Ten soldiers and Nixon's coming...remember?

This is a repost of something I wrote a couple years back but I have to say it again, because it is to important to forget...Kent State University 40 years ago, and still important more than ever now. From an old Woodie Guthrie song brings to mind a simple question..."How many deaths does it take till we know, that to many people have died?"

How many does it take? How about countless thousands in Darfur, or how about 50,000 plus in VietNam, or maybe its 4,0000 and counting in Iraq, oops I forgot the 1.25 million Iraq soldiers and mostly civilians, then again maybe its the 33 students killed at Virginia Tech, at the hands of a poor delusional nut, is that enough or should we add more...?

Maybe four more...the four that should count pehaps the loudest. May 4, 1970, a date that should live in infamy, four students, some exercising the right of free speech and some not, died at Kent State University because our own soldiers, Americans themselves, following immoral orders, turned as they were retreating and opened fire on unarmed civilians. At a school! American soldiers , most not more than kids themselves, shooting at unarmed kids. All in the name of politics and "moral outrage". This has been swept away in the gift of forgetfullness, for the vast majority, but to this writer it was a life changing experience. I found myself questioning freedom itself and our inherrant right to express it in our own way. Maybe that is why I taught all my kids to "question authority", which they have done, way to well at times.

I was in the Navy at the time, fairly gung ho and all proud till that fateful day, in an instant I changed, I came to the realization that no war is worth such a price and I could not support such an unjust cause. This is just not what ones pride and sense of justice is able to understand, and to this day I still dont. What the hell were we all dieing for, and I mean troops and civilians.

In a day or so I will turn 58 and though its been a long hard road, my deepest feelings have not changed. In these past 40 years many things have changed and unchanged as the case may be, I am still a "hippie" and a "peacenik", but now we find ourselves yet again facing the horrid reality of an immoral, illegal, and lost war. A war with more horrid implications than I care to think on. Not only are our rights being eroded or stolen at will, but the voice against it is weaker it seems and perhaps with good reason, perhaps not enough remember....or maybe to many are just afraid to stand anymore because to many have died. So tomorrow I will don my "remember Kent State" shirt and do just that....remember.


Those of you that are to young won't remember because most History books will ignore ...those of you that do had better learn and remember to stand for what is meant to stand for freedomm in the 21st century.

Peace, love, and light to all and I Hope Beltane was happy for you all..

TR...

P.S. those of you that know it, turn on your music boxes and listen to CSN&Y,or just do what it takes to never forget. Per the Declaration...Life, Lberty, and the persuit of Happiness...they died for that right!

PSS.. Remember the right of all people to tie the knot...support equal right for everyone.