Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
Yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of the day when time stood still for me. As a freshmen in college at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, I was stunned to learn of the killing of 4 young people by the Ohio National Guard during protests on the campus of Kent State University. The protestors were using their First Amendment rights to voice their opinion on the United States participation in the Vietnam War and the military’s recent incursion into Cambodia upon orders from then President Richard Nixon. Those events not only scarred me, but they also opened my eyes to the power of the government and more importantly, the power of the people.
When I read fellow Guest Blogger Mike Spindell’s wonderful article titled, “You Say You Want a Revolution”, I started thinking about Kent State and what the country went through and what, if anything the country learned from those tumultuous times. Sadly, the killings at Kent State were shortly followed up by city and State police killing two students and injuring 12 others at Jackson State University, in Jackson, Mississippi on May 15th. Jackson State
The Kent State killings and the Jackson State killings were perpetrated by National Guardsmen and city and State police and the victims were protestors and bystanders alike. The First Amendment was in full bloom in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but the authorities were not happy with the students standing up to the government. When we consider if this country is really ready for or in for another revolution, I submit that we have already experienced a revolution in my lifetime. It was the protests during the Civil Rights movement and the Women’s Rights movement and culminating with the unrest surrounding the Vietnam War.
One author thinks that there is a distinct connection between the 1960’s and today. “The question of why the 1960s matter to me is one thing, but what’s important is, should the events of 50 years ago matter to the rest of us? Is what happened on May 4, 1970 – and in the tumultuous years leading up to it — still relevant on May 4, 2013? OK, I’ve clearly revealed my bias, but I think the answer is undeniably yes — because there is a straight line between the skirmishes people fought then and the all-too-real war for the future of America that is taking place today.
Here’s another question to put that era in perspective: Was what happened on the homefront just a brief time of heightened social upheaval, or was there really a full-blown revolution in this country? Well, before you jump in with what seems like the obvious answer — consider the hallmarks of the other revolutions that you’ve seen. You’d see peaceful protests escalate to street violence, with a mounting death toll and with the military eventually called up. You’d see revolutionary cadres form, and intensifying government efforts to stop them but also legitimate protest. with wiretaps and informants, leading up to targeted killings. There’d be deadly suppression of protests, and daring acts of defiance. Yet in some revolutions, the government is ultimately toppled, its leaders put on trial, its secrets aired in a national reconciliation effort. But the underlying tensions remain.” Philly.com
Think about the last sentence in the above quote. The “underlying tensions remain”. There are tensions in this country between the right and the left and pro-lifers and pro-choice advocates. There are tensions between gun control advocates and the NRA and those who do not want any limitations or controls put on gun ownership. Once again there are wars and various incursions and drone attacks that are dividing the country. There are divisions between those that want austerity to rule the economic day and those that believe that the government must be involved in spending our way out of the recession/depression that we are ever so slowly coming out of.
The above quoted author goes on to claim that although the Kent State killings were a kind of end to a movement and at the same time they are related to the strife we are going through even today. “For a few days after Kent State, the volley of National Guard bullets that inexplicably killed four young people (none of whom were breaking the law, including two bystanders who weren’t involved in the anti-war demonstrations) felt like the start of an even bigger revolution, but in the reality is was the end; campuses closed for the summer and when the students came back in the fall, the active protests were all over but the shouting. Killing people has a way of doing that. We don’t like to admit it, but too often, violent repression works.” Philly.com
I have to admit that I agree that the killings at Kent State and Jackson State did slow or impede the protests. On May 11th and May 12th, 1970, I spent the early morning hours of my 19th birthday in the Jackson County, Illinois jail as I was arrested for “unlawful assembly” because I was in a group of people who numbered greater than 2! You read that correctly. The city ordinance stated that when there was a protest the police could arrest anyone found in groups larger than two people. I was later acquitted of these obviously unconstitutional charges, but they had succeeded in ending the protest and getting students off the streets.
Our campus was closed a day or two later, like many campuses across the country and when we returned in the Fall, our desire to take to the streets and exercise our First Amendment rights were dampened. They were dampened in my case because I could not afford to get arrested again because I was placed on probation by the University, even though I was acquitted of any charges. The protests did aid in getting us out of the Vietnam War, but I do not think they succeeded in stopping government from overstepping its bounds.
The protests of the 60’s and 70’s may have spurred the government into looking for additional ways to spy on its citizens with and without a warrant. Did we learn anything from these protests and from their aftermath? We are still fighting against government aggression overseas. We are still fighting to reduce the numbers of poor and uneducated and we are still battling to end discrimination. We are still in a fight over the extreme financial inequality in our country.
