The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre) 56 - YEARS AGO TOMORROW

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

Last edited Sun May 3, 2026, 09:25 AM - Edit history (1)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

The shootings took place on May 4, 1970, during a rally opposing the expanding involvement of the Vietnam War into Cambodia by United States military forces, as well as protesting the National Guard presence on campus and the draft. Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired about 67 rounds over 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom sustained permanent paralysis. Students Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Miller, 20, and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, died on the scene, while William Schroeder, 19, was pronounced dead at Robinson Memorial Hospital in nearby Ravenna shortly afterward.

[multigraincracker]

1. I'll always remember that day.

I was hitching a ride across Ohio and got picked up by the cops. Couldn't figure it out until I got back to Ann Arbor and heard the news. Then I had it figured out.

[Blue Full Moon]

2. Powerful music

https://music.

&si=EhNROXyPgMUgGZCT

[The Wizard]

3. The Beach Boys political commentary

&t=57s

[raccoon]

4. I always remember that, on this date. K&R

[electric_blue68]

5. Oh, I forgot the date But Not the event!

Last edited Mon May 4, 2026, 02:14 PM - Edit history (2)

I was a senior in HS.

Then Jackson State happened a week or two later.

Eta:
Ok, I think (via seeing a totally different post and subject today) I know why I forgot it happened on that date - the later cultural meme "May The Fourth" be with you" re Star Wars ['May the force be with you"] overtook the date for me; but as i said not the event itself.

Eta 2.
It seems the original phrase appeared in a British newspaper May 3rd congratulating Margret Thatcher on her election.
I did not know that [the origin, not Thatcher's election].
Then it was picked up by SW fans.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. Confession: I remember mostly due the CSNY song.

The Star Wars thing is also in my head.
I'm not sure if it's generally known but the previous day someone was injured by one of the NG troops with a bayonet.

IMO this is what happens when leaders are afraid to lead...
...BANG..."stop or I'll shoot"
Management tends to create/recreate what it manages in its own image.

When someone is exercising their First Amendment rights, the first duty of the government is to listen. Maybe that would make a good amendment.

[electric_blue68]

7. Then the C,S,N & Y song -did- it's job...

Oh, don think I knew about the bayonet event. Yikes!

[ColoringFool]

8. I was at Penn State 1967-1971. There's an excellent video on YouTube....

about the campus in 1969.

We had seen the 1968 assassinations and the police riot at the Democratic Convention; I sat by Jerry Rubin when he spoke in our student union building; I voted for the first time; I turned 19.

Spring 1970 the Administration allowed professors to end the formal class semester in order for students to protest and do assignments about their activities.

P.S. I hadn't heard the Kent State killings referred to as a "massacre." But it nevertheless was one.

P.P.S. The famous photo of the distraught girl kneeling at William Schroeder? She wasn't a student.

P.P.P.S. 1969.The Moon landing. Chappaquiddick. Manson/Tate/LaBianca. Altamont.

The Sixties and all the optimism we mustered after 11/22/1963 when in 1964-1967 the British Invasion brought us color, song, joy, hope, freedom---died, along with 55,000 of my contemporaries in The Big Muddy.

And nothing in our history since has restored in any way that sense of optimism.

Not after we learned the stark lesson that our government would have no qualms not only about drafting us from campus, but in killing us on campus.