Four Dead In Ohio

Sandra, Bill, Allison and Jeffrey

"RIGHT HERE, GET SET, POINT, FIRE!"
Kent State Audio Tape Released
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Thirty seven years ago on May 4, 1970, an anti-war student demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, left four students dead. I was a senior in high school and the news slapped me across the face. I watched the guardsmen shoot down these college kids for peacefully protesting against the war. Can you imagine how that would play out today with our 24 hour news saturation? It was easy to be pissed off and angry at police and lawmakers when they were sending my friends off to war and now killing those left behind. If you weren't already radically involved with change, Kent State was going to change you.

"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio."
("Ohio" lyrics by Neil Young)

Kent State: May 1-4,1970
Why the Protest began
Nixon announced a troop offensive into Cambodia on April 30, and said going into Cambodia was necessary to "win the peace". But it was really an escalation of war into another country we had no business being in. (sounds familiar) When the the fires from the artillery began to burn in Cambodia, a raging fire of protest spread across the US, especially on college campuses. There wasn't much protesting in the streets until the students got fired up. Students were the nucleus of protest back then as many demonstrations and marches were born there.

This day is as important to me as any other day in history. There would be no turning back now in our rage against war. Remember Kent State.