Anniversary of the May 4, 1970 Kent State Massacre

—Four Dead in Ohio—

And they’re at it again, all over this country, governors, university admins, and cynical politicians are calling in police and national guards to arrest protestors and put down demonstrations, which are our civil rights, guaranteed by our constitution.

There are laws currently being proposed (and some being voted on as I write) to make demonstrations, strikes, or any other way of impeding ‘business-as-usual’ a crime. They are trying to portray it as domestic terrorism. The only terroism here is being perpetrated by ‘the State’.

We are looking at an attempt to repeat the massacre at Kent State where 4 students were killed and 9 were wounded by the Ohio National Guard under the direction of then Govenor, Jim Rhodes and Kent’s Mayor, LeRoy Satrom.

Note that Kent wasn’t the only massacre that year. Just 11 days after the Kent Massacre, police opened fire on students at Jackson State in Jackson, Mississippi. –LE

While most people know that students were killed at Kent State in 1970, very few know about the murder of students at Jackson State (1970) and even less about South Carolina State College in Orangeburg (1968).

On Feb. 8, 1968, 28 students were injured, and three were killed — most shot in the back by the state police while involved in a peaceful protest in Orangeburg, South Carolina. One of the bystanders, Cleveland Sellers, was arrested for inciting a riot and sentenced to a year in prison. Later serving as president of Voorhees College, he was the only person to do time.

–Details from the Zinn Education Project: https://www.zinnedproject.org/

Ohio

by Neil Young

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio

Four dead in Ohio (four dead)
Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (how many?)
Four dead in Ohio (how many more?)

Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (oh)
Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)

Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio
Four dead in Ohio