“Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Kent state was nearly a decade before I was born, but ever since I was in college, I found a deep attachment to this moment. It could be any campus, and really was: Kent State (May 4, 1970), its twin event at Jackson State (May 15, 1970), and the Orangeburg Massacre, near South Carolina State University (February 8, 1968).

The hideous and unethical training of weapons on the unarmed, the innocent, the ones actually demanding change.

The powerful, isolated, unwilling to make the right political decision.

The national guard, the highway patrol, or now, city police armed better than the national guard, beating, maiming, killing.

For what? For what?

Fear of unrest? Four dead in Ohio. That doesn’t make you more afraid?