Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This blog post is the result of our well known regular contributor Blouise sending me a link, sent to her by one of our other long time contributors GBK. I thank them for not only the vital information they shared with me, but also for the inspiration it gave me. When people ask me what kind of blog to I write for, I explain to them that it is the creation of the well-known Constitutional Law Professor and Civil Rights Advocate Jonathan Turley. The common thread that links most of us here is our support for Jonathan’s work and our belief in upholding the Constitution. The topic raises is vital to all of those purposes.
On May 4th, 1970 I was twenty-six years old. I worked for NYC’s Department of Social Services (welfare) as a caseworker in Brooklyn. Was active in the Peace Movement and had in the last year lost in my bid for the Presidency of the radical welfare caseworkers union. Long haired, full bearded and habitually wearing shirts open to almost my waist, with tight-fitting bell bottom jeans. I was a happy and carefree imbiber of psychedelics and had a great social life. I had failed my Draft physical four years prior due to high blood pressure, which would later turn into severe heart trouble requiring me to have a transplant, but back then I was just grateful that I didn’t have to make the choice between my ideals and the Selective Service Law. So many young men whose lives were drastically changed for the worse by being drafted into that conflict, were less lucky than I because they were my contemporaries, I felt I needed to help bring them home.
Even with the 60’s decade of assassinations, Civil Rights protests ending in violence, Nixon’s election and the Viet Nam escalation, I was still hopeful that my generation would really change things for the better in this country and that the future would bring great changes in economic freedom and social justice. So hopeful was I, that I was attending my first year of Law School at night and envisioned myself becoming a Legal Aid attorney in the future. Then I heard the news about Kent State, the murder of four students and shooting of nine during what was a relatively peaceful protest. Suddenly, this brought home to me the reality of what we were facing in our country. My optimism for change died that day, but not my commitment to fight for it.
As the news proliferated the story just didn’t add up. Supposedly the young National Guardsmen heard sniper shots and in a panic returned fire. That the students shot were at a distance of at least three hundred feet and the ammunition was armor-piercing rounds. It was claimed that there was no order to fire given and that the young National Guardsmen thought they were firing in self defense. As it turned out these were lies and propaganda foisted to cover the fact that those in power in the administration and their follower, the Republican Governor of Ohio, wanted to send a message to those opposing the War, that we were in mortal danger if we dared to try to thwart their murderous rampage in South East Asia.
“The killing of protesters at KentState changed the minds of many Americans about the role of the US in the Vietnam War. Following this massacre, there was an unparalleled national response: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed across America in a student strike of more than four million. Young people across the nation had strong suspicions the Kent State massacre was planned to subvert any further protests arising from the announcement that the already controversial war in Vietnam had expanded into Cambodia.
Yet instead of attempting to learn the truth at Kent State, the US government took complete control of the narrative in the press and ensuing lawsuits. Over the next ten years, authorities claimed there had not been a command-to-fire at Kent State, that the ONG had been under attack, and that their gunfire had been prompted by the “sound of sniper fire.” Instead of investigating Kent State, the American leadership obstructed justice, obscured accountability, tampered with evidence, and buried the truth. The result of these efforts has been a very complicated government cover-up that has remained intact for more than forty years.”
You will find the article the paragraph above is quoted from if you follow the link below. The link will lead you to an article entitled: “Kent State: Was It about Civil Rights or Murdering Student Protesters?” This was written by: Laurel Krause with Mickey Huff and is from a forthcoming book: Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution. “Laurel Krause is a writer and truth seeker dedicated to raising awareness about ocean protection, safe renewable energy, and truth at Kent State. She publishes a blog on these topics at Mendo Coast Current. She is the co-founder and director of the Kent State Truth Tribunal. Before spearheading efforts for justice for her sister Allison Krause, who was killed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, Laurel worked at technology start-ups in Silicon Valley.”