While the arrests and abuses of the Occupy movement protestors were abhorrent, they did not reach the extreme of that warm day in May of 1970, but the police may have learned from Kent State that arresting people and worrying about the legality of those arrests later can be successful. Does that mean that Kent State cannot happen again? Can this country heal its many fractures and divisions and prevent another Kent State or Jackson State episode? If the Occupy police violence and spying episodes are any indication, we have not learned the lessons that Kent State taught us.
While I do not expect or want another revolution, I fear that more will have to suffer in the fight to protect our right to redress our grievances with an ever-expanding secret government. What do you think? What can we do as citizens to make sure that the government actually operates to serve all of us?
Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheurer and William Knox Schroeder lost their lives 43 years ago at the hands of the Ohio National Guard. I do hope their violent deaths have taught us something! Peace.
On May 11th and May 12th, 1970, I spent the early morning hours of my 19th birthday in the Jackson County, Illinois jail as I was arrested for “unlawful assembly”
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Blouise, MLK, Jr. said many hard truths. However, when you screw w/ the war machine there’s hell to pay. You probably remember the draft lottery. It was obviously more poignant for young men. It was surreal as we watched the ping pong balls being pulled out w/ the fate of our lives in balance. Most of us were stoned and drunk as we watched, but those poor guys w/ low numbers sobered up quickly.
nick spinelli 1, May 5, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Matt, I in no way thought you were insulting me. Ironically, those who do insult me could “care” less.
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Amico. So it goes.
Nick,
MLK Jr would have agreed with you for he was saying much the same about the disportunate numbers of blacks/poor whites in Nam. It has been suggested by more than one historian that it was these sorts of observations that led to his assassination.
The place the rich parked many of their sons when all other deferments failed? The National Guard because those units never left the states during Nam. (Just ask Georgie Jr). I always found it amusing that the boys trying to stay out of Nam by joining the Guard were the ones who willingly killed the kids demonstrating against that same war.
We need a national holiday called PIG Day.
A day when we review and condemn by name, all the pigatrocious people who did pigatrocious things, like Kent State.
On that day we expose the pigs who, posing as Americans, did unAmerican things to Americans.
Matt, I in no way thought you were insulting me. Ironically, those who do insult me could “care” less.
Nick,
I wasn’t a soldier, I was a sailor. Electrician’s Mate Second Class. That was over thirty years ago. I did my mess duty in officer’s country.
I didn’t have to put with the protesters except to get flipped off once in a while.
If you think I meant to insult you, I didn’t. You have my apology.
iconoclast, Thanks for a thoughtful comment. I never looked @ Fritz The Cat in those terms but would like to watch it again w/ your take in mind. Yeah, the movement did fizzle w/ a few deaths.
Elaine, Ironically, Cheney got some of his deferments while attending grad school @ the U. Of Wi., a hotbed of protest.
Matt, I was part of the draft lottery and had a very high #, almost like being a “Senator’s son.” How you and your brothers in arms were treated by protestors who “cared more” is a black eye on our nation. It’s easy to villfy soldiers if you don’t know any of them.
I wasn’t deferred. I actually had to go for two physicals and was not taken due to high blood pressure. Also coming from a working class family that had nine siblings each on both sides, actually I had 7 Uncles who served in WWIi and it was a close knit family. What does that prove? How much insight does that give me on who protested in Viet Nam? None. But then again I don’ t use anecdotes tp blow smoke out my ass.
Darren Smith 1, May 5, 2013 at 6:26 pm
How about these celebrities take up their time sponsoring a memorial for the two agents who were killed in South Dakota that day, or is it just that they are part of the evil team that connives to frame an innocent man, a man so innocent that he shoots at state police and federal agents.
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He won’t shoot if he’s innocent. Unless he really does think they’re evil.
Warmonger Dick Cheney got FIVE deferments.
I remember watching the momentum just stall out in the wake of Kent State. It was all fun and games and defiance (and for the right reasons in most cases) until the National Guard killed students. It also served to wake up some of our middle class/working class parents who, until then, were maybe listening a little bit to their kids. But after that, I think a lot of our parents shifted a little more to our viewpoint.
I also recall we wore T-shirts to school following Kent state that had a target on the chest with the word STUDENT underneath. My HS principal wanted to send me home for wearing mine, but couldn’t really think of a good reason to do so. Today, that T shirt would have an even darker connotation in light of a spate of school massacres by psychos.
