Ramblings about the Kent State Massacre

HISTORICAL GLIMPSE (i.e., BACK IN THE DAY)
I was 8 years old and lived in Akron, Ohio, almost exactly 38 years ago -- when the Kent State Massacre (aka May 4 Massacre, Kent State Shootings, et. al.) occurred. I recall that, as a child, I could not understand what was happening as I looked out our living room window only to see mass confusion and chaos, where young people were overturning cars in the streets... how, all I could question is why I was not allowed outside to play as was my normal daily routine.

There were many questions in that young mind of 38 years ago that went unanswered. What I have since learned is that this single event caused millions of college students to stand in unity against evil aggression which was conducted by our own democratic government despite the vocal opposition by a majority of Americans at the time. This study (standard Political Science 101 topic) caused me to re-assess what I had been taught in primary school... what I had learned about the very foundation of our democracy... how our government is OF, BY and FOR the people... etc.

And, despite the lessons taught me, I know a sadder picture. The theory of democratic government is intoxicating. It approaches Nirvana in its prose. However, reality causes us to sit back and compare theory with practice. Imagine a government OF, BY and FOR "Men"... that was the practice from the Revolutionary War until the Civil War... when a crossroads was reached... was it "White Men" or "All Men?" As a result of that conflict (The American Civil War), it was decided that black men, who had previously been counted as subhuman -- less than a white man (indeed, the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787, resulted in Article I, Section 3, Paragraph 2, of the U.S. Constitution) -- were, at last, equal to white men. (The "Red Man," however, would have to wait another century to be considered equal to either the black or the white man. Women also had to wait for their due "equality" provision to be added to the U.S. Constitution; but not as long a wait as the "Red Skins.")