The Instructor sensing I was not the only one in the class who had no idea what he was talking about told us that four of our brethren college students had been shot and killed during a protest of the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. Explaining the only thing these victims had done were exercise their right to free speech and protest and were shot by American soldiers on American soil. Guardsmen had fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds It was therefore our duty to not be in the classroom, but to join in the protest or at least commemorate the memory of these martyrs. Class was dismissed till further notice and he would encourage us to not attend any other classes that day. Which was a sweet protest song to my ears, but somehow I knew that the staff of Golden Hurricane football coaches would not be as sympathetic to the fallen students memory. But at least I had a few hour window of recovery time before 2:30 in the afternoon when it would be time to be in the training room to have my ankles taped in order to prevent a sprain in the battle of something greater than communist aggression in the rice patties of southeast Asia. That being the pursuit of Lombardi type excellence for the University's beleaguered football program.
These days were before cable news and the 24 hour news cycle but the three major networks gave a huge amount of time to the killings in an almost continuous loop effect. Four students dead in Ohio. Killed by National Guardsmen of their own generation. Richard Nixon was the President and essentially defended the action. We were young adults who had seen a young President killed, his brother slain, Martin Luther King murdered, and now thousands of our peers in a war that we, nor really anyone was quite sure what we were fighting for. Neil Young recorded a song that was played in a heavy rotation that summer, Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own, this summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio...
Having been raised in West Virginia where young men freely volunteer more than any other State to fight wars for their Country and along with possessing a jock mentality, I was acculturated to having a hawkish attitude. I really was not sure how to feel about the Nation I had been born and lived, during these troubling times. Nixon and his cronies were certainly not to be trusted, but those of my age that were raising hell rioting, and burning college Administration buildings didn't seem like the correct action either. Though I had been invited I had not joined a group of student athletes that went to disrupt a group of war protesters that had wanted to join hands and encircle the United States Federal Building in Downtown Tulsa and pledged not to leave until the building levitated or the War ended. The protesters did not garner enough participants to actually encircle the building, which nullified the need for the football players to beat them up. The building never rose from its foundation and the War went on for several more years, so I am not sure who was wrong or right in that particular situation.
The next Spring after transferring to West Virginia University I was having lunch by my myself by a window at the pizza place that was on the southwest corner of High Street and Willey in Downtown Morgantown. Later that afternoon there was a large Anti War Rally planned in front of the Mountainlair, the student union. The most militant of the National movement was a group named the Students for a Democratic Society, the SDS. The SDS was responsible for this rally and it was promised to be potentially violent.
Looking out the window as I ate I saw three charter buses full of West Virginia National Guardsman and West Virginia State Troopers in full riot gear in the buses. Each one had rifles standing in front of them, the rifles all had bayonets on them. Bayonets to control college kids in West Virginia. West Virginia a State that gave the lives of 1182 of its young people in this War. That moment finally really brought it home to me what a atrocity we were living in America at that time.
It was clear to my thinking that the protesters had made some impact on the mood of the Nation, but it wasn't in my nature to protest and I literally wasn't going to a knife and gun fight, without a gun or a knife.
1972 was to be a Presidential Election year perhaps we could actually channel this energy to elect a President that would stop this senseless War. Hubert Humphery was the odds on favorite to be the Democratic Nominee. Humphery had been Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had escalated the War and it had ruined him politically forcing him to not stand for reelection. Humphery was known has the "Happy Warrior" though he pledged to get us out of the War. Alabama Governor George Wallace, who at the time was a Populist among those that were advocates of States Rights for his history of supporting segregation. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, and Senator George McGovern from South Dakota seemed like the two to have the strongest feelings against the "conflict"
Muskie ended up dropping out of the race after breaking down and crying about a nasty editorial. This left only one true anti war candidate George McGovern who was clear about his intentions.
The 26th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified in 1971. This Amendment allowed, for the first time, 18 year olds to vote. The principal rationale for this change was that if 18 year olds could be drafted to war to fight and die for their country they should be able to vote.
It occurred to me that if I were able to vote, that I might be able to run for something. I researched it, and though most all offices had age requirements in West Virginia, no one had realized that there was no age requirement to run as a delegate to the National Convention. So on my way back to Morgantown from a visit home in Oak Hill, I stopped in Charleston at the Secretary of State"s Office and filed to run as a Delegate to support McGovern and becoming the youngest person ever to be on the ballot in West Virginia.
Humphery won the West Virginia Primary and Wallace finished a strong second. McGovern was the Democratic Nominee but was soundly beaten by Nixon in every State but Massachusetts.
This was my outlet of protest that was probably no more effective than chanting and carrying a sign. Though I did not win I didn't have to look at the barrel of a gun and the point of a bayonet.
The next Spring after transferring to West Virginia University I was having lunch by my myself by a window at the pizza place that was on the southwest corner of High Street and Willey in Downtown Morgantown. Later that afternoon there was a large Anti War Rally planned in front of the Mountainlair, the student union. The most militant of the National movement was a group named the Students for a Democratic Society, the SDS. The SDS was responsible for this rally and it was promised to be potentially violent.
Looking out the window as I ate I saw three charter buses full of West Virginia National Guardsman and West Virginia State Troopers in full riot gear in the buses. Each one had rifles standing in front of them, the rifles all had bayonets on them. Bayonets to control college kids in West Virginia. West Virginia a State that gave the lives of 1182 of its young people in this War. That moment finally really brought it home to me what a atrocity we were living in America at that time.
It was clear to my thinking that the protesters had made some impact on the mood of the Nation, but it wasn't in my nature to protest and I literally wasn't going to a knife and gun fight, without a gun or a knife.
1972 was to be a Presidential Election year perhaps we could actually channel this energy to elect a President that would stop this senseless War. Hubert Humphery was the odds on favorite to be the Democratic Nominee. Humphery had been Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had escalated the War and it had ruined him politically forcing him to not stand for reelection. Humphery was known has the "Happy Warrior" though he pledged to get us out of the War. Alabama Governor George Wallace, who at the time was a Populist among those that were advocates of States Rights for his history of supporting segregation. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, and Senator George McGovern from South Dakota seemed like the two to have the strongest feelings against the "conflict"
Muskie ended up dropping out of the race after breaking down and crying about a nasty editorial. This left only one true anti war candidate George McGovern who was clear about his intentions.
The 26th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified in 1971. This Amendment allowed, for the first time, 18 year olds to vote. The principal rationale for this change was that if 18 year olds could be drafted to war to fight and die for their country they should be able to vote.
It occurred to me that if I were able to vote, that I might be able to run for something. I researched it, and though most all offices had age requirements in West Virginia, no one had realized that there was no age requirement to run as a delegate to the National Convention. So on my way back to Morgantown from a visit home in Oak Hill, I stopped in Charleston at the Secretary of State"s Office and filed to run as a Delegate to support McGovern and becoming the youngest person ever to be on the ballot in West Virginia.
Humphery won the West Virginia Primary and Wallace finished a strong second. McGovern was the Democratic Nominee but was soundly beaten by Nixon in every State but Massachusetts.
This was my outlet of protest that was probably no more effective than chanting and carrying a sign. Though I did not win I didn't have to look at the barrel of a gun and the point of a bayonet.
As always, Wayne, a great read. Although I'm a few years younger than you I still remember so many of the atrocities that were a part of that era. The worst part is the we, as a society, have failed to learn from those events and continue to repeat history.
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