[2 articles]
Observance of 40th anniversary of Kent State shootings is part
political rally, part remembrance
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/fortieth_annual_observance_of.html
By John Mangels
May 04, 2010
KENT, Ohio -- Forty years ago, the air was choked with tear gas and
the hillside was trampled by army boots and stained with blood.
On Tuesday afternoon, May 4, 2010, Blanket Hill at Kent State
University was awash in music. People hugged long-lost friends, or
sat on chairs and blankets, waiting expectantly. A breeze stirred the
daffodils planted to honor the military dead of the Vietnam War, and
ruffled the black and white photos of the four students who died
during that war's protest.
Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroder
are frozen in time, forever 19, forever 20. Their contemporaries, the
activists of the Kent State era, are grandparents now.
"Forty years is a biblical unit of time," marveled Mark Rudd, a
co-organizer of the radical Weather Underground, his beard now
streaked with gray. "We've learned a lot," he told the crowd. "It's
been 40 years and still we're in a mess. I've got a grandson. I want
him to live in a world in which he experiences peace and democracy."
"Transcend the tragedy by turning it into the politics of hope,"
fellow Weather Underground founder and now law school professor
Bernadine Dohrn urged students assembling for an immigration-rights
march after the anniversary event.
"You have hearts, you have passions, you have minds," Rudd told the
the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds. "You can figure it out,
the same as us."
"You have hearts, you have passions, you have minds," Rudd told the
the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds. "You can figure it out,
the same as us."
"You have hearts, you have passions, you have minds," Rudd told the
the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds. "You can figure it out,
the same as us."
Much of the afternoon, though, was a commemoration of the dead.
Sandra Scheuer, struck in the neck by an Ohio National Guardsman's
bullet, was a girl with a bubbly personality who was always doing
things for others, said a note from a friend that's preserved in a
scrapbook kept by her sorority, Alpha Xi Delta.
"We think about her every day," said the Kent State chapter's current
president, Sarah Franciosa.
Jeffrey Miller was a drummer and a radio DJ whose 5-foot-6 stature
earned him the on-air name of "Short Mort," recalled his older brother, Russ.
On the night of the shootings, still unaware that Jeff had been
killed, Russ Miller watched TV news reports about Kent State with
their grandmother in the Bronx. She asked if Jeff had gone to the
rally. "No doubt," Russ Miller answered, knowing his brother's strong
feelings against the war. "But I wasn't concerned, because I knew he
would keep his head down."
Miller died, shot in the mouth.
Florence Schroeder used a walker to make her way to the stage. "On
May 4, 1970, I was 50 years old, with brown hair and good legs," she
said. "Today, I'm 90 and can no longer pitch batting practice."
Her son was an Eagle Scout and an honor student who was walking to
class when he was shot in the back from a rifle more than a football
field's length away. "The death of a child is very hard, but life
goes on," his mother said. She read the last line of a poem he wrote:
"Learning from the past is a prime consideration."
"I pray we have all learned that lesson," she said.
Allison Krause's long-ago boyfriend, Barry Levine, spoke of a "sweet,
intelligent, loving, warm, intelligent, compassionate, creative,
funny, giving, intelligent woman - and if I didn't use the word
intelligent, forgive me. Allison was as bright as they come.
"She sat on the hill where you now sit," he said. "She walked on
those paths where you now stand. Her laughter used to dance through
the branches of these trees."
She was shot in the side as Levine pulled her behind a car for
shelter from the gunfire. She fell, mortally wounded, in his arms.
Levine, who has rarely spoken publicly about the events of that day,
made an impassioned and at times angry appeal for justice for the
shootings. Eight Guardsmen were indicted on federal charges, but a
judge dismissed the case. A civil lawsuit was settled without an
admission of wrongdoing.
"What I hear Allison saying is that there is a lingering issue, some
unfinished business," Levine said. "To this day, nobody has stood up
and been held accountable. . . . nobody has stood up and said, 'I'm
sorry, it was a mistake.' Today, 40 years later, the very men who
pulled the triggers, who gave the orders, and who gave permission,
actually have been excused. And I think there's something wrong with
that picture."