Finally- a point to make: Anyone remember the animated film Fritz The Cat? I thought then…and now…that it was a metaphor and strong condemnation of the privileged white students partying their way to “revolution”… getting passionately involved in civil rights and helping to stir the pot as it were and then abandoning the cause as soon as the shit hit the fan. (Riots, excessive government force, etc. etc.) I realize the film painted the white students with a broad brush, but perhaps it merely was condemning those who turned tail at the first sign of trouble. Interesting film. Watch it again or for the first time if you haven’t already seen it.
“Leonard Peltier is one political prisoner who was a victim of FBI’s manufactured evidence “
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Wrong
Leonard Peltier was stopped by the Oregon State Police after having murdered Agents Williams and Coler in South Dakota. In the vehicle was found agent Coler’s department issued handgun which was under the front seat of the RV Peltier was driving, and that was after an exchange of gunfire that Peltier engaged the OSP in.
Peltier later admitted to shooting at the agents.
Additionally, I happen to know the sister of one of the agents, Jack Coler. She lives two houses down from a close friend of mine. For the past 28 years she has had to endure the constant media circus associated with the man who killed her brother. All this talk about how Leonard Peltier is a great man who was the victim and hardly even a mention of her brother or his partner who were assassinated simply for serving an arrest warrant as ordered by a judge. And those trying to portray themselves as champions for justice by taking up the Peltier cause so that they can earn additional fame and notoriety makes me sick to my stomach. How about these celebrities take up their time sponsoring a memorial for the two agents who were killed in South Dakota that day, or is it just that they are part of the evil team that connives to frame an innocent man, a man so innocent that he shoots at state police and federal agents.
It has taken you this long to figure that out, Cliff?
Impressive.
Nick,
In an Italian family you honor the family and it’s heritage. My point is that the people protesting had deferments and families who were active in keeping them out of the war. It was black and blue collar whites who made up the fighting force, at least until the draft lottery was instituted. We previously discussed having family and friends who went there and came back much different. By the time I got of school Saigon had fallen.
“I cared and you didn’t seem to care enough.” There’s nothing to say to that but, “WOW, I’m not worthy to even be in your presence.”
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I’m a blue collar white. I did four years in the Navy right after high school. Girls would ride by on their bikes and flip me the bird.
I joined the Navy an E1 and left four years later an E5. I didn’t have a deferment. Did you?
We need a national holliday called PIG Day.
When we review and condemn by name, all the pigatrocious things like Kent State, that named people posing as Americans did to us.
Back in my last incarnation as a human I went to May Day in Washington DC on May 1st 1971. That anti war event would not have come about had not Kent State and Jackson state gone down. The most interesting and rabid demonstrators were Vetnam War Vets. I was back in DC in August 1974 when Nixon resigned. We gathered outside the White House and Tricky came out for a bit and said something and we yelled Jali To The Chief. In his Memoirs he said he heard Hail To The Chief. The Draft was a good thing because it movilized people against the war, Afghanistan is Nam at a higher altitude and without swamps. The Military Industrial Complex is still winning their war over your minds. Syria is next. I gotta go assist my half blind guy at a Ball in Amsterdam. I am thinking about blowing my cover and letting him know I can read, write and think like a humanoid.
Elaine, I was not making any value judgements, merely pointing out the class structure of protestors. History shows that it’s the burgouise that revolt, the poorer folks are merely working too hard to exist. Mao changed that dynamic. Elaine, we are on the same page in this regard, I think. Coming from a blue collar family where my father and 5 uncles fought in WW2, I had a different upbringing. My father did not want me to have to go to war, but it was expected of me to obey the law. In an Italian family you honor the family and it’s heritage. My point is that the people protesting had deferments and families who were active in keeping them out of the war. It was black and blue collar whites who made up the fighting force, at least until the draft lottery was instituted. We previously discussed having family and friends who went there and came back much different. By the time I got of school Saigon had fallen.
“I cared and you didn’t seem to care enough.” There’s nothing to say to that but, “WOW, I’m not worthy to even be in your presence.”
Thanks, Larry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FakLUusNlXc
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nick,
Does it really matter what class of people that the protesters belonged to? Not all college students came from families of means. There were kids like me from working class/blue collars families who attended state colleges where we were commuters students. I didn’t participate in the anti-war demonstrations at my school. I’m sorry that I didn’t. It wasn’t until my first year of teaching (1968-1969) that I became anti-war.