By the way, my Law School was one of the schools shut down in response to the Kent State Massacre and I was active in the movement to shut it down for the semester as a memorial to those dead and wounded students. Then as now, I saw these killings as premeditated murder in the service of stifling dissent in our country. I urge you to take the time to read this article linked below and its proofs that these murderous shootings, were done under orders and with malice aforethought. As much as our Presidential contenders extol America’s unique status in the world, they are mute to the barely hidden agenda that is destroying what we purport to be our ideals of freedom and justice. The article below gives lie to one wicked truth of our history and should be a sobering reminder of the way things really are:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/kent-state-was-it-about-civil-rights-or-%E2%80%A8murdering-student-protesters/
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/04/01/defending-our-freedoms/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/05/05/what-the/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/06/23/missing-the-point-when-the-point-is-obvious/
A.R.E. leaves out the most important context behind the invasion of Kuwait.
1st off Kuwait was an artificial country created with a flat ruler & pencil on a map after WWI by Sir Percy Cox of the Anglo-American Oil Consortium. Iraq had protested its existence to every world organization annually since it cut off a huge chunk of its historic Gulf access in what used to be called Iraqi Province 19 but now stood as a parasitic excrescence in the heart of Mesopotamia, utterly beholden to the US for its survival.
2nd: Kuwait was caught using US supplied slant drilling technology to illegally plunder Iraq’s largest oil field, Ramalla. Uncle Sam secretly encouraged Kuwait to do this in its diabolical plans to set Iraq up.
3rd: Saddam personally asked the US Ambassador if there’d be a problem if he settled this matter with Kuwait unilaterally & the Ambassador gave him the green light. This conversation was recorded and the transcripts published in the NY Times back in the day.
4th: Democracy never prevented a single war and it wasn’t about to stop the 1st Gulf War so on the eve of the invasion, when Congress was about to vote for war authorization but there were lots of Democratic holdouts, the Congress was duped by the testimony of a woman who claimed to have witnessed Kuwaiti babies in a hospital being ripped from incubators by Iraqi soldiers. That was it! They voted yes largely on that testimony but her account was a fraud. Completely fabricated by the CIA. Turns out, as “60 Minutes” exposed too late, not only wasn’t she there but was actually the niece of the Emir of Kuwait who was coached into the testimony made up out of whole cloth. Lied into a war by Bush 1, the ex-head of the CIA & an oil man — go figure!
Karl, If you were legit, you would know that Daniel Ellsberg is still one of the most respected leaders on the left, and that Chomsky said in both 2008 and 2012 to vote for Obama in swing states. You try to shame Obama supporters while not even realizing that the leaders on the left are saying to vote for Obama in swing states.
Mike S. gets it wrong again by perpetuating the urban legend of “hatred for the troops” and then trying to lump in my hatred for war as hatred for troops in a very poorly executed cheap shot.
Fact is the “hatred for the troops” myth was concocted & is still perpetuated by right wing propagandists as Vietnam vet Jerry Lambcke decisively demonstrates in his book: “The Spitting Image” which I’ll quote a review of below:
“One of the most resilient images of the Vietnam era is that of the anti-war protester — often a woman — spitting on the uniformed veteran just off the plane. The lingering potency of this icon was evident during the Gulf War, when war supporters invoked it to discredit their opposition.
In this startling book, Jerry Lembcke demonstrates that not a single incident of this sort has been convincingly documented. Rather, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was defined by mutual support. Indeed one soldier wrote angrily to Vice President Spiro Agnew that the only Americans who seemed concerned about the soldier’s welfare were the anti-war activists.
While the veterans were sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their service, this sense of unease was, Lembcke argues, more often rooted in the political practices of the Right. Tracing a range of conflicts in the twentieth century, the book illustrates how regimes engaged in unpopular conflicts often vilify their domestic opponents for ‘stabbing the boys in the back.'”
