..a protest of poor campus security. That changed dramatically when we heard the news about Kent State. Eventually, we all walked out of class, many taking DNF's for grades. Some teachers sympathized and whatever grade you had when we walked, you graduated with. I remember asking in front of a gathering for student funds to be used/donated to a defense fund. I was shouted down. A week later, same crowd, someone from Kent State, Student President, VP, don't remember exactly who, came and made the same plea. He was applauded. Still a horrible memory and a day that the universe changed in America. The MIC carries on though.

Thanks for the personal post, bluegal.

I found a wiki entry on my own Senator, Birch Bayh, who had sent a memo on information pointing to Terry Norman, an informant, firing the first shot that caused the guard to open fire.

From the wiki:

According to recently released FBI reports,[citation needed] one part-time student, Terry Norman, was already noted by student protesters as an informant for both campus police and the Akron FBI branch. Norman was present during the May 4 protests, taking photographs to identify student leaders,[33] while carrying a sidearm and wearing a gas mask.

In 1970, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover responded to questions from then-Congressman John Ashbrook by denying that Norman had ever worked for the FBI – a statement Norman himself disputed.[34] On August 13, 1973, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh sent a memo to then-governor of Ohio John J. Gilligan suggesting that Norman may have fired the first shot, based on testimony he [Bayh] received from Guardsmen who claimed that a gunshot fired from the vicinity of the protesters instigated the Guard to open fire on the students.[35]

the day a moral culture would have turned their back, walked away from, and never returned to "government".

Jackson State.

From Morning Maddow

Click on the link from daily motion.

History is full of them. We have historical events from Pearl Harbor and 9/11 to Kent State and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The important thing is how we reacted to word of those events. Was it fear? Anger? Shock? How do those feelings change with the distance of time? What have we learned about the world around us and/or about ourselves?

George W. Bush used to talk about 'people forgetting' 9/11, forgetting about why we fight. But, in retrospect, it's become clear he wasn't talking about forgetting the event, he didn't want us to forget the anger and shock - the emotional imbalance - because that kind of atmosphere is ripe for the fear-mongering and shell games his administration played.

And nearly ten years later, even a change of administrations hasn't been able to undo that damage. We're suffering from a sickness that has stained our collective souls, and is manifesting in this bizzare acting-out of the Tea Party crowd, the racial antagonism against minorities, the daily doses of fear from the likes of Beck and Limbaugh.

We never 'recovered' from 9/11, never healed. We haven't gained the perspective that time and distance normally lend to anger and the grieving process.

We need to remember, but we need to reflect in order to heal.

My birthday, though not my birth year. In Boston there was a march to the state house where we got the flag lowered to half mast. Days later C,S,N and Young appeared at Boston Garden and did Ohio. It was ELECTRIC.

While you were in first grade, I was in the anti-war movement in California.

What uprising at Kent State? It was a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. It was like any other peaceful protest against the war. I went to a protest in Los Angeles with then Senator Allen Cranston's son. It was a huge turnout, but no uprising.

Kent State was an absolute shock to the nation, and tragedy, certainly, for the families of the slain students.

But, it was not an uprising.

Jackson State, and the remembrance of the six lives lost and others wounded is important.

I imagine Cambodians remember a date a few days before this as much more important in the lives (and deaths) of their people.

I used to work with a guy and his dad was also a prof at Kent State when this happened.

Every time I go back to Ohio, I go to the spot where I was standing and look up to the right of Taylor Hall. The feeling of disbelief never changes.

Two words to describe the day:
(#2) Horrible.
(#1) Surreal.

I don't remember how long I stood there, frozen.
Be glad you weren't there.

And I ring the Victory Bell four times.

"We will keep your school open, no matter what the cost."
- Gov. James A. Rhodes to KSU President Robert White

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthi...

I would say burning Buildings and setting numerous fires while preventing firemen an ability to put them out, Throwing Rocks, bricks, and soda bottles at police, firemen and National Guard troops could be rightfully considered a violent uprising.

Moving toward armed troops shouting kill, kill etc isn't nonthreatening to the mostly scared teen and young adults of the National Guard who fired on students following perceived threats of injury or death. Riot training was minimal for most National Guard at the time.

to avoid the draft, often after they had run out their educational deferments. Later Vice-President J. Danforth "Potatoe" Quayle was in the Ohio guard at the time. I had a suspicion that he was behind a gun and that his career was a reward for those actions, but apparently those guardsmen were later identified, at least for interviews.

I do remembered that it was the organizers of the protests that were charged by the state attorney general.

