Sifting through the May4Archive, one line at the end of the chronology sent chills down my spine: “As the Guard reaches the crest of Blanket Hill near the Pagoda of Taylor Hall, 28 Guardsmen suddenly turn around 180 degrees, walk back a few steps, and fire their weapons into the group located in the parking lot. Sixty-one shots are fired in 13 seconds. Four students are killed and nine others injured. Various professors are successful in preventing further bloodshed.”
Especially in combination with the film shown in class a few weeks ago, this quote really hit home for me. So many realizations come to mind: I am in college. I am an advocate. I am living in the middle of a war across an ocean. I am the same age as some of the students who died that day. Could this have happened at the Love is Louder counter-protest? Could this have been us? Could this have been me?
Suddenly it is much easier to picture something like this happening at Emerson, to put myself in those students’ shoes and feel deeply affected by the events of May 4, 1970. Suddenly I studying Kent State is so much more relevant to my life and who I am as a student, as an advocate, as a contributor to society, and as a person in general. Suddenly I understand more deeply the anti-war campaign, the strong sense of gathering for a cause, then the distraught emotion, the agony, and the grievance.
To top it off–I still can’t believe that between newspapers’ and FBI investigations, civil and criminal trials, a Federal and Ohio Grand juries, judicial appeals, and numerous forums, books, and articles, that there still is no cemented information, no clear explanation or reason for how or why this happened.
And so I join the resounding, “Why?!” and “How?!”
– Rheanna Bellomo –
Advocacy & Argument's Blog 