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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is How Kent State Happened It's happening again.
I cannot get past the parallels between what Trump has said over the last week and what Ohio governor Jim Rhodes said in a speech on Sunday, May 3, 1970:
The scene here that the city of Kent is facing is probably the most vicious form of campus-oriented violence yet perpetrated by dissident groups and their allies in the state of Ohio. . . . Now it ceases to be a problem of the colleges in Ohio. This is now the problem of the state of Ohio. Now were going to put a stop this, for this reason. The same group that were dealing with here today, and theres three or four of them, they only have once thing in mind. That is to destroy higher education in Ohio. . . .
Last night I think that we have seen all forms of violence, the worst. And when they start taking over communities, this is when were going to use every weapon of the law-enforcement agencies of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. . . .
Theyre worse than the brownshirts and the Communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes. Theyre the worst type of people that we harbor in America. . . . Its over with in Ohio. . . . I think that were up against the strongest, well-trained, militant revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America. . .
Were going to eradicate the problem, were not going to treat the symptoms.
The governors speech was broadcast not only to the press and the voters, but was piped into the National Guards bivouac on the campus of Kent State University.
On the next day, May 4, 1970, a group of National Guardsmen fired indiscriminately into a group of unarmed students on the Kent State campus at a moment when the students presented no immediate threat. They killed four of the students and wounded nine others.
[link:https://thebulwark.com/newsletter-issue/this-is-how-kent-state-happened/|
BittyJenkins
(402 posts)Add on a pandemic. All of these amazing young people are risking their lives in so many ways.
Divad123
(93 posts)Most folks of a certain age remember Kent state, but how many remember Jackson state, where troops in Jackson Ms started FIRING INTO THE DORMS and killed several students.
Alex4Martinez
(2,180 posts)I wish it weren't so.
niyad
(112,435 posts)Jackson State, amoung so many atrocities. The list is endless, and growing daily.
Archetypist
(218 posts)by this scenario for days. The potential is certainly there.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)This is MUCH WORSE than that.
-Laelth
tulipsandroses
(5,093 posts)Not so much how many people died there vs now. Its what can happen when you bring in armed forces to quell protests.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)But, as bad as the Kent State massacre was, I dont want anyone to believe that our current situation isnt utterly dangerous, already more deadly, and far more serious. It is. Face it, hippies and love children. 2020 is FAR WORSE than even your most precious and well-beloved resistance years.
-Laelth
Response to tulipsandroses (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)I just shared this on my Facebook page, with a warning to all the young Americans. They would do it again in a heartbeat.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)roamer65
(36,739 posts)MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)31 years ago today.