Less than two weeks after Kent State, I walked into a bar at the Newark airport to buy my first (legal) drink in the States, since I turned 21 a year after I was drafted.

I was in my dress uniform and I was on my way home, having just been processed out of the Army at Fort Dix.

My happy, smiling demeanor was met with surly, even angry looks from most in the bar and it took me a while to figure out why.

It was a long flight back to California.

Thank you, Blue Gal. I was in Junior High when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students and wounded nine others. We are of the generation which turned on its own.

I was in D.C. during this time. I was involved with the protests on a very, very low level.

What I remember the most is that there was a College Student News Service, that I wandered into and was allowed to read the news "hot off the wire", structured similiar to AP etc gathering news stories from College newspapers, reporters across the country. If I remember correctly it was on Church St. Equipped with its very own teletype and a very early "fax" machine. Impressive technology for the time.

It that emerged was that the country was not getting the news as to how large and wide spread those demonstrations were. The pattern seemed to have been that the local dmostrations were mentioned, if they were big enough, but the any actions outside of particuluar regions were ignored no matter the size or effect.

Classic case was the shootings at Jackson state that were not reported on immediately or in any depth.

Kent state broke through the haze but I believe it was there I first heard that the news agencies etc. had decided that for the sake of the country that they would help suppress reporting the extent of the demonstrations.

I also remember an old leftie columnist, Nicholis Von Hoffman?, showing up and in conversation suggesting that the idea of the Cambodia invasion was to incite the left protesters to act before they got better organized ( or organized at all) so they could identify and subsequently target the leaders, hotbeds and nascent organization. At the time I was dismissive of that idea but in retrospect I have had to rethink the possibility.

I was 21 and a senior at Central Michigan University, a school very similar to Kent State, and only a few hundred miles away. The instant response was to rally and then we took over the ROTC building (because at that age everyone thinks they are immortal.) Luckily for us the school's president, William Boyd, was a kind and rational man and he negotiated a truce after about a week. I do remember, however, the guys with short hair, pressed jeans and dress shoes who walked around trying to get information from people. They were so clumsy that we just laughed at them. Don't know if they were federal or local, but they were definitely nosing around.

I also remember hearing all the adults who said that shooting kids was the right thing to do and that perhaps more should have been shot. With Jackson State a couple weeks later it was brought home to me that my government was not going to protect me, and my country found me expendable. I think it's why over the past 40 years I've never moved to the right as so many of my contemporaries have.

I was in college in Wisconsin when the shootings took place. Our campus was for the most part apolitical and non-activist (our one pathetic "campus radical" was such a horse's heinie that nobody wanted anything to do with him) but that day, almost the whole student body marched as one down the main drag in protest. We got cursed and spit at by the "hardhats" on the sidewalk.

We did go on strike, but this was a campus where academic achievement was taken very seriously and finals were approaching, so after a few days everyone went quietly back to class.

I will never forget those days, though.

On the Thom Hartmann show this morning... I just heard a guy who was there... and has been part of an investigation over the years... He said that there is now Audio Proof that whoever was leading the National Guard actually Ordered them to fire into the crowd.

I was in VietNam working Air-medivac when a "newbie" showed me an article in some newspaper he had brought with him. It was hard to get any real information on what happened. I do remember reading "Kent State" by James Michener after returning back to the world and thought it was the most accurate account of what happened. I think they also made a movie of it in the early 80's- is was pretty bad- had then spent a great deal of time reading actual accounts and other research on the event. I knew some National Guard who told me they never would have been prepared for what happened. They also said that being issued live ammo was rare and couldn't believe they were issued live rounds. Generally, a fixed bayonet and military uniform was enough to achieve most situations they found themselves in.

I was in 3rd grade in Kent, OH on May 4, 1970 at Walls Elementary school. We were in school that day, but I remember we had our recesses in the hallways that Monday because the National Guard was using our school their local base and had guardsmen and equipment on our playground. It was kind of exciting to us, we didn't feel any sense of the menace that was to come. Hard to conceive today of having armed troops quartered at a school full of small children.

We didn't return to school the next day. The people of Kent were told we were under martial law and that all activities and meetings were canceled and that any gatherings over 3 people were prohibited. I've since read accounts of the events that claim that martial law was not declared, but that is not the experience of the residents of Kent who definitely had their freedom of assembly revoked - legally or not.

I remember the feeling when I saw it on the tube.
I remember my heart feeling heavy.
I remember saying to myself, WTF is going on?
I remember this day. I remember where I was and what I was doing when I found out about this.
I remember this day.