Concluding with an account of the powerful role played by Hollywood in cementing the myth of the betrayed veteran through such films as Coming Home, Taxi Driver, and Rambo, Jerry Lembcke’s book stands as one of the most important, original, and controversial works of cultural history in recent years.”
Since I was a Vietnam era veteran and very active in the anti-war movement, I DO know both sides of this issue. The FACT is that there were LOTS of people in the anti-war movement who viewed us as not only the enemy, but war criminals for having served. The majority of the anti-war movement though was very supportive of the GIs and I felt welcome with some few who did NOT feel that way. Many of those who were not so welcoming were upper class students who never had to worry about being drafted and had the luxury of being holier than thou.
If you will recall, that in all the anti-war demostrations that I was part of, the vets and GIs LED the parade. My fellow GIs were very friendly to the anti-war movement, and hardly hated them. The lifers were not so friendly, but they were a minority, and even many of them felt some sympathy for our protests. In some cases, people such as Col Hackworth, actively spoke up and got thrown out for doing so.
Good Peace raff…. Or piece…. Take your choice… Mespo…. Lived the era….know csn well… Young was a good addition…. You need to listen to graham Nash “immigration man”……
In retort to me M. Spindell lectures that Obama supporters are “people in who in some sense are more politically astute than you and prefer to look and the long game rather than a temporary ejaculation of political purity…”
That means those people are also “more politically astute” than professor Turley who I predicted would definitely not be voting for Obama after the NWU Holder speech & the “kill list” was revealed — a prediction that was vindicated last month or so when the professor came out & admitted, in so many words, that he indeed could not on principle be persuaded to vote for a man who has so thoroughly decimated the the Bill of Rights and the hallmarks of the Constitution’s foundation.
nick,
There is a difference between troll and trollish. That post was neither. Disagreement is not what defines trollery. It’s about methodology and (in the case of true trolls) intent, but disagreement hasn’t got a thing to do with it.
Mike,
Great article. I recommend an old book on ths subject. Kent State, How and Why. I spent the early morning of my 19th birthday in The Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro Illinois after getting arrested on the evening of May 11th, 1970 in Carbondale, Illinois. That whole murderous story changed my life forever.
I’m going to rain on this Baby Boomer nostalgia parade a bit. I’ll be called a “troll” by the sheriff and castigated by others. However, I give this as a personal bit of perspective. I am not, and was no,t a “war monger”. I grew up in a blue collar Democratic[You’ve taught the pc regarding “Democrat”]. I went to a college w/ a lot of Viet Nam vets using their GI bill to get a college education. They were blue collar also. Fast forward to 1983. My wife is hired to be a Federal Probation Officer in Madison, Wi. Karleton Armstrong was on parole. Karleton, his brother, and two others blew up a math/physics building on the University of Wi. campus just 4 months after Kent State. A young father of 3 children named Robert Fassnecht, was killed in that senseless bombing. Hate breeds hate.
Ellsberg’s main claim to fame was 40 years ago when he leaked the “Pentagon Papers” for the NY Times where he was employed. Most NY Times reporters vote for Democrats. So what.
As far as Chomsky he says that Obama is worse than George Bush & Tony Blair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mA4HYTO790
The fact remains whoever votes for Obama tacitly endorses a man who keeps a secret “kill list” who by decree acts as the judge, jury & executioner of people who are typically not even charged with a crime.
He’s a man whose DOJ has prosecuted more whistle blowers in 4 years than every other president combined.
He hasn’t lifted a finger to prosecute a single torturer (because he’s still doing it) nor has he bothered to stuff one Wall Street crook in the Pokey.
He (along with Bush) gave the most incompetent & criminally negligent corporate bankers a virtual blank check for $750 billion.
He’s allowed BP to keep drilling in the Gulf.
