“led”
The national guard shooting of the college students
at Kent State University happened on May 4, 1970.
Less than a year later, I was a college student,
and at the same time, I was enlisted in the national guard.
I trained with a guy that was from Wooster, Ohio, that was
a member of the national guard unit deployed to Kent State.
...
“Nobody told me there would be days like these.”
“Strange days, indeed.”
If you know, you know.
In May 1970 I was in high-school, and had a pretty good garage band going. Had a couple of originals including some pretty strong protest stuff. When "Ohio" came out, we learned it immediately and got requests to play it everywhere we performed.
Even though my views on such things have changed and morphed a lot in nearly 55 years, I still have trouble singing it without it catching in my throat.
I am sorry to say that I believe that this summer, our government will do something similar, though to whom I can't predict. Could be protesters, could be citizens, could be you and me. Interesting times ahead.
I couldn’t stand the 60s when it was the 60s. Aren’t all those smelly hippies dead yet?
Left behind by the counter culture that mostly grew up
Like Abbie
Today’s protestors, BLM, Antifa, “I am HAMAS” should all be shot... We praised Rittenhouse. Today’s government praises these scum as peaceful protestors using their 1st amendment right yet they gag Trump for speaking out.
60s was a different time and I grew up in them and had a good time. I’ll take the 60s over today’s BS any day. There was a lot of bad shxt but not near as bad as today
I logged onto to Youtube to listen to the song; I had heard it before but never paid much attention to it since it starts off with “Nixon coming” when Nixon had nothing to do with the whole matter. I have never been a fan of the Canadian “Neil.”
I read an account on Wikipedia of the Kent State shooting. Two of the students killed were not even participants of the protests.
It was a miserable, incendiary event and the National Guardsmen were not, obviously, trained to handle anything like that and must have lost their nerves. It is amazing that many more were not killed. Some of the protesters were agents provocateurs and not students, just like today.
I have never understood student protests and was always taught to steer clear of mobs, who are always very dangerous. You never know what will happen. For example, why would they want to harass the Guardsmen? And those two students who died merely walking to class probably were taught the same thing.
eff Davis Crosby....and Neil Young
“Ohio” is not a long song, I’ll give them that. However, there are two sides to every story. I could not honestly relate to Kent State in May ‘70 because I was in the 5th grade when it happened. Just because they call me a baby boomer doesn’t mean that I could’ve related to guys being drafted, hippies & yippies, rock stars and their music, greasers & bikers, soldiers returning from Vietnam, dope, “free love”, women’s lib, etc., etc... No wait, I’ll take it back that I couldn’t relate to the music...Once I heard Jimi’s version of Johnny B. Goode and the live version of Little Wing from the “In The West” album, I just about swallowed the hook...And when the Beatles quit, I think it must’ve been a kind of a universal disappointment that I felt. However, I don’t think that in ‘65, Pete Townsend had me and my elementary school classmates in mind when he wrote “My Generation”!
History repeats itself.
New York Times, Oct. 1970:
“the jury found that the “major responsibility” for the May events “rests clearly with those persons who are charged with the administration of the university.” The report accused the universities administration of fostering “an attitude of laxity, over‐indulgence and permissive ness,” accused some faculty members of an “over‐emphasis” on “the right to dissent,” and criticized students for their behavior and allegedly “obscene” language.”
Tom Hayden and Bill Ayer’s group, the SDS, had been at Kent State for months prior to the shootings. Many of the professors were deeply involved with the SDS, helping organize, plan protests.
The people responsible for the innocent kids who caught bullets were the damned rioters. They’d been tearing up that campus for weeks. They’d been given a lawful order to disperse and instead decided to start throwing rocks at men with loaded rifles.
Blaming the Guard for what happened is like blaming the IDF for the civilian casualties in Gaza. The SDS started the riot. They’re responsible for the dead and injured.
No one else.
L
I recall that day well. There was a bunch of us sitting in the NCO club at Arlington Hall Station in Northern Virginia. A news flash came on the TV describing the incident. There were about 20 or so of us in the room, most of us war vets. We all stood up and cheered the National Guard.
My views on the subject never changed.
The Guard shot too few, and the wrong ones to boot. Not a single SDS or other domestic terror leader was harmed.