Massacre at Kent State University

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Massacre at Kent State University

I was only nine years old. Pretty much in my own little world. But this event was so powerful that I was bewildered by it. I’m still bewildered after forty years

When I was nine the world consisted of home, school and church. I thought I was safe. Then four students were shot and killed while at school. This was an invasion into my safe little world. It was not an enemy attack from outside the USA. It happened on our own soil by our own troops.

President Nixon’s Commission on Campus Unrest deemed the massacre as “unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable”. This triggered strikes across the nation and many schools and university were forced to close.

Did we learn anything from this? How can we learn from something so stupid as shooting students? We go to school to learn, not to die. We join the military to protect this right. We go into government to preserve our way of life. There are some now that think we are repeating history because our society is not following a path worthy of the ideals set down by our forefathers. These are speculations for others not me.

I just want you to remember a sad moment. This is something that our country brought onto itself, it could be considered by some as far worse than what happened on 9 11. My opinion is that it was just as bad. Both were caused by people that refused to understand. I do not understand either incident, but I can see that our country learned from the mistake at Kent University. I have not seen anyone learning from 9 11. All the more reason to never forget an attack on University grounds.