Making sense of Kent State tragedy 40 years later
http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_15011234
By BILL HOLIDAY
May 4, 2010
Allen Richardson, eyewitness; Alan Canfora, eyewitness; Tom Grace,
eyewitness; Jeff Petronger, eyewitness; Laurel Krause, sister of
slain student Allison Krause; Country Joe McDonald, pro-peace
advocate; Doris Krause, mother of slain student; Barry Levine,
Allison Krause's boyfriend; Al Kovnik, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
--
KENT, Ohio -- They have come to Kent State University to be a part of
the 40th commemoration of the events of April 30-May 4, 1970. Some
have come to remember. Some have come to talk. Some have come to
revise the public perception of what happened here. Some are eager to
talk and share experiences. Still others are here to express
long-festering bitterness. Some have refused to talk except to their
most intimate friends and acquaintances. Some have come to help put
together a permanent and accurate accounting of the events that
started with a presidential address to the nation on Thursday night,
April 30, 1970.
With the Vietnam War, anti-war efforts, the draft and the civil
rights movement provoking a charged political atmosphere, President
Richard Nixon's announcement that U.S. forces were going into
Cambodia set into motion a chain of events that would leave Kent
State students Bill Schroeder, Allison Krause, Sandy Schuerer and
Jeffrey Miller dead in the Prentiss Hall parking lot on the Kent
State University campus.
Tom Grace, a student eyewitness, who was shot on May 4 and survived,
described the scene in one of his friend's dorm room while President
Nixon was speaking, "There was so much yelling and screaming at the
television that he had to repeatedly stand up and tell everyone to
'shut up and be quiet' because he was trying to hear what was being
said. It produced a string of profanities."
On Friday night, many Kent State students headed for the bars on
Water Street, among them senior Jeff Petronger. According to
Petronger, "Several of us decided to go down to watch the
Knicks/Lakers game. At around 11 p.m., an officer walked in and
yelled at the top of his lungs 'the bar is closed!' The officer
explained there was a "riot" on the street and Petronger and his
friends "had no choice but to go outside and get in the riot. We had
no idea what was going on, went out and promptly got tear-gassed."
Grace described the atmosphere on Saturday as "charged, electric and
frightening." By the end of the day, the ROTC building on the Kent
State campus had been burned. According to Grace, there "weren't any
anti-war organizations that commanded the allegiance of the students"
and the burning was an unorganized event. "It was all spontaneous.
It's incredible when you think about the self-organization that arose
so spontaneously."
The ROTC building on campus became to many students "a source of
antagonism. It became a hated symbol of the Vietnam War. It involved
complicity between the university and the military," according to Grace.
By Monday, May 4, events reached a crescendo when the Ohio National
Guard fired, according to shooting victim and organizer of the May 4
Foundation Alan Canfora, "67 rounds into a group of unarmed
students." After 13 seconds, four students were dead. Among them was
Allison Krause, a 19-year-old freshman from Pittsburgh.
Allison Krause's younger sister, Laurel, is at Kent this week. She is
working with the Kent State Truth Tribunal. Her effort as director of
the organization is "an honor because I am doing this for my sister,
my father, my mother and my family."
Krause is critical of the accounts of what happened on the weekend of
May 4, going so far as to categorize James Michener's book, "Kent
State," a "total fabrication."
"He was a close friend of Richard Nixon. His friendship is ingrained
in every word. It's just lies. We don't own a copy. Students tried to
say, 'No, that wasn't right' and he didn't even bother to make
corrections," Krause said.
Krause hopes to help set the record straight. This week the Kent
State Truth Tribunal is working to get eyewitnesses to stop by the
rented space on Water Street to share their stories. When I
interviewed Krause on Sunday, business was steady. On Monday, she was
overwhelmed and is booked solid for Tuesday. Her hope is that some of
the guardsmen involved on May 4 will stop by to share their side of the story.
"There is no good that has come out of this (the shooting on May 4
that killed her sister). How can that be?"
"There's usually a little sliver of good. Where's the sliver?" asked Krause.
She says that, "Everyone that comes to the Tribunal, they're going to
be honored and respected, no matter what reason they were on that
hill. We want the truth. My father went to his grave without the truth."
I wondered why Laurel Krause had taken on this project and she
declared, "It's that lack of any positivity to have come out of this
that is outrageous."
--
Bill Holiday is a teacher at Brattleboro Union High School. He
participated in the 40th commemoration of the shootings at Kent
State. He can be reached at [email protected].
.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
