Cutting us down. Not gunning us down.

America was stunned on May 4th, 1970.
When rally turned to riot down at Kent State University
They said the students scared the guard, though the troops were battle dressed.
Four martyrs earned a new degree: The Bachelor of Bullets.
The Beach Boys Student Demonstration Time

I took the lyrics off of metrolyrics, so if there's an error, it's theirs.

I took the lyrics off of metrolyrics, so if there's an error, it's theirs

Ok. I got them from CSN&Y's "Four Way Street" album

I'll have to look further. Every web search I've done so far says "gunning". But, most lyrics are sent in by users, so it's possible it's simply a repeated error.

this is a chapter along with the beating in chicago in the 1968 democratic convention, that shows what a too powerful, controling government can do and get away with.

the 1968 democratic convention

"The whole world's watching!"

I was 14 at the time.  I did not need history books to be told of it.  The Evening news did a very good job.

They say no one knows who fired the shots first. I think that's a lie. A good example of military whitewashing so common to all armies. All armies in fact.

That song reminds me of my favorite statistic: National Guard 4: Students 0. ;~D

Ok, but seriously.

I was not there, nor was I old enough to understand what happened at the time. I have had the rare (but great) opportunity of talking with people who were there. I've talked with those who were protestors, those who were in the National Guard, and even a few who were just students at Kent State on that aweful day.

What got me most about the accounts from all three sides. No one (at least that I talked to) pointed fingers at the others saying, "It was all their fault!" National Guardsmen talked about how unsettling it was to be deployed onto a campus, with live ammunition, with no training or real understanding of what they were supposed to do. Protestors talked about filling sandwich bags with their own feces and cheering each other on as they threw those and rocks "bigger than softballs" at the National Guardsmen. Students who weren't protesting said that they either had no idea what was going on until they heard the shots, or admitted that they were laughing at the spectacle building from both sides. Well, the laughing didn't last long.

It was a terrible situation that was only made worse by the actions of both sides. I hope that any historical study of that day keeps that in mind.

I was about the same age in Sydney Australia, and policemen with their numbers removed, beat antiwar protestors with batons. A young man stiffened and stared in the eyes of one of the charging policemen thinking he was about to be beaten down. The cop changed direction and struck down the 5 feet nothing slight blond beside him.
At about the same time one of our politicians who was hosting LBJ in a car told the driver to "...run over the bastards!"
The bastards were us.... his own people.
As I wiped the blood from the blond hair, I remember thinking ....'The cossacks, the bloody cossacks are everywhere...'
The price of being free is eternal vigilance.
Events in the Ukraine have shown that the blood is not needed to keep the truth.....only numbers. If enough people determine to stand for what is right for all...they are invincible.
Nixon has gone, but the sickness of oppressing other humans to elevate your own status, wealth or power remains. What is required is sound judgement and resolute honesty and selfless action. If the four dead in Ohio are to mean anything at all, we must all forsake the barricades and stand for what they fell for....stand against the people who cut them down, regardless of where they are or what they call their ideology at this time and space. By their fruits shall you know them. If they call upon the police or the army to attack their own unarmed citizens for exercizing their right to free expression they are traitors.
Forget Malcolm X and think Martin Luther King. Forget Washington and think Ghandi. But above all else....think!

They say no one knows who fired the shots first

??? of course they know who fired the shots first. there weren't any armed students.

Protestors talked about filling sandwich bags with their own feces and cheering each other on as they threw those and rocks "bigger than softballs" at the National Guardsmen

i knew people who were at kent state that day (there were demonstrations all over the midwest; detroit was a sorta 'hub' which drew a lotta visitors from ohio). with all due respect, i doubt seriously it happened there or anywhere (including chicago 1968). i knew alotta people who were there as well (i left chicago for detroit three days before the convention for a number of reasons). when everyone from detroit came straggling back chicago, i was 'treated' to at least 100 first person accounts most of which included minute-by-minute detail over the next two weeks. not one included any mention of shit throwing on either side.

Not making excuses for The Guardsmen (or looking to put the blame on the protestors). I'll take the words of someone who was willing to admit that their own side was just as in the wrong. However, we both have our own sources and come up with our conclusions from what we learn. While it does happen, it is rare for one side to be completely wrong and the other completely right... ironic how eye witness testimony makes it sound like it happens all the time.

That being said, I can't say I've ever heard of anything happening there that would justify deadly force... I can't even think of anything in my own crowd control, riot or defense training that would justify it. I can remember more than a few time though, when Kent State was used as an example of "lessons learned".