Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
I was going to write this last weekend on the actual 44th anniversary of a very sad event. For some reason, I had a hard time focusing on what I wanted to say, in light of the many emotions that were going through my head. I don’t want the anniversary to go by without writing about the personal significance that day in May had on my life, and I believe on the lives of many in my generation. The Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by John Filo, included above from Wikipedia, is one that I have never forgotten. Nor should anyone forget it.
I can’t believe that 44 years have elapsed since that fateful day in May, 1970. On May 4th, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired upon unarmed student protesters, killing four of them and wounding and maiming several others. I will never forget that day because I was a Freshmen at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and when the news of the student killings broke, I thought a bomb had gone off in my head. I wasn’t overly political at that point in time, but that somber event changed all of my prior thinking.
I was just short of my 19th birthday and I remember that day as my personal coming of age experience. I was no longer just a young college student. I was now a member of a class that was shot down by soldiers on a campus not too far away from mine, and in many respects, very similar to mine. The fact that agents of the government could fire upon peaceful protesters was so extraordinary that it felt like a kick in the groin to myself and many other students on my campus and on campuses throughout the country. Along with the killing of two students at Jackson State University(f/k/a Jackson State College) around May 14th, it looked and felt like it was open season on college students.
Indeed, I was “watching” a protest that turned ugly on May 11th, 1970 when elements of the Illinois State Police and the Illinois National Guard attacked the crowd of students that I and friend were in the middle of and chased down and beat some of us and arrested a large group of innocent students. I can still smell the pepper spray from that warm evening. I was one of the unlucky ones who were arrested that night. That event which started as a protest against the killings at Kent State turned into a night in Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro, Illinois.
After getting arrested and fingerprinted and receiving my first full body cavity inspection, I was literally thrown into a cell designed to hold 4 prisoners, which was already holding 8-10 of my fellow students when I was thrust upon them. After spending most of the early morning of my 19th birthday in the lockup, my head was spinning from the tear gas and pepper gas used by the authorities the night before and from the lack of sleep in that overcrowded cell. I realize that my little experience pales in comparison to what the students at Kent State and Jackson State had to endure, but the whole event opened my eyes to something that I have never forgotten.
My country and my state would not allow me and my college classmates and friends to express ourselves as the U.S. Constitution provided in the First Amendment. I felt like I was a second class citizen in my own country and state. Shortly after my arrest, Southern Illinois University was closed down for the semester and many students grades were negatively impacted by the decision to close down early. Many other campuses across the country also closed down early in response to the demonstrations and protests that were being held on a daily basis. So once again, my grades were impacted negatively because of the closure and I was placed on social probation by the university, all because I was expressing my Constitutional rights. Did the Government or the Illinois State Police care about my rights? No, because I was just a student who got in their way.
After the summer ended and I was acquitted of the charge of “unlawful assembly” in a court of law, I was still left on social probation by my university even though I was found not guilty of any wrongdoing. Once again, I felt helpless in my own university because I was labeled a trouble maker even though I had done nothing wrong or illegal. It took many months and years for an investigation into the Kent State killings to take place and as you might have guessed, it was pretty much a whitewash job. The National Guard claimed that they were fired upon even though there was little or no evidence backing their claims.
Even President Nixon lambasted the students in interviews following the sad event. I saw this as another example of the college students being treated as if they had less rights than the National Guardsmen or any other citizen. (I highly recommend a book titled, “Kent State, What Happened and Why”, by James Michener, which discussed all of the evidence and facts surrounding the shootings and came down to the conclusion that the Guardsmen illegally and improperly fired upon the unarmed students.)
The events surrounding the Kent State killings still resonate in my head and I became more politically involved and aware because of Kent State and my arrest shortly after. My big brother was in Vietnam at the time and this weighed heavily upon me, but I had just been slapped in the face by my University, my State and my Country and I now had a duty to expose any and all wrongdoings of our government in prosecuting the war in Vietnam. After all, the students at Kent State and Jackson State were killed while protesting our country’s immoral actions in Southeast Asia.
I made a pledge to myself that I would not allow any government of this country take advantage of any so-called “lesser” citizens for any reason. I also promised myself to never trust my government again without verifying the facts. The phrase heard a lot during those “Days of Rage” was “My country, love it or leave it”. Well, it was my country too and I wasn’t about to leave it just because my rights were being violated. It became my duty to do whatever I could to right the wrongs and to help the disadvantaged overcome the odds. It was also critical in my decision to become a lawyer.
Have I been able to help “right the wrongs” by my country since 1970? I may have helped some, but probably not as many as I would have liked, but every day I attempt to even the odds against the little guy. It has been 44 years and I am physically not the same person, but it feels as if it was just yesterday. I often relive the events of May of 1970 and as I pledged to myself 44 years ago, “never again”. The Occupy Wall Street protests reminded me of the anti-Vietnam war movement in some ways. Those protesters were also mistreated and maligned by an ever-growing police presence. They too may have been changed forever by their experience standing up to governmental power.
Never again will I sit and let someone else stand up to a government gone astray. I can still hear the screams of the students in the video of the event and I can still see the picture of the young girl kneeling over a dead student and I can still hear the words of the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song of the day, “Four Dead in Ohio”. Peace to all of you and I hope that the parents and loved ones of the victims have been able to find some peace in the past 44 years. I hope the Mothers of those lost or maimed, if they are still with us, can also find some peace on this Mothers Day.
