May 4, 1970

37 years ago today in Kent, Ohio was the Kent State shootings where four Kent State students were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen while over two thousand students were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War at the campus commons.

This picture was taken by John Filo a short time before the shootings took place.

I lived in Kent for a short time, and was there the year that Crosby, Still & Nash came to the campus to play at a May 4 memorial in 1997. There are still bullet holes that have been preserved at the scene. I saw one on the brick of Taylor Hall and then another on a metal sculpture.

As awful a tragedy as it was, how could the students be suprised? They had been rioting for three days, looting and destroying main street stores and shops. They set the ROTC building on fire and stopped local fire responders from putting it out. When the National Guard finally showed up, the kids pelted them with rocks. I don't want to say the kids had it coming, two of the four kids killed weren't even part of the demonstration, but what do you think was going to happen? Maybe if the punk bikers who started the riots the first day were the ones shot it may have ended differently...

Anyway, it was a tragedy plain and simple. Blame it on Nixon, I guess.