Shots Still Reverberate For Survivors Of Kent State...remembering May 4, 1970.

[madfloridian]

Shots Still Reverberate For Survivors Of Kent State



From 2010: It's now been 45 years.

It was 40 years ago Tuesday that the shootings — which killed four people and wounded nine others — stunned the nation. Even at the height of the Vietnam War protests, no one imagined that government soldiers would fire real bullets at unarmed college students.

"I saw the smoke come out of the weapons, and light is faster than sound, and so I knew immediately [they] were not firing blanks. So it was almost instinctive to dive for cover," remembers Jerry Lewis, who was 33 and teaching sociology at Kent State in 1970.

Lewis says that when he takes people to the scene of the shooting on the Kent Commons, he likes to point out a particular mark — a perfectly round bullet hole in a steel sculpture.

"This is what an M-1 bullet, .30-caliber bullet, does to steel," he says. "And the artist, to his credit, has refused to fix this. So, ironically, the National Guard created their own memorial."

Here is the audio slideshow from NPR.

On May 4, 1970, unarmed college students were shot by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. Forty years later, this slideshow takes a look back at the events of the day.

The victims:


Allison Krause


Sandy Scheuer


Jeffrey Miller


Bill Schroeder

[annabanana]

1. It was a bad bad day

My heart dropped though the floor

[madfloridian]

10. I posted their pics because they surely do not look dangerous or hostile.

Yes, a sad day.

[Agschmid]

2. Kick.

[Demeter]

3. I'm getting my crying over this country done early, today

so that I can work to fix what's wrong with it, one more day at a time.

[MarianJack]

4. I remember some pro war nuts REJOICIND...

...about this. Sick bastards!

PEACE!

[marym625]

5. I sent the link to your post

Along with my post and the third about this, to Alan Canfora. He is the head of the May4.org society and one of the victims, shot in the wrist

[malaise]

7. I never forgot that day

It changed me

[Number9Dream]

8. DU always remembers this tragedy

Rest In Peace - Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer, Jeffrey Miller, William Schroeder.

I remember how the killings at Kent State pushed a large number of my high school classmates, who were politically middle-of-the-road, much further toward the anti-war, anti-establishment end of the spectrum.

My older brother, in the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, in S. Vietnam, didn't hear about it until a day or two after. He said most of the soldiers felt that battle-dressed guardsmen should NOT have responded, even to rock throwing, with lethal force.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. Terrible day for the anti-war movement, free speech, and America. As seniors in high school,

we organized a county-wide protest and walkout from schools for May 8th and beyond. Government troops that had been used to quell civil rights disturbances were now marching on to college campuses and tear gassing and shooting protesters. Nixon, and Ohio Governor Rhodes, had encouraged 'law and order' to declare war on their own children and when FBI'student' informant Terry Norman fired into the crowd, the untrained Guardsmen fired into the gas filled area and things spiraled out of control...




http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2010/10/analysis_of_kent_state_audio_t.html

[FloriTexan]

11. K&R

[madfloridian]

13. Thanks.

[Pooka Fey]

12. K&R