I will continue to remind everyone that I can, every year, that those students did not die in vain. They did not die in vain because they spurred on an anti-war movement and they altered my life forever and I believe the life of our country. Their fate is a stark reminder of what kind of power a government has and an example of what a government should not do. What do you think?
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I’ll be over @ Darren’s or mespo’s posts. I’ll field any intelligent questions there. I won’t hold my breath. And, the “illogical” comment was uttered incessantly by a loser, no longer here.
Oy, not again.
Illogical and incomprehensible is alls I can say. Please explain without all the hyperbole and page filler. I suppose this is how you filled out your high school essays.
don’t flatter yourself
Darren and mespo put together thoughtful, complex posts. They are ignored, and the lame posts like this get WAY more attention than warranted. I know this all feels really good, so does a good dump. The other more well thought and constructed posts require knowledge and thought. This are my thoughts, rip on me, but it’s the truth! Deal w/ it.
Chuck – the Kochs don’t have or make a cartel. Second, I fail to see the connection. Would you be so kind as to make it for us? An appeal to authority is not a fallacy when the authority is correct. Lawyers make appeals to authority all the time, as do scientists in scientific papers. You got out your college communication book again, didn’t you?
Heck, here is the whole song:
The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag
Gimme an F!
F!
Gimme an I!
I!
Gimme an S!
S!
Gimme an H!
H!
What’s that spell ?
FISH!
What’s that spell ?
FISH!
What’s that spell ?
FISH!
Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ’em all to kingdom come.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don’t move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send ’em off before it’s too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
That link is sponsored by the Koch cartel. Zero credibility. Example of the logical fallacy of Appeal to Authority, except in this case, the authority is wearing no clothes.
So far today, we have seen ad hominem, strawman, post hoc, ergo propter hoc, circular argument, fallacy of irrelevance, equivocation fallacy, “No True Scotsman”, argumentum ad ignorantiam, red herring, and appeal to poverty.
I am sure I missed some, but have been out a good portion of the day.
[music}
And its one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn!
Next stop is Viet Nam.
And its five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates!
Ain’t no time to wonder why…
Whoppeee we’re all gonna die.
– Country Joe And The Fish
Is this still strawman Sunday ?
Here is stuff on Kerry in Cambodia.
http://www.militarycorruption.com/kerry3.htm
Be nice when the slander suit is won. Isn’t the court supposed to rule on defamation in campaign abuses? Gonna be nice, huh.
Kerry has yet to win his Swiftboating law suit and he was so hot to file suit against his critics.
Yes. She was not a student. But the guy lying on the ground was still dead.
The students shot and killed by the Guard were not taking part in the protest, and one was an ROTC cadet. They simply shot into any group that presented a target.
randyjet,
Heard a great story today on NPR from an man who did 3 rotations in Iraq as a medic. He was a high school dropout, enlisted and became a damned good medic. Another medic in the unit pushed this man to go into medicine. He decided to give it a shot and used the GI Bill for his undergrad work. In two weeks he finishes his first year of med school.
Good on everyone in that story.
In Kent, some students rioted outside the bars downtown the following night, a Friday. Saturday night, protesters set fire to the ROTC building, and slashed firemen’s hoses. Even before that, Gov. James Rhodes, a Republican, called out the Ohio National Guard.
He called the protesters “the worst type of people that we harbor in America,” and said: “We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptoms.”
On Monday several hundred students gathered on the campus commons to rally against the war and the Guard’s presence. The soldiers used tear gas to move the students off the commons, followed them up and over a small hill, and formed ranks in a practice football field.
A standoff ensued. Students kept their distance, chanting slogans — “Pigs off campus!” — and hurling rocks and bottles, few of which reached their targets. Then the Guardsmen retraced their steps up the hill, heading back toward the commons.
The crowd had swelled to several thousand, including protest supporters, observers and bystanders. Many of them now relaxed; the confrontation seemed over.
“It was OK until they got up on that hill,” Vecchio recalls.
———————-
The girl in the famous Kent State photo was not a Kent State student but a 14-year-old runaway from Opa-locka, Fla., who hated the war.
John,
You’re not making Paul’s case any better. Resume Enhancer Bush? Oh yeah. That’s your guy.
Rafflaw
Thanks for the great article. I remember the Kent State shootings all too well. I was a junior at a college about 30 mikes away. A detail often forgotten is that the university’s ROTC building had been set ablaze the night before. It was never confirmed who set the fire that I know of, but it did put authority figures at every level on edge and angry.
One of the girls killed was from our city. It changed my attitude almost overnight. I had supported the war, being the son of a proud WWII vet—do your duty, don’t ask questions, never question authority. What I saw angered me that the government was willing to kill us just for protesting. That’s repression and I could not support that as representing what we were allegedly fighting for in Southeast Asia. It was only later that I learned we weren’t actually fighting for anything at all over there.
Family Values Party. General Opposition Politics. That’s family values in action.
What kind of balanced assessment of John Kerry’s battlefield performance and “heroism” is this? Your comments have no basis as none of you were in theater with him. The BEST EVIDENCE comes from the testimony of his comrades in arms. Does anyone remember what the people Kerry “fought” with in Vietnam said about him? I thought not. Can you say objective analysis? It appears Kerry availed himself of a brief tour for resume enhancement. It didn’t quite work out like he thought and he finds himself doing his best to manage history.