Four Dead in Ohio

[ceebeegee]

Rest in peace, Allison, Sandy, Jeffrey and  Bill.

And for those of you Guardsmen who turned and fired on unarmed students, some of whom were merely walking to class--you have to live the rest of your life with what you've done.  I want you to see all the news stories about today, the 40th anniversary of Kent State, and remember the lives you ended, and those you changed forever.

In the aftermath of the shootings, campuses all over the country shut down and students were sent home.  Many of these students were told by their parents that "they deserved it" and "they should've killed them all."  One girl asked her mother "I had a class that day--what if I'd been shot walking to class?"  Her mother paused and said "you would've deserved it."*  Her own mother. 

This is what happens when political discourse is poisoned to this extent, when vitriol has seeped into people's identities--they are so invested in the fight, the aggression, they lose sight of fundamental issues like a student's right to protest, and to walk to their classes without being fired on and we're all human beings together.  I cannot get past that someone was so, so very invested in their hateful political stances, they just cannot bear to admit there might be a chink in their hateful, angry political philosophy,  that they actually say things like "you should've been killed too."  If your politics cause you to forget your own humanity and say dreadful things like that, you need to rethink your politics.

My grandmother and mother got in an argument about it--Mom said "Mother, not only were they allowed to be there, those who were walking to class were required to be exactly where they were!"  She finally got my grandmother to back down.

*From James Michener's Kent State: What Happened and Why.