Power and Protests
Image from Arlington National Cemetery
Brother against brother, power against youth, “stay the same” against change. When I was in university our issues are remembered as about the now forgotten Vietnam War, but they really weren’t, they were about something larger, something more important…they were about listening. The universities, the government, the system, the “institutions” didn’t listen to my age group, they gave my generation no credibility, no time and not even the right to vote. I watch the student demonstrations today and am taken back almost 60 years to the days of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the Chicago 7 trial, and demonstrations everywhere in the country. And me back then? A small town kid, in an isolated university, in a deeply conservative state becoming aware of how I was being treated more than I understood the national and international issues the demonstrations were about. Never trust anyone over 30. That was our mantra. My little sliver of the world was not on fire with demonstrations, in fact, I can count on one hand how many we had at South Dakota State University when I attended. We student demonstrators were ignored, not shunned, just ignored. Fulfilling the prophecy of “you don’t count.”
But then, on May 4, 1970, American troops opened fire on American students, kids my age, at Ohio’s Kent State University. Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Miller, 20, Sandra Schemer, 20, and William Schroeder, 19, all unarmed, some not even in the protest march, were gunned down by soldiers. Unarmed students. The governor of Ohio had called the demonstrators “Un-American.” But he hadn’t listened to them, he didn’t talk with them. No one did. Kent State University’s reaction was to ban all demonstrations. Yes. There were crowds and loud chanting and the ROTC building was on fire. But students weren’t attacking the soldiers or the police…they were demanding to be heard.
And four were killed. Nine wounded. “Ohio” is a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, this YouTube link has the song with images. Some of the images are disturbing, they should be, so viewer discretion is advised.
My generation didn’t learn any lessons, now we’re the ones not listening. Fifty-four years ago, almost to the day. Time to listen and learn.