Thanks to Blue Gal for the reminder. 39 years ago today.
I remember.
I was a budding “lil hippy” living in Northern California with my Mom and little brother. I believe the shootings at Kent State were actually my political wake up call. I remember sitting with my Mom and her friends, watching the news and listening to the various reactions. Some of them were crying, there was a beautiful black man with a huge bobbing afro shaking his fist in anger, while “Oso”, a long haired hippy-biker philosophized sadly, looking down through his John Lennon glasses at the mayhem on the TV screen as he passed the blue glass bong. My Mom, wearing a fringed leather poncho and huge bell bottomed hip huggers, seemed to be in shock. She just kept shaking her head in denial. I was blown away. That could be me lying dead on the grass in only a few years. I had just finished reading 1984 and suddenly it seemed all too real.
Let’s not forget, okay?
Ohio
Neil Young
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 gunning 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 gunning 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.
One comment for this post
I was 11 years old and, like you, I think the Kent State shootings were – not so much my political awakening as the first time I found myself in complete disagreement with my parents. I still remember my dad going on and on about the “dirty hippies” while I looked at the newspaper photos and saw… children and the profound shock of realizing that my government – the soldiers that were supposed to be protecting me and my country – had just shot its own children.
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