Editor’s Note: The family of Allison Krause seeks and supports the creation of Four Days In May, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, a collaborative, multimedia, sharing event to dialog, document, discover and uncover the truth in the events leading to the killing of four students and wounding of nine at the Kent State Massacre.
MendoCoastCurrent, October 3, 2009 & December 14, 2009
Allison dying at Kent State
On May 4, 1970, 67 bullets were fired at protesting anti-Viet Nam war students on the Kent State University campus. The 13-second discharge of the Ohio National Guard weapons devastatingly concluded four days of protests with the death of four and wounding of nine young American students.
In courtrooms over the next 10 years, all the way to the US Supreme Court and back, National Guardsmen and Ohio government officials testified the guardsmen marched away from the protesting Kent State students, up a hill, then turned in unison, to discharge M-1 rifles into unarmed, protesting students, many over a football field away — all claiming it occurred without an ‘order to shoot.’
It is believed, yet obviously still-to-be-proven, that an ‘order to shoot’ was indeed given at Kent State. Common sense and physics alone support this.
This past May 4, 2009, Laurel Krause spoke for her sister, slain student Allison Krause (read her talk here: http://bit.ly/32U7gK). She concluded, “Triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State.” Allison’s family continues to search for the truth about the killings at Kent State.
With the 40th memorial approaching quickly, the Krause family is wishing to work with others to create a tribunal over the first four days in May at the Kent State University campus to uncover the facts about what occurred forty years earlier.
We are now launching ‘Four Days in May, the Kent State Truth Tribunal’ to discover, uncover and examine what really happened and to learn the REAL TRUTHS that occurred on those four days in American history. Let’s explore through art, music, video interviews, poetry, enactments, rituals and discussions.
We see this as appropriate BOOKENDS to the event. When we uncover the final, long-sought-after truths of what occurred those Four Days in May so long ago…the truth shall set us free, history shall be corrected from hence day forth and we will share in this beautiful healing!
Won’t you please join us by helping to uncover the truth at Kent State at the 40th?
Thank you for bringing this vital information to our attention.
Thank you for publicizing this. We must never forget that YES our government does kill its own citizens. We must find the truth and make them pay.
Oh wow. Thank you Laurel.
I was part of the generation of anti-war protesters in the 60s & 70s that experienced the agony of the Kent State Massacre. It was at that point in time when the peaceful demonstrations approach was not producing the desired results–an end to the war & draft. Both the government and a certain demoralized wing in the anti-war movement turned to violence.
The government mowed down black students at a southern university a few months later, going largely unnoticed. The Symbionese Liberation Army, Stanford bombings, Weather Underground, Patty Hearst kidnapping–all reflected the demoralization that set in after 5 years of massive peace rallies and marches hadn’t ended the carnage. Kent State was the first sign of government rage against the student led anti-war movement that would eventually prevail and end the war. The draft was ending around that time to try to dampen the fervor of anti-war forces, fueled by the draft.
The order to shoot on the tape is the key to Kent State truth, similar to the vital role of modern videos that expose truths, such as the racist Rodney King beating by LA police. One day there will be a statue in tribute to “4 Dead in Ohio”.
(continued from previous post)
While students were burning their draft cards to protest the war, the Vietnamese Buddhists’ answer to escalating US violence was self-immolation–setting themselves on fire in a public square as a message to the world to stop.
Individual life was less important than the lives of the whole Vietnamese people. Their culture, being collective, moved in a circular direction, unbroken through centuries of war. There was a strength there that prevailed against the mightiest of adversaries and finally won their country back.
The last shall be first and the first last.
Every time i come here I am not disappointed, nice post!
Greetings from Tim. :)
Thanks for the powerful post, Laurel. I hope that people will be open-minded enough to listen to the truth.