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 @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
@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.
