Author Archives
Center
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Roseann “Chic” Canfora: ‘A kinship with other shooting survivors’
I feel a kinship with other shooting survivors, including students at Parkland and black Americans who were dying in the streets long before white students faced bullets at Kent State. We must recognize the tragic consequences of the hateful rhetoric… Read More ›
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Greg Mitchell: How Bona students reacted to the Kent State shootings
By Greg Mitchell It had been a spring filled with protests of various sorts at SBU already, when I came back to my off-campus apartment one early evening in early May. As a senior I was looking forward to graduation… Read More ›
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Peggy Dudas: ‘We need to be constantly reminded of Kent State’
On May 4, 1970, four children were shot and killed by the National Guard. I know we went out on strike over Cambodia, but I was still passing out fliers, making a speech (my one speech), and raising hell. The… Read More ›
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John Stevens: ‘We need to be constantly reminded of Kent State’
Americans’ pride themselves in the constitutional guarantee of peaceful protest. But when either side in a standoff pulls the trigger, turning a demonstration violent, a voice is lost. A larger message is sent. Disagreement, civil disobedience, can be deadly. Such… Read More ›
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Mike Greenblatt: ‘True American martyrs for peaceful protest’
When I was researching for my Woodstock book Back To Yasgur’s Farm, I came across information that in 1969 New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller wanted to call in the National Guard to disperse the 500,000 of us at the butt… Read More ›
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Denny Wilkins: ‘The day I first understood journalism’
I became a journalist in April 1970 at my hometown paper. I had little understanding of the profession. On May 4, government fired on its own citizens, killing four and wounding nine. Repeat: A government fired at its own citizens… Read More ›
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Chris Mackowski: ‘When protesters demanded accountability, government responded with violence’
The Kent State protesters demanded government accountability; the government responded not with answers but with violence. At a time when the current administration resists similar calls for accountability, and its supporters enable that defiance, Kent State reminds us of the… Read More ›
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David Kassnoff: ‘Any life lost exercising First Amendment rights is one too many’
The Kent State protesters demanded government accountability; the government responded not with answers but with violence. The student shootings at Kent State in 1970 signified the moment when the Vietnam War came to U.S. soil. Viewers of network newscasts had… Read More ›
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Mike Jones-Kelley: ‘So now they are going to start killing us’
I remember thinking when I heard the news of Kent State, “So now they are going to start killing us.” Because in that era, there was a “they” and there was an “us.” In that time in our country’s history,… Read More ›
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Lee Coppola: ‘Bloodshed over differences of opinion has no place in a democracy’
Perhaps at no better time in recent history does the Ken State shootings teach us a lesson. When some think the division in our country has opened a chasm too deep to heal, it’s worth remembering what happened when such… Read More ›
Jandoli Institute 