POLITICS

On May 4, 1970, The Mass Shooter On Campus Was The Government

I’m afraid for student protesters again

I don’t have information on where and when this stock photo was shot. Photo by Chris Henry on Unsplash

I was too young to remember the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. My first knowledge that my own government had opened fire on college students — killing four of them and injuring nine — first came from hearing a song on the radio.

Neil Young, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young wrote the song Ohio, which has had such heavy airplay on classic rock stations that you must have heard it even if you’re not a fan of that kind of music. The haunting refrain “four dead in Ohio” repeats multiple times.

President Richard Nixon’s decision to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia angered people across the country, especially young people on college campuses. At Kent State, the Ohio Army National Guard opened fire during a confrontation. Some of the students shot were protesting — as supposedly protected by our First Amendment — and others were merely walking to class.

Today, as we note the 54th anniversary of the government killing college students protesting a war, we again have college students protesting a war. This time, it’s anger over U.S. funding of a war that is causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Gaza — and yes, you can support Israel’s right to…