May 05 2010

May ’70: 6. Four Dead In Ohio

(10PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

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Handmade pins from the anti-gym struggle at Kent State, mid-70s

May 4 fell on a Monday in 1970.

At some point during the morning, four students each woke up, grabbed a toothbrush, maybe showered, got dressed, probably had a bite of breakfast, and headed out.

It wasn’t the proverbial day like any other day. For one thing, over the weekend National Guard troops had occupied their school, Kent State University.

Bill Schroeder and Sandy Scheuer both made their way to their first classes anyhow. Alison Krause figured she’d hit the big anti-war rally scheduled for the Commons at noon. So did Jeffrey Miller, despite the spreading reports that Kent State administrators planned to ban it.

At 12:24, they were flung into history.

4 comments

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  1. A comment I just posted in another essay.

    https://www.docudharma.com/show…

  2. Yesterday NPR posted a disturbing audio slide show that captures voices from then and now. Listen to it and look at those photos. The student that was indited after he was shot at and then the words “…shot at and killed in broad daylight by an unrepentant state government with encouragement and support of the federal government.”  

    Also on NPR, yesterday’s Morning Edition looked back and  Dean Kahler, who was paralyzed during the shooting and has spent the past forty years in a wheelchair. He recalled what was written on the first card he opened in his hospital room after being shot.

    “The first card that I opened up in the intensive care unit was a very nice-looking card,” recalls Dean Kahler, who was paralyzed during the shooting. “But the note in it said, ‘Dear communist hippie radical, I hope by the time you read this, you are dead.’ “

     

  3. … in the semester I taught a class at Kent. Greetings from Portage County, Ohio.

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