You position yourself Karl,
I’ve said it before about your pompous, preening faux purity, but it bears repeating. Your attitude
about Ellsberg is what have you done for me lately, yet his courage in his singular act excels everything you think you have done in your life. You ignore Chomsky’s valid argument about voting for Obama to cherry pick his statements. You position yourself with the people, but you exibit a lack of empathy for their pain. You remind me of the Marxist I knew in my welfare Union days. Always expressing their solidarity with the people but showing no empathy for them. You are no different than those corporate killers you malign in that they too exhibit no empathy.
Anonymously posted,
A real shakeup. Thanks. Nauseating the evil men do.
Has the video maker done more stuff?
A shame that this could not be the start of a blog.
Show it and ask, “what do you make of this?”
http://youtu.be/tiekoXsNzYI
The FBI’s COINTELPRO is alive and well in America. The name has been changed and there are other players, but “the program” is thriving.
Great article. Thanks to all: GBK, Blouise and Mike S.
( For anyone who might be interested: http://uprisingradio.org/home/2012/10/25/how-ordinary-americans-are-surveilled-locally-and-nationally-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/
Shahid Buttar of the BORDC:
http://ia601501.us.archive.org/21/items/DailyDigest102512/2012_10_25_buttar.mp3
Shahid Buttar, executive director, leads the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the People’s Campaign for the Constitution (PCC) in our efforts to defend civil liberties, constitutional rights, and rule of law principles threatened within the United States by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He is a constitutional lawyer, grassroots organizer, independent columnist, musician, and poet.
Before joining BORDC in 2009, Shahid directed a national program to combat racial and religious profiling, after serving for three years as associate director of the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy. He previously pursued public interest litigation (advancing marriage equality for same sex couples and campaign finance reform) in private practice at Heller Ehrman LLP, after receiving his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2003, where he served as executive editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a teaching assistant for Constitutional Law. He graduated summa cum laude from Loyola University Chicago with a BA in political science and creative writing in 2000, ten years after beginning college at the University of Chicago and after a six-year career in financial services to pay for school.” )
I went to May Day Demonstrations in DC in 1971– Shut Down The Government. It was educational. There were numerous Nam Vets there radically dressed and protesting and throwing rocks back at hte tear gassing cops. Then I was privileged to be in DC in August 1974. A bunch of us partied and went to the White House and yelled Jail To The Chief the night Nixon resigned. In his Memoirs he said we were saying Hail To The Chief.
Kent State was the largest motivator. This article is good. The government covers up crimes and coverups. Gonna get down to it, soldiers are gunning down.
John,
Your short list, which you could of course have lengthened gives rise to an idea.
I am certainly not the first to note that we need a monument in Washington to all those who fell or were wounded, or especially harmed as a result of their efforts to bring Ammerica to its senses.
It should be capable of giving extra space to memoriialize the notable and expanded to include the names of all as their ranks also do.
Hope yóu like the idea.
Blouise,
“Blouise
1, October 27, 2012 at 12:33 pm
It is interesting to note the obvious attempt to spin the attention of posters from the article at hand.———————————————-
At whom are you pointing? Or have you lost your nerve to put a name on those who offend you. And you, just you, are not a judge here. You speak too often with that tone of voice, IMHO. Nobody is. But you offer your opinions as though ?
The reference to GeneH was fine IMHO, as it was exactly what I said to MikeS, saying that as long as society is as it was and is, then his earlier blogs have permanent value.
So we can agree on that, unless you wish to change now. Smile.
QUOTE “Supposedly the young National Guardsmen heard sniper shots and in a panic returned fire.”
REALLY!?? So what was the excuse they used when they bayoneted the 11 people (including journalists) in the University of New Mexico??
Lets see then we have the students at Jackson State University….
Then I heard the news about Kent State, the murder of four students and shooting of nine during what was a relatively peaceful protest. Suddenly, this brought home to me the reality of what we were facing in our country. -Mike Spindell
The following clip came to mind which captures the essence of GHW Bush, IMHO.
Start at ~19:27. (GHW Bush admonishes a nun, after she corrects him. )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9QA5B6U86s (This is the only link to the exchange that I could locate.)
