by Jack Stewart
Sunday, May. 05, 2002 at 10:58 AM
JWhitfi894@aol.com 773-890-4805 103 N. Jefferson St., Abingdon, Illinois 61410
32 years ago 4 Kent State University students were shot dead on campus by the Ohio National Guard, some just walking to class. 8 others were wounded.
The Kent State Massascre
In loving memory of: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Schever, and William Schroeder. As we held hands and meditated at the monument at Kent State University with the names of these 4 students etched into the stone, murdered by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, needless to say, it intrinsically touched us, and we suddenly found ourselves hugging and weeping, having come from the A20th anti-war event in DC in conjuction with the demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank.
Upon arriving at the parking lot where there are 4 special places designated to the exact spots where the students were mowed down, a young student with a Dylan t-shirt on, went by and pointed out that a large art structure up the hill had a bullet hole through it.
Respectfully remembered: Alan Confora, John Cleary, Thomas Grace,Dean Kahler,Joseph Lewis,Donald Mackenzie, James Russel, Robert Stamps, and Douglass Wrentmore were the names of the others whose bodies were pierced by bullets that spring day in 1970.
This squad had ammunition in its weapons, and this is never done unless there is clear danger to the guardsmen. The officers and military police have loaded weapons, but not the regulars.
Months earlier Ronald Reagon, then the governor of California, had called for a bloodbath if necessary, stating that: " dissent on colleges campuses could not be tolerated," so the question is, if the orders came from DC, as states with republican governors would have been the ones called to put dissenters in their place.
Some of the students killed were going to and from classes, and were not even involved in the anti-war protests.
The lights of the 4 monuments went on as we were leaving the parking lot with dusk fast approaching.
With the maddening war fever / hysteria opiating the masses,
with no end in sight on the "who's next" list,
may the memory of these students give us strength to grow the anti-war movement to the proportion necessary to stop the war. The whole world is waiting for us. We have the resources to do it. There is plenty to go around in the world, if things were divided up a little more equally. There is no excuse for certain individuals to have a $ billon, while some child is dying of hunger.
Two of the major conflicts in the world are countries that we give the most aid to.
We are the number one arms dealer in the world, while we blame others for the drug problems we have in our society.
If not us who?
If not now when?
If not here where?