...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Friday, May 16, 2003
      ( 3:57 PM )
 
Learning Ignoring Lessons of the Past

Lost in the fray of the news last week was something that was brought to my attention last night by P. On May 4, students at Kent State University gathered for an annual commemoration of the students killed in 1970 by National Guardsmen. Interestingly, the university got nervous because the commemoration committee was going to hold a peaceful anti-war protest as part of the commemoration...the administration thought it might get "out of hand." Thus, when as few as 150 students showed up to bang on drums and chant in protest, no less than 200 cops showed up. As soon as the students stepped into the street, arrests started. Kind of ironic, don't you think?

Someone commented that this was a disrespectful way to commemorate the students who lost their lives 33 years ago. Frankly, I think it was the perfect way to commemorate...and to celebrate the continued push by free people to exercise that freedom, even under the threat of massive state violence.

"Rosanne "Chic" Canfora was 19 in 1970
and remembers crouching behind a car in
the parking lot during the shootings.

"It makes me cry to stand here and know
once again that the topic on this commons
is war," she said.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I just hope that 30 years from now we won't be looking back and longing for the old days when, despite being surrounded by police, we were still free to speak our minds.


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