The Reason Today’s Students Don’t Protest The War
On Monday, May 4, 1970 at 12:24 PM, twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen began shooting into a crowd of student anti-war protesters at Kent State University. In thirteen seconds, the guardsmen had fired sixty-seven rounds and four students lay dead.Immediately after the Kent State shooting (sometimes referred to as the “Kent State Massacre”), Neil Young composed the song “Ohio” after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings. Soon, the lyrics “Four dead in Ohio” became an anthem to a generation.
Crooks and Liars links to a video done a couple of years ago by Bernie Mooney commemorating this date.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvg4n8Txgdc]
Neil Young wrote this in the liner notes for the Decade album, which featured the song Ohio:
“It’s still hard to believe I had to write this song. It’s ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. David Crosby cried after this take.”
Great song! It reflects that time in history when the Vietnam War was extending into Laos and Cambodia. Students were protesting against it. Nobody in the Nixon Administration was listening.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Poor young babies, they’ll never have a chance to see how far we’ve come.
What a sad thread.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:41 am
wow. what is incredible is that after the 9/11 terror attacks, not a single American could criticize bush and if you did, you were a traitor to this country.
how oreilly and hannity and the rest of the far right loons would crush, and in some cases still are, demean, and discredit any criticism of this administration.
and conservatives are the ones who want freedom of speech… that is unless that freedom of speech agrees with them, but if they don’t, your a traitor.
neo-cons are sick f****
May 5th, 2008 at 12:51 am
“Ohio”
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 done 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 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 coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
–Neil Young
This is why there is no draft for Iraq.
And this is why you need to know the different between “America” and “The Government”.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:47 am
So much crap, so little time…
Alan, do you really think today’s students are being kept from protesting by a “memory” of something that happened 15 to 20 years before they were born? The students of the 60s are running the campuses today. Are you implying that the 60s radicals would bring in the National Guard to shoot war protesters? If so, perhaps it’s time to stop criticizing the Bush administration and criticize the hypocrisy of ex-hippies.
Tim, nobody in the Nixon administration was listening? What administration ended the draft and the war? What administration started it?
Louie, are you drunk? That comment just made no sense. I don’t just mean that I don’t agree with you, which is normal. I mean it literally didn’t make sense. It just makes me want to cling to my gun, bitterly.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
1970 was the year I went to my first anti-war demonstation against the Viet Nam War. I was very young and had to go with an older person. I did so after the Kent State Massacre. My heart was broken after that happened.
Nixon didn’t end the war. The Democrats did. They cut off the funding and Nixon had no choice but to bring the troops home.
Students today won’t protest because there is no draft. Their lives aren’t on the line this time. They, for the most part, can just avoid the whole subject.
“Ohio” by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. I remember it so well like it was yesterday. I still have the original album.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Actually I have the 45 single. But I also have it sung live on CSN&Y’s concert album “4 Way Street”.
Thank you Neil Young.
Louie is right. Conservatives are all for free speech as long it’s speech they approve of. Don’t think so? Just read Alan’s hatemail and listen to many of his callers question his patriotism because he’s against the war. They don’t think he should be on the air or they just want him dead.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Not to diminish the tragedy of the massacre, or the genious of Niel Young’s art, but I thought the real reason for lack of student protests was the absence of Soviet funding and the draft.
A Constitutionally-founded protest, decrying the War Powers Act and forcing the President to get a proper declaration prior to committing troops, would get a great deal of conservative support.
The lack of such an RTFM-based protest of current policies is a source of bemusement.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Ya, we won’t see any Soviet funding of civilian protests because the neo-Soviets are occupying the White House, with their gulags, and their National Security Letters, and their torture squads, and all the other “tools” from the “toolbox” they borrowed from the KGB.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am
@RC:
Indeed, the problem spans administrations and decades.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Epiphany said
“Students today won’t protest because there is no draft. Their lives aren’t on the line this time. They, for the most part, can just avoid the whole subject.”
I think that today’s students are apathetic. My generation (the so-called MTV generation) tends to be apathetic about all things that are not for our direct social and financial benefit.
“My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whinning about for years.” -Kurt Cobain
I’m almost done with Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE. In the section discussing ‘Nam, he quotes a statement made by US District Court Judge after the Kent and Jackson State shootings:
“Students who engage in civil disorders must expect to be injured or killed.”
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_6031154
http://www.usaweekend.com/00_issues/001015/001015genx.html
May 5th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i forgot to add: the us judge was Harold Cox. the links are just articles about generational apathy regarding political issues.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I remember this day vividly. A fellow just-returned-vet told me about this and said: “What the f***, now we have to shoot civilians in this country too!” I was in San Fran and the mood was quite “Hippie” oriented and most of us welcomed it. We were NOT spit on but welcomed. It very well may have been a turning point in the anti-war movement.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Just another sad example of how the rights of young people have been constantly trampled on throughout our history.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
“one tin soldier rides away”
in 1970 they didnt have a patriot act
1n 1970 our soldiers were not encouraged to police the world [by the UN]
in 1970 there were more people happy to go to work,because jobs/companies were not going to mexico [wasnt even a thought]
in 1970 we had a senate and congressthat put this country 1st
and I am more then sure in 1970 if fuel were to be 4x the cost for NO reason, the exports would have gone through the roof $$$$$$ as well.
because in 1970 NAFTA did not exist!!
May 5th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
EVERYONE LOOK AT ‘JACK HANNA’ or Jack HannaMontana.. i dunno know this far right loon’s name nor do i care.
people like jack hanna is what is wrong with america.
if people don’t agree with mr. neocon jack hanna, he insults.
typical neocon
May 5th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
the horrific thing is that the people in power today most likely have/had no problem with this occurrence.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm