40 YEARS AFTER KENT STATE

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On May 4, 1970 armed National Guard troops were sent onto the campus of Kent State University in Ohio to control young college demonstrators who were protesting the war in Vietnam.  On that day the unthinkable happened — an unthinkable memory that still brings stinging tears.  The kids were yelling, protesting both the war and the presence of armed Guardsmen on their campus.   Some threw stones and a few hurled the smoking tear gas canisters back at the unwanted troops, who were all decked out in protective gear. 

As the Guardsmen threw tear gas, the unarmed students retreated and began to disperse as the line of Guardsmen with rifles advanced toward them.  Twelve of the Guardsmen at some point, inexplicably, raised their guns in unison and shot at unarmed American citizens for 13 long seconds.  The FBI report concluded that the shootings were not provoked, but were deliberate.  Four young college kids lay dead on the ground when it was all over — nine wounded — one paralyzed for life.

Many in the nation were traumatized and shocked at the deaths of young people by other young people, seemingly under the authority of our own government.  Yet the initial reaction of the American people reflected the bitter divide about the Vietnam War — more than half of those who were polled following the event thought that the shooting was the fault of the college protesters. 

We were young people ourselves at the time, in our mid and late twenties.  Our campus years were behind us;  we were married with two young children and launched out into the big world for the first time with real responsibilities.  But, I remember the Kent State massacre well.  I have a very clear memory of seeing the news reports on our television and feeling like the very breath had been punched out of me.  I remember going to my knees and tearfully wailing, “Oh my God … we’re killing our own children!”

As we look back at that time, from where we are today, we’re left to wonder how what happened at Kent State in 1970 is different from what has recently happened in Iran, when armed representatives of the government shot and killed young Neda and other youthful protestors on the streets of Teheran.  They too were killing their own children.  Killing them for speaking out and daring to demonstrate against their government.

How, how had we been brought so low?  Was it the war itself?   Or had the war protesters and war supporters so demonized each other that the violence was justified in their own minds, perhaps making violence inevitable?  The 12 shooters moved together, aimed together, attacked retreating college protesters — together.  Yet, there was no accountability.  They had been ordered onto the campus to break up the protest.  They were sent to the campus with live ammunition.  They were following orders.

But the Kent State massacre did change our country.  The years have not been kind to the Vietnam War supporters, nor to the shooters on the Kent State campus.  The American people have come to understand that what happened at Kent State was unjustified and that authorities are not allowed to use lethal force against unarmed protesters.  It was a sad day in the nation’s history.

And, we’re left to wonder if that was when all this anger at government started?  Did our generation begin to distrust government when we watched our own troops kill and massacre in Vietnam and at Kent State?  Did the Kent State massacre, followed by Richard Nixon’s Watergate betrayal of American ideals, leave the country stripped of any ability to have faith in our country’s leadership?

I sometimes think of America as a child.  After World War II and before Vietnam we were like an innocent babe;  we trusted our leaders — Ike was Grandpa to the nation and would take care of us.  During Vietnam we were a demanding toddler, we didn’t like what we saw our nation doing (hey, we’re supposed to be the good guys!) and we screamed until it stopped.  After Vietnam we were a growing child, struggling to make sense of the world.  Lately, we seem to be erratic teenagers — swinging wildly from hope to despair, wondering why the world isn’t the way we want it to be. 

The last 40 years have left me exhausted with all this distrust, and open to believing in the opportunity for our government to do some good.  We’ll never blindly trust again — that’s not possible now.  But maybe we could find it in our hearts to trust just a little bit, and to look for a few opportunities to believe again.  We know it’s hard, but America does need a little faith right now.