The Kent State thing…
it’s part of America…
Probably, you already know this:
if that other guy has a loaded gun, don’t throw stones at him.
The average American living today hadn’t been born when Ohio State National Guard troops killed four student protesters and wounded nine more on the campus of Kent State University on May 4, 1970.
Campus rallies against the Vietnam War had been banned by the college. About 2,000 students defied the ban and turned out to throw rocks and shout insults at the fully armed Guardsmen, who had arrived on campus the previous day and had already used tear gas to disperse protesters.
Around noon, National Guard officers again ordered students to disperse, and the citizen soldiers fired tear gas, and advanced with fixed bayonets.
With. Fixed. Bayonets.
Within minutes, the young Guardsmen fired more than 60 rounds into the crowds of students. Four years later, a federal court threw out all charges against the shooters.
As it happened, I was in Vietnam in 1970, serving our country. When I heard the grisly Kent State news, in US Army headquarters in Danang, my first reaction was: why would angry young men and angry young women throw stones at scared young men in uniform who are holding loaded guns with fixed bayonets?
I also remember wondering where they got the stones—next time you go to a college campus, count the stones you see lying on the ground.
I didn’t feel sympathetic toward the student protesters, but I knew they didn’t deserve to die.
Now, I feel sympathetic. I’m real sure that no student in that mob at Kent State was seriously afraid that the guys with helmets and bayonets and guns would shoot at them. Not at Kent State, not in America.
Now, I feel sad that on May 4, 1970, some Americans who thought they were doing the right thing decided to piss off other Americans who were carrying loaded guns. I feel sad that some Americans who thought they were doing the right thing aimed their rifles at other Americans and pulled the triggers.
Now, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about how hard it is for all of us,
separately and together, to figure out what is “the right thing.”
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