The Kent State Tragedy: Neil Young, "Ohio"

On May 4th, 1970, an infamously horrible event occurred which still shocks modern day Americans. A troop of National Guardsmen opened fire on a group of protesting college students at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. More than sixty bullets were aimed into the young protesters, injuring nine and killing four. Four students, two boys and two girls, were only taking part in honoring their beliefs; lives came to a halt that day. 

Just like the Sandy Hook shootings a couple months ago, Americans were outraged at hearing the news of the student’s deaths. Their murders soon became a symbol for people all over the United States. They were a symbol of anti-war and peace. Their ideas were simple. No one cared who won the war, they just wanted to educate other people about all of the suffering and awfulness that would occur to either country by the time the war was over. A common saying by anti war protesters, even in previous wars, was "flowers are better than bullets." The massacre even led to the May 1970 Student Strike. 

The May 1970 Student Strike was a protest against the war in Vietnam that took place at the University of Washington and thousands of students participated. It lasted about eight days, with marches to Seattle, and attempts to occupy the whole University campus. It was a really big deal across the United States, especially for the soldiers and the pro war citizens. This is also a big reason that a lot of public outbreaks happened that was actually hostile towards college protesters. There didn’t seem to be a reason for all of these groups of mostly adults disliking college students until it was pointed out that a mass supply of college students were closely related to the anti-Vietnam sentiment activities. I believe that college students in general have always and will always be very opinionated. They are young and wild and free in simpler terms. They don’t have to worry about anything but themselves and they want to be heard. That is why they were obviously outspoken. Older people at the time of war still have opinions; they just aren’t so naïve as to blurt out everything. It is a blessing for students and sometimes, in this case for example, it can also be a curse.

            Although the papers say that they don’t know why the soldiers fired their guns, it is obviously not like the National Guardsmen were unprovoked. Being held by college students, these protests could very well get violent and even destructive. The reason the Guard was called in the first place was because the campus couldn’t handle the students anymore. They had recently burned down buildings and trashed the protest sights. They openly showed their dislike for the soldiers with obscene gestures and profane language towards the soldiers. The Guardsmen were only trying to control the rowdy crowd. However I do believe that they overreacted completely.

Even before the demise of William, Sandra, Allison, and Jefferey, the college protests had been the spark that ignited the anti-Vietnam sentiment across North America. The news completely divided the country socially and politically. During this war, you could fall into one of two categories based on your beliefs, "flower power" or pro war. Most of the Flower group was made up of students.

These divisions didn't just affect the normal citizens either, even celebrities had an opinion. Quite popular and commonly outspoken singer-songwriter, Neil Young, even wrote a hit song about it called "Ohio." People raged about that song for months after it was written. It was so unconventional that it was actually banned in different places for “‘anti-war’ and ‘anti-Nixon’ sentiments.” He was influenced by the Life Magazine from May 15, 1970, which covered the Kent shootings. This was not the first outgoing song that Young had created. Four years earlier, he co-wrote ‘For What It’s Worth,’ which was also extremely controversial, but well liked just the same.

            Over forty years later, people still remember this shooting. National Public Radio did an anniversary broadcast about the shooting that included survivors’ stories and eye witness accounts that led to more knowledge about the incident. Jerry Lewis was a teacher at the University and he was just really surprised when the bullets were fired. He honestly did not believe that the bullets were flying. Along with others, Lewis was just another witness to the monstrosity that happened on May 4^th. No one ever did get tried for the murders of the four students. Justice will not be served until then in my opinion. Students were just lawfully speaking their minds about their ideas. Because of a trigger however, those are four less voices that will be heard today.

Bibliography

• NPR Audio Story- "Shots Still Reverberate For Survivors of Kent State."
• Photo of the Victims-Hillel blog
• Kent State Shootings Time Line
• Schuman, Howard. "Two Sources of Antiwar Sentiment in America." Chicago Journals 78.3 (1972): 513--36. Print.
• FBI Kent State Shooting Records: The Vault
• Neil Young Lyrics Analysis-"Ohio"
• Civil Rights and Labor History Photo and Document Repository- May 1970 Student Strike