---------
Honoring May 4's fallen: 1970 events mournful memories for some,
lessons for others
http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4821455
Matt Fredmonsky and Dave O'Brien
May 5, 2010
For Florence Schroeder, the death of her son, William, at the hands
of Ohio National Guard troops 40 years ago cast her on a journey that
again took her back to Kent State University.
Mrs. Schroeder, who is 90 years old, joined 14 other speakers Tuesday
in commemorating the 40th anniversary of the May 4, 1970, shootings
by the Ohio National Guard that left her son dead along with fellow
students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller and Sandra Scheuer.
"My talk is not about Bill," she said after taking the stage on the
Commons behind Taylor Hall. "It's about all of us who are here."
She recalled the early meetings of the family members of those four
killed and nine wounded the "Kent State families." Together, they
took trips to Washington, D.C., to testify, meet with members of
Congress and talk with judges on the Supreme Court about the shootings.
"With the help of our attorneys, we were able to inform the public of
the true facts," she said. "As much as they were available."
She thanked all those who helped the families over the years with
their struggle to tell the nation, and the world, about what happened
on May 4, 1970.
"The death of a child is heartbreaking, but life goes on," she said.
"I believe our efforts to prevent another Kent State tragedy have
been rewarded with a new resolve for peace and good will."
Schroeder spoke after Russ Miller, the older brother of Jeffrey
Miller, who recalled facing a moral dilemma with his brother that so
many young students in the 1970s faced.
As brothers, they talked about the draft and what each would do if
his number came up beckoning military enlistment for the Vietnam War.
Jeffrey Miller adamantly opposed violent military action and would
have gone to Canada if he was drafted, Russ Miller said.
"He would sacrifice everything if he was forced to choose," he said.
Russ Miller and Florence Schroeder were the only two family members
of the four students killed to address the crowd of several hundred
who gathered around Taylor Hall Tuesday.
Barry Levine, a good friend of Allison Krause, spoke on her behalf.
He recalled that they held hands as they ran together from the
guardsmen. Krause, shot in the back three times, died in his arms.
Krause was demonstrating her right to free speech, and she paid for
that right with her life, Levine said. Her death had nothing to do
with bottles and rocks thrown at guardsmen.
"But it had everything to do with the right of free speech, the right
of free assembly and the oppression of those rights," Levine said.
Sarah Franciosa, a current KSU student, spoke on behalf of Scheuer as
a fellow sorority sister of Alpha Xi Delta. In preparing for her
speech, she spent weeks reading through personal letters Scheuer sent
to friends and family about dating, looking for summer work and the sorority.
Mary Vecchio, immortalized in John Filo's Pulitzer-winning photograph
of her kneeling over Miller's body, also spoke Tuesday.
"Forty years is a long time to reflect," she said, adding that today
she finds herself thinking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I
say to myself, 'Have we really learned?'"
The commemoration was marked this year as it is annually with the
marching of candles from the four memorials in the Prentice Hall
parking lot down to the stage in the commons. At approximately 12:24
p.m., the Victory Bell rang 13 times to remember those killed and
wounded 40 years ago when 67 rounds were fired within 13 seconds.
Doves took flight as the ringing bell echoed across the Commons.
Those who came to Kent State University and the memorial Tuesday were
met with warm sun, cool breezes and memories of the four students
slain on May 4, 1970.
People and dogs mingled with numerous photographers around Taylor
Hall and the Commons. The large crowd that gathered there cheered
heartily for Black Panther Party founder Bobby Seale, who gave a
history of his activities during the late 1960s.
As with past commemorations, the Prentice Hall parking lot and area
surrounding Taylor Hall became a canvas for chalk-bearing artists.
"Where were the rubber bullets?" was scrawled on the abstract Don
Drumm sculpture standing between Taylor Hall and the Prentice lot.
Other chalk writings alluded to slain student Sandy Scheuer and the
death Sunday of her mother, Sarah, at age 86 in a Youngstown hospice.
"Sandy/Martin/Sarah/Together again R.I.P." one read.
.
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