This summer I hear the drummin'...

[ceebeegee]

It's weird, though, I always think of May 4 as the day of the Kent State massacre (May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, after a weekend of protest following Nixon's incursion into Cambodia). Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'...Four Dead in Ohio.... That song is so haunting--I first learned about this event in college when I read a book by James Michener about it (the book was very much a product of its time--each female student was invariably described as a "leggy blonde co-ed" or "a stunning, brunette student." I'm surprised he didn't call them birds. But for all that it was pretty informative). I had also discovered the score to Godspell, which, coincidentally was big when Kent State happened, and the song "On the Willows" kept going through my head as I stared at those pictures of Jeff Miller, lying on the pavement, shot in the face. (He's the one in the Pulitzer Prize-winning picture with the screaming girl, who was actually a 14-year-old runaway.)

Rest in peace, Alison Krause, Sandra Scheuer, William Schroeder and Jeffrey Glenn Miller. And not to be forgotten--Philip (?--I don't know that case as well) Green also killed at Jackson State College a few weeks later. Students shouldn't be afraid to demonstrate peacefully.

Comments

[carasol.livejournal.com]

A teacher of mine had a friend who lived near Kent State. He lived with and took care of a wheelchair-bound woman, another friend of his. 36 years ago, her wheelchair's battery died, so he went out to find another one. Once outside, he was arrested in the sweep after the shootings. It took him a day to get home, and when he got there, his roommate was on the floor. Hungry and desperate to get to the bathroom, she had tried to pull herself around the apartment with her hands, but wasn't strong enough. She was thirsty and hungry, filthy and humiliated. According to my teacher, both of them have very low opinions of cops even today.