If good Americans only knew what some are already “facing in our country.”
Thanks, Mike S.
It is interesting to note the obvious attempt to spin the attention of posters from the article at hand.
The beat goes on folks, and as Gene said, “History repeats for those who do not learn its lessons.”
Right here, right now.
MikeS,
Good article and link and references.
I can’t share from here the same as yóu each and the opponents to the students did then.
I can only recall that Kent State was another sign that Ameica’s leaders was continuing to drive us with their whips to he11. There are many minions willing to help,
Bush 2 was a NG shirker, as some other NGs could be suspected of at that time. Bush did not even qualify for his commission, but received a direct one, which normally only doctors do. Politics? Of course not.
Thanks again for your “series”. Keep publicizing them, our nation is as it is, and those blogs have permanent value until it changes; and in effect could stand on a page, together with other GB blogs, as recommended reading for all.
Now I am promoting and I hope the professor takes note of it.
As an aside and explanation to people here, they will notice more and more in my comments that I provide links in my comments to past guest blogs I’ve done. This is not meant to be self-referential promotion, but merely taking advantage of the amount of material in my guest blogs that illustrates my thinking. I’m a lousy, slow typist and in one sense monomaniacal in that I read every comment on every blog that I comment on, prior to commenting. This takes up a lot of time in my day and while I love my role here, I do have a rather active life beyond it. Utilizing this database of past opinions allows me to save time in my responses.
ARE says:
“Prescott Bush was a flunky for Averell Harriman who was a great supporter of FDR, so I seriously doubt he would look kindly on his employee being part of any plot to overthrow FDR.”
That is the funny part about politics ARE.
Prescott apparently was instrumental via a trip made to CA after WW2 in starting Nixon’s plitical career.
And Nixon hated hie Eastern owners, but obeyed them.
He made Poppy Bush his hearing aid in the NY establishment, giving him for no other reason the UN Ambassador post with full cabinet privileges, ie knowledge but no responsibilïty for what Washington did.
He made also for no good reason, his RNC chairman after that. And Poppy was instrumental in getting Nixon to committ political suicide with the smoking gun tape.
Alliances are OK, as long as they are useful. Some did not feel that Nixon was sufficiently firm in supporting the oil depletion allowances, he also had liberal tendencies (EPA and OSHA), and most likely!!! the message must go out that WE, the establishment,
control even the Presidents very footing and thus his steps.
Do you think Obama knows this. Just as well as Bill Clinton did before him.
“What’s even sadder than the massacre itself is how many of those students of Law who were moved & traumatized by Kent State have now grown up to be giddy supporters of a president who lied & kept open Guantanamo, who lied & upheld torture, who upheld the abolition of habeas corpus and who keeps a secret “kill list” from which he can murder anybody, including US citizens, without charges, let alone a fair trial.
A more inconsistent & hypocritical mindset is difficult to fathom.”
Ah Karl,
Once again wielding your scalpel at the throats of people in who in some sense are more politically astute than you and prefer to look and the long game rather than a temporary ejaculation of political purity, accomplishing nothing more than self-congratulation. I urge no-one to vote for Barack Obama if they believe that such a vote would violate their ethical or moral beliefs. Many here who I agree with on most things political, like Gene H. and Tony C. have categorically stated that they won’t vote for the President, but have never questioned whether I am being hypocritical and or inconsistent.
As SwM pointed out and linked people with far more credentials than your own, for having put themselves on the line fighting the Corporatocracy, Chomsky and Ellsberg have urged voting for Obama in swing states. They have done so despite the ills you mention with the Obama Administration, simply because the alternative is unacceptable. A Romney election will destroy women’s rights in this country and rein further misery down onto the backs of 99% of the people in this country. However, for you Karl…..never mind you will feel so comforted by the fact that you performed your “Beau Geste” and so contemptuous of those that didn’t follow your lead. You are definitely one of those people I wrote about here:
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/06/02/the-pursuit-of-political-purity/