4 Dead in Ohio

In remembrance of Kent State on this day May 4th, 1970


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7-m919ynU

May 15th, 1970: 2 Black Students Killed & 12 Wounded by Police During Vietnam Antiwar Protest
by Staff on May 15, 2010

in: Civil Disobedience, Civil Rights, Education, Peace Movement, War and Peace

Originally posted May 15, 2008

More that we can’t forget
The shootings at Mississippi’s Jackson State University still linger in the shadow of Kent State. Less than two weeks after Kent, two black students were killed and 12 others wounded by state troopers on May 15, 1970.

The incident started after student demonstrators, protesting the Vietnam War and seeking more rights at the historically black college, responded to an order to disperse by throwing stones and bottles. It ended as police opened fire outside a women’s dormitory.

Phillip Gibbs, 21, a junior preparing for law school, who had a child and a pregnant wife, and James Earl Green, 17, a high school track star on his way home from his job at a grocery store, were killed.

A presidential commission later found the shootings at Jackson and Kent “completely unjustified.” No one was indicted....

http://obrag.org/?p=765

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.


Neil Young: Four Dead in Ohio (3:26)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x461653

Has music lost it's sole when it comes to politics and protests or am I just out of touch?

as he delivered an anti-war speech on campus.

ETA - we have basically gone backward from there - 3 wars - people scared of their shadows.

Its nice to read responses of those who were older and remember that day...

it didn't strike me as at all far-fetched to think we could possibly be next.

on campus. The crushing realization -- "We're finally on our own." had a sad meaning: that the "grown-ups" in this world would murder their own children in the name of being "right."

I Wasn't Surprised lyrics

When our towns were in flame and yet we got the blame
I wasn't surprised
When police stormed the streets and no one came to our needs
I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed even right in our church
And maybe I'm wise from too many cries
But I wasn't surprised.
When they shot Fred and Mark as they slept in the dark,
I wasn't surprised
When the commission contends it was in "self defense"
I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed in their sleep, in the church
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries,
But I wasn't surprised.
In a Southern jail cell, a guard gave a girl hell, and
I wasn't surprised
She fought back and defied, became an outlaw statewide
And I wasn't surprised
And I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed in the prisons and church
And maybe I'm wise from too many cries
But I wasn't surprised.
Well right down the block, a young boy picked a lock
And I wasn't surprised
The police shot him dead, he was hungry, how he bled!
I wasn't surprised
It wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed down the block, in the church
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn't surprised.
When they shot down my son, nothing wrong had he done
I wasn't surprised
He was walking to class 'cross the Jackson State grass
And I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our first and it wasn't our last
< From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/lems-kristin-lyrics/i-wasn_t-surprised-lyrics.html >
My family is killed even crossing the grass
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn't surprised.
I've seen your children fall and I grieve for you all,
But I wasn't surprised
I have known all along that they're mean and they're strong
So don't be surpriseed
Well it wasn't your last, it was only your first
The day will come round that they'll kill you in church
And maybe I'm wise from too many lies
But I wasn't surprised.
Well I'm bitter as hell, but one thing I'll tell you
You might be surprised
If we stand side by side to stop this genocide
They will be surprised
For as long as we're silent, as long as we're still
They'll gun us and shun us, you know that they will
So raise your voices high in one unified cry
And we'll see who's surprised!
Words and music by Kristin Lems c MCMLXXIX Kleine Ding Music (BMI)

http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/lems-kristin-lyrics/i-wasn_t-surprised-lyrics.html