Kent in 1970!

Sometimes out of the blue (being a child of the 1970s) I find myself silently singing the following words:

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

“Ohio”, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Speaking of silence, today a silent march and candlelight vigils will mark 36 years since the shootings at Kent State University.

I remember the event as if it were yesterday; four students at Kent State were shot and killed by Ohio National Guardsmen during a rally against the Vietnam War.

Had he not been gunned down by National Guard troops on the Kent State University campus on May 4, 1970, Jeffrey Miller would be 56 years old this year. Instead, Miller's life ended at age 19 and the thing for which he will forever be remembered is being the body over which young Mary Ann Vecchio cried in despair in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo that quickly came to symbolize a deeply-divided nation.

It was 36 years ago today that Miller, Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder, who was on his way to class, were gunned down by Army National Guardsmen at a Vietnam War protest on the Kent State campus. It was a watershed event that touched off a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close and signaled the zenith of American opposition to that war.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- Isaiah 9.6