach him to stop a rape in a war zone"

[Mizango]

lmao

[Mizango]

I plan to use it when Portis trucks Fatliff.

[Kuya]

Bump, since i found this interesting, apparently it's from Nixonland on Kent State:

A respected lawyer told an Akron paper, “Frankly, if I’d been faced with the same situation and had a submachine gun . . . there probably would have been 140 of them dead.” People expressed disappointment that the rabble-rousing professors—the gurus—had escaped: “The only mistake they made was not to shoot all the students and then start in on the faculty.”

When it was established that none of the four victims were guardsmen, citizens greeted each other by flashing four fingers in the air (“The score is four / And next time more”). The Kent paper printed pages of letters for weeks, a community purgation: “Hurray! I shout for God and Country, recourse to justice under
law, fifes, drums, marshal music, parades, ice cream cones—America—support it or leave it.” “Why do they allow these so-called educated punks, who apparently know only how to spell four-lettered words, to run loose on our campuses tearing down and destroying that which good men spent years building up? ...

Signed by one who was taught that ‘to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.’” “I extend appreciation and whole-hearted support of the Guard of every state for their fine efforts in protecting citizens like me and our property.” “When is the long-suffering silent majority going to rise up?”

It was the advance guard of a national mood. A Gallup poll found 58 percent blamed the Kent students for their own deaths. Only 11 percent blamed the National Guard.

A rumor spread in Kent that Jeff Miller, whose head was blown off, was such a dirty hippie that they had to keep the ambulance door open on the way to the hospital for the smell. Another rumor was that five hundred Black Panthers were on their way from elsewhere in Ohio to lead a real riot; and that Allison Krause was “the campus whore” and found with hand grenades on her.

Many recalled the State of Ohio’s original intention for the land upon which Kent State was built: a lunatic asylum. President White was flooded with letters saying it was his fault for letting Jerry Rubin speak on campus. Students started talking about the “Easy Rider syndrome,” after the Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda movie about hippies murdered by vigilantes. Townspeople picketed memorial services. “The Kent State Four!” they chanted. “Should have studied more!”

“Anyone who appears on the streets of a city like Kent with long hair, dirty clothes, or barefooted deserves to be shot,” a Kent resident told a researcher.

“Have I your permission to quote that?”

“You sure do. It would have been better if the Guard had shot the whole lot of them that morning.”

“But you had three sons there.”

“If they didn’t do what the Guards told them, they should have been mowed down.”

A letter to Life later that summer read, “It was a valuable object lesson to homegrown advocates of anarchy and revolution, regardless of age.”

Perhaps some things haven't changed.

[Sylvrdragon]

it says last name is miller

Ah, didn't watch the video. Was commenting on the list of names toward the beginning of the article.