Four Dead in Ohio
55 years ago...
May 4th, 1970. Kent State University.
The war in Vietnam was a massacre. The students at Kent State had set up an encampment to protest this war crime against humanity. A genocide.
And the National Guard went in and mowed them down. Over 60 bullets fired in just 13 seconds.
13 were shot. 4 were killed: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. HALF of the dead weren’t even protesting. They were just walking to class.
Shortly after, the New York Times was quick to report the justification concocted by the killers who ran the Ohio National Guard:
In Columbus, Sylvester Del Corso, Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard, said in a statement that the guardsmen had been forced to shoot after a sniper opened fire against the troops from a nearby rooftop and the crowd began to move to encircle the guardsmen.
A lie. There was no sniper.
But that didn’t matter. The seed was planted in print, and then watered in a corroborating statement by President Nixon — also quoted by the NYTimes:
“This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nation's campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strongly against the resort to violence as a means of such expression.”
Another lie. The students were not violent.
The great Neil Young of Crosby Stills Nash & Young saw the photographs of the dead students laying lifeless on the campus grounds. He picked up his guitar and within the hour wrote what would become one of the most iconic anti-war songs of all time, Ohio. CSN&Y already had a hit song that week, Teach Your Children, which was still climbing the charts. Nonetheless, they recorded Ohio in about an hour at their studio and released it on radio stations across the country. They were determined to be part of the uprising that was now underway.
Ten days after Kent State, there was another mass school shooting carried out by the police. It got less press, but was just as awful.
This one was in Mississippi at the historically Black college, Jackson State College. Students at this campus encampment were protesting the Vietnam War and the never-ending racism of the American south. The state police responded by firing 460 bullets.
At least a dozen people were injured. And two — 21-year-old Jackson State student, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, and 17-year-old high school student, James Earl Green, who was walking through campus on his way home from work — were murdered by the police.
There were no charges. Just like Kent State, the initial reports said the campus protestors brought the violence upon themselves and just like Kent State, the cops said that “a sniper had fired on them from the Women’s dorm on campus.” Because, as we all know, the sniper always shoots from the Women’s dorm.
Again, there was no sniper.
In both cases — at both schools — the government lied to justify the government’s violence and the press dutifully repeated these lies. And most of the people in the country… they just went along with it.
The cops said they were under fire! A sniper had shot at them! The National Guard and the state police had no choice but to fire back!
Blame the college kids for as long as you can and just keep murdering people — it’s like we are living through a Hollywood studio reboot. The cops are good, the students are bad, free speech is okay, but sometimes you have to shoot the protestors. Sometimes you must arrest them, detain them, deport them, or even kill them.
At 16, this was my takeaway: Our own government has no problem killing any of us, regardless of whether we oppose that government or not. Your only crime can simply be you are Black, you’re a woman, you’re a college student who wanted to get an education instead of signing up to go kill Vietnamese.
My takeaway now, 55 years later, is how, those of us who are white, we are trained from birth to lie, to twist the truth so that it doesn’t make us look too bad. So we keep our language “measured.” Calm. Collected. White.
And all of that makes us a lie.
Our resistance must start by resisting ourselves. We must stop the lies. We must confront those in authority who make up stories about why students are protesting, and how they are protesting. Instead of attacking young people who are brave enough to stand for what is right, we must join with them, and support them, and give amplification to what they are saying.
Allison, Sandra, Jeffrey and William, you may have died at Kent State that day, but your sacrifice was not in vain. You are remembered to this day as you will be remembered for the next hundred years — a reminder to all of us that if we are to preserve the Democracy, if we are to create a peaceful planet, it will require courage. And it may come with significant risks.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been gone 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 coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (I said four, I said four)
Four dead in Ohio (how many more?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know why)
Four dead in Ohio (you better tell me why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why did they die?)
Four dead in Ohio (you tell me why)
Four dead in Ohio (I said why)
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (I said why)
Four dead in Ohio (why, Lord?)
Four dead in Ohio (why did they die?)
Four dead in Ohio (I said why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (yeah, why?)
Four dead in Ohio (please tell me why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why did they died)
Four dead in Ohio (you tell me why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio
** In order to have a troll-free, hate-free comments section — and because if there’s one thing I know about my crazy haters, they would rather spend an eternity in hell with Marjorie Taylor Greene than send me $5 if forced to become a paid subscriber — my Comments section here on my Substack is limited to paid subscribers. But, not to worry — anyone can send me their comments, opinions and thoughts by writing to me at mike@michaelmoore.com. I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. The solution here is not optimal but it has worked and my Comments section has become a great meeting place for people wanting to discuss the ideas and issues I raise here. There is debate and disagreement, but it is refreshing to have it done with respect and civility, unfettered by the stench of bigotry and Q-anon insanity.
A few days later, I drove from Ohio University to our sister school, Kent State, to witness Joan Baez stand on the deadly spot and sing “Amazing Grace.” Her voice rang out for miles, it seemed, and I still get goose bumps when I hear that song.
Just wait until the summer protests build to a crescendo and the orange wonder declares marshal law, with orders to shoot protestors on sight. Meanwhile, the insurrection of January 6th is a distant memory and will disappear from the history books, just as this fascist regime is doing with the contributions of any person of color or woman who moved our country forward.