Hmm, finally looked up the words to "Ohio" by Crosby Stills & Nash. I had heard the music before, but never understood the words. (never learned about it in my U.S. history classes, which significantly glossed over the Vietnam war)
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@ai6yr And Young, too (who wrote the song).
Frightfully relevant these days.
Remains one of only a tiny number of recorded protest songs to call out a president by name, too.
@mattblaze 😬 on how relevant this is today. 🙏
@ai6yr Especially that it leaves unanswered its anguished cry of "Why?!"
@ai6yr Another, less well known but equally indiscriminate campus massacre occurred only 11 days later at Jackson State: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings
I don't remember that, indicting me and the rest of us white folks
@tomjennings @ai6yr There were several reasons Jackson State didn't get as much attention. There was the obvious racial element. And the fact that it happened second.
But I think Kent State itself got extra (and lingering) attention from John Filo's striking photo of Mary Ann Vecchio's primal cry. That helped propel it to international news, and a place in history books. https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/images-from-americas-library/about-this-exhibition/icons/john-filo-kent-state/
@mattblaze @tomjennings @ai6yr Important to think about all the context. Yes, Jackson State was unfairly treated as a footnote for too long, but also – public opinion was decidedly against the Kent State student protestors for quite a long time. The prevailing opinion was that they had instigated the violence and deserved the bloody reprisal.
@tomjennings @donaldball @ai6yr It certainly can be. But it's also important to remember what a time of general upheaval the late 60's/early 70's was. SO MUCH was going on, and so much was changing. The war. The draft. Civil rights. And so on. Everything from peaceful protest to bombings by radical groups, all the time. And while not everything resulted in lasting progress, a fair amount did.
@tomjennings @donaldball @ai6yr So much of that era is playing out again in our time. Maybe we can learn something from the history.
@tomjennings @donaldball @ai6yr It's also really hard to convey the background level of violence and unrest from that era. Things are worse now than they were perhaps 10 years ago, but still don't compare to the early 70's. Protests regularly escalated to riots (often instigated by police). Arson. Bomb scares and actual bombings were such a regular occurrence that I learned to recognize the distinctive siren on the bomb squad truck that would pass our apartment on the way to the range.
@mattblaze @tomjennings @donaldball @ai6yr
Desegregation - I remember the first two black girls, twin sisters, who showed up in middle school They were the only ones amongst hundreds of white kids. I graduated from a majority black high school.
I remember "No Coloreds" "Whites Only" signs on restrooms and restaurants, separate water fountains, a KKK leader we briefly lived next door to. Us white boys had it way easy, while all the rest struggled. Protests are what change things. Still.
@mattblaze @ai6yr Talking about which, I saw some new Neil Young music on my "New Releases" playlist today:
@mattblaze @ai6yr Another protest song that names a president: “Louisiana 1927,” Song by Randy Newman about a flood in Evangeline, Louisiana. Music teacher played it to us at the time of Hurricane Katrina
