[Grovenet] Fear and Truth

[Meredith Bliss]

According to the Wikipedia entry, at the time of the shooting, the guard 
members were retreating, and only one member received an injury requiring any 
medical attention, though on the day before several had been hit by rocks, 
and several students had been bayoneted.  "The shootings killed four students 
and wounded nine. Two of the four students killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey 
Miller, had participated in the protest, and the other two, Sandra Scheuer 
and William Schroeder, were simply walking from one class to the next. 
Schroeder was also a member of the campus ROTC chapter. Of those wounded, 
none was closer than 71 feet (22 m) to the guardsmen. Of those killed, the 
nearest (Miller) was 265 feet (81 m) away." It also notes that the violence 
began several days earlier when bikers started a riot at a bar downtown. 

On Saturday 16 September 2006 18:30, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> That's certainly a different Kent State than I
> remember!
> Ed
>
> --------------------------------
>
> With all respect, Ed, I think you're remembering the Kent State as
> presented by the media in a country with a crooked disaster for a
> President.
>
> The "Kent State" I'm talking about is this one:
>
> The Kent State shootings, also known as May 4 or the Kent State massacre,
> occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved
> the shooting of students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970.
> The shooting killed four students and wounded nine others.
>
> The shootings were the culmination of four days of increasingly agitated
> demonstrations by members of the student body. The students were protesting
> the American invasion of Cambodia which President Richard Nixon launched on
> April 25, and announced in a television address five days later.
>
> Subsequent investigation showed that a gang of students were throwing rocks
> and bottles at the guardsmen. Several guardsmen were hurt in the process
> before a shot rang out. I don't think anyone ever determined for certain
> who fired the shot, but it was most likely a guardsman. I don't recall that
> any students were found with guns. Several guardsmen received serious
> injuries from the rocks.
>
> Once one shot rang out, several of the guardsmen who were being pelted by
> the rocks started shooting.
>
> President Nixon is reported to have said, "This should serve as a grave
> reminder that when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy."
>
> Nixon was already very unpopular. In spite of the accuracy of his
> statement, the fact that he said it seems to have invited people to equate
> the guardsmen with the failed Nixon cause. Yet no one has suggested that
> they would have been there had it been a peaceful demonstration.
>
> Of course, the National Guard (nor any other military force) was trained to
> deal with civilian violence using anything other than the deadly force all
> soldiers are taught to use. One of the benefits of that tragedy was that
> military training has encompassed other forms of crowd control.
>
> Still, I had taught my kids that if they are ever faced with a man with a
> gun, you do whatever he says. You may ask questions, but only later when
> the gun has been put away.
>
> Someone forgot to tell the kids at Kent state that, or they forgot to warn
> the kids what a mob mentality can do to otherwise intelligent people.
>
> But then college students are still children, ignorant and unaware of how
> the world works. That's why we prefer them for our military. Give 'em a
> cause, and they'll dive right into a hail of bullets, on the battlefield,
> or on a college campus.
>
> Ron D'Eau Claire
>
>
>
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-- 
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Just happy to be here, but speaking 
only for myself!
Meredith Bliss --- www.rdrop.com/~mbliss
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