Press release from the Ohio Green Party:
Today is the 45th anniversary of the events at Kent State University in Kent Ohio. On this day, The Ohio National Guard, responding to unrest on campus and the arson of the ROTC building by unknown parties, opened fire on American citizens exercising their constitutional rights, ending the lives of 4 students. A similar event occurred at Jackson State University in Mississippi a week later.
The resultant legal actions are part of the history of our state. The Ohio Green Party has no desire to re-visit the legal outcomes that were decided upon, our goal is simply to remember, to reflect, on the events that lead to the deaths of Americans, by Americans.
We draw a parallel between the events of 45 years ago and the incidents of today where militarized police have ended the lives of American citizens, some guilty of minor crimes, others, innocent victims of brutality.
The killings by law enforcement that take place in our cities today are just as egregious as the sight of American college students laying dead after a volley launched by the Ohio National Guard.
We of the Ohio Green Party are working towards a day when our citizens need not fear the police, who have been tasked with phrase “To Serve & Protect.”
We ask all Ohioans to join us today and take a moment to reflect….is our society a just one? A fair one?
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Thanks to Phil Mohorich for this release.
No, it’s just Kent State. ___________ State U. is a common nomenclature for colleges in many states.
Gene–
More Kent trivia. One of the best NPR stations in the country used to be WKSU which is the home of Folk Alley.
Fork years, Folk Alley played great music that you, New Federalist and I would love on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. With Jim Blum’s retirement and no doubt budget cutbacks, that has been reduced to just Sunday nights, but instead it has a great website and plays folk music 24/7 at http://www.folkalley.com.
In California we have a state university system, with each campus identified as e.g. University of California, Los Angeles. I just assumed that Ohio had similar nomenclature, which had been shortened to “Kent State” in news reports.
Ohio State is in Columbus. Kent State is two hours northeast in Kent, Ohio. Neither is in England!
When I was last in Columbus (for the LP 2014 Convention), I took a walk to see the state capitol. Across the street is a large government office building named for Gov. Rhodes, who ordered the National Guard onto the KSU campus.
So typical of statist Republicans to name their buildings for well-known murderers.
I believe you meant Kent State University in Ohio not the other way around. I am not aware of such a university in England. 😉
The protest at Ohio State University in Kent were a response to the invasion of Cambodia, which widened the Vietnam War into an Indochina War. President Nixon sent troops into Cambodia following a military coup that overthrew the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Sihanouk then allied with the Communist Khmer Rouge, who were able to use support by the prince to win the allegiance of the superstitious local villagers throughout Cambodia. The result was a Communist victory in Cambodia just short of five years after Nixon’s intervention, and a policy of forced communization and mass murder brought to an end by an intervention by the Vietnam People’s Army.
There were protests throughout the United States the same weekend as the Kent state protest. I burned my draft card at a protest in Riverside, California the same weekend.