More on Kent State

dreadnut

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Still having major difficulties logging in and staying logged in, the forum would not allow me to post a reply, only a new post/

I was a junior in high school when this tragedy happened at Kent State. A couple years later, while aboard the USS Ranger, I bought a book from the ship's store, by James A Michener "Kent State- How It Happened, Why It Happened, And How To Prevent It From Happening Again." This is the most in-depth study done on this tragic series of events, in fact the court subpoenaed Michener and his book notes
for the trial of the National Guardsmen. It is a long read, but well worth it if you want to get a grasp on how this whole thing developed and came down. Of course the ringleaders, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, after coming in and stirring up the bee's nest, got out of Dodge before things got really hot.
 

F312

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My mailman has told me he served on the Ranger.
Ralph
 

fronobulax

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Still having major difficulties logging in and staying logged in, the forum would not allow me to post a reply, only a new post/

Almost certainly not an issue on LTG's end but feel free to revive the other thread and we will see what we can do.
 

Cabarone

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Still having major difficulties logging in and staying logged in, the forum would not allow me to post a reply, only a new post/

I was a junior in high school when this tragedy happened at Kent State.

I've been having the same problem. We'll find out here in a minute if it's fixed.

I, too, was in jr. high in 1970. I heard a lot on both sides back then. It was a real heated/sensitive issue.
 

dreadnut

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Yeah, I was in 11th grade that year. After I graduated, I enlisted in the Navy. Ii was on board the Ranger in '73-'74-'75.
 

bobdcat

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rather hypocritical of them.
When you consider the the kangaroo court that was put up against them after the 1968 Chicago convention, maybe it's not so hypocritical, after all.
 

Westerly Wood

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When you consider the the kangaroo court that was put up against them after the 1968 Chicago convention, maybe it's not so hypocritical, after all.

I don't know what that means. All I know if you are going to protest to antagonize but then split when your own instigating gets tough, your integrity is suspect. Lame.
 

killdeer43

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It's a luxury to speculate 47 years after the fact and yet another variation on Monday-morning quarterbacking.
When we focus on the actions of individuals, we should let history speak for itself and walk a few miles in their shoes before making judgments.

Joe
 

dreadnut

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So idealistic kids die, and Hoffman and Rubin go on to be authors, speakers and millionaires.
 

adorshki

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It's a luxury to speculate 47 years after the fact and yet another variation on Monday-morning quarterbacking.
When we focus on the actions of individuals, we should let history speak for itself and walk a few miles in their shoes before making judgments.

Joe

I'm only picking on your post because it's one of the most sensible one here.
@Clay:
Hoffman and Rubin were out on appeal from the Chicago 7 trial so not wanting to risk being arrested again was probably merely expedient. And it's not as if Kent State was the only place on their itinerary, either.
I think they did demonstrate hypocrisy in other times and places though.
@Dreadnut:
As far as I can tell Hoffman never became a millionaire, in fact was in hiding and legal difficulties for a good chunk of time, and died in a converted turkey coop apartment. Said to be bipolar and died of suicide overdose.
I was a HS freshman in '70 when it happened and John Lennon was already my hero ("Revolution") but the Bed-ins and "Give Peace a Chance" and Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers colored my "political awareness" as well.
Within 4 years of Kent State I started realizing that most of the so-called radical activists presented a lot of rhetoric for tearing down "the system" but very little concrete thought on what to replace it with.
I even read Prairie Fire, the Weather Underground manifesto, and realized this was just a group of people who had no clue what they were gonna do after the "power grab" and were advocating violence against innocent people as a legitimate means of affecting social change.
Far as I could tell they just wanted to take what I had for themselves.
Then in '76 I noticed Tom Hayden (one of the original "Chicago 7") was participating in "the system": electoral politics.
I definitely disagree(d) with some of his ideas but I absolutely respect that he plunged in and tried to affect change through a tested mechanism for it.
It proved to me that the system actually works:
It can accept a radical activist who's managed to rally a significant number of voters to his cause.
That's peaceful change.
Sure mistakes and uncontrollable chains of events like the one that led to Kent State happen.

But 18-year-olds can vote today because of majority opinion that it was right and proper if they were expected to answer a draft call, not because of riots.
That's peaceful change too.
 
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wileypickett

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+1 -- I'm with you, Joe!

It's a luxury to speculate 47 years after the fact and yet another variation on Monday-morning quarterbacking.
When we focus on the actions of individuals, we should let history speak for itself and walk a few miles in their shoes before making judgments.

Joe
 
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