(I
wrote this piece last year on the Anniversary of the Kent State
Shootings--but it never made it to the Rambling On Blog. It's hard to
believe that a year has passed, let alone 43 of them since I walked into the teacher's lounge at Wauconda Middle School as a first year teacher to hear a colleague proclaim, "those kids got exactly what they deserved. " I shuddered at the time. I shudder as I recall that memory.
As the pundits search for answers to the Boston Marathon tragedy, the shootings in Newtown or Aurora, how often to do they address the glorification of violence that lies deep in the fabric of our own cultural values? A society that continues to support capital punishment and the use of drones against distant villagers; a society that entertains itself with violent video games and countless media heroes with blazing guns, a society where Donald Trump would be seriously considered for the office of President, need not look any further for the answers. -----Brother Lefty )
Originally Published, May 4, 2013
Lest
we forget--or never knew--on this day in 1970 four students at Kent
State University were killed when national guard troops called into
"maintain order" opened fire on the unarmed protestors.
I
hadn't realized the anniversary was today until Jenny, my friend and
Yoga Mentor mentioned it this evening after class. She was amazed that
when she had mentioned to a 40 something year old friend earlier, she
had never heard about Kent State--or Crosby Stills Nash and Young for
that matter!! The true history of the quest for peace and justice--and
the violent reaction to it--is so often lost in the noise and
distractions of daily life in this hyper-capitalistic society today.
It's easy to forget. I did today--twice.
(READ MORE)
