wordless wednesday...four dead in ohio

Remembering the Kent State Massacre

Four Dead in Ohio

May 4, 1970

Twenty-five years ago this month, students came out on the Kent State campus and scores of others to protest the bombing of Cambodia... Some rocks were thrown, some windows were broken, and an attempt was made to burn the ROTC building. Governor James Rhodes sent in the National Guard.

The units that responded were ill-trained and came right from riot duty elsewhere; they hadn't had much sleep. ...the Guard bayonetted two men,... The following day, May 4th, the Guard,...marched down a hill,... Seconds before they would have passed around the corner of a large building,...many of the Guardsmen wheeled and fired directly into the students, hitting thirteen, killing four of them, pulling the trigger over and over, for thirteen seconds. (Count out loud--one Mississippi, two Mississippi, to see how long this is.) Guardsmen--none of whom were later punished, civilly, administratively, or criminally--admitted firing at specific unarmed targets;... The closest student shot was fully sixty feet away; all but one were more than 100 feet away; all but two were more than 200 feet away. One of the dead was 255 feet away; the rest were 300 to 400 feet away. The most distant student shot was more than 700 feet from the Guardsmen.

Four Dead in Ohio

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner('s Place) ain't got nothing more to say. ~~SjP