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LYDIA COUTRE, KentNewsNet, November 3, 2009
Last night, Ron Snyder became the first Kent State National Guardsman to speak in a public forum at Kent State University about what happened on May 4, 1970.
Snyder, along with four other panelists, discussed the May 4th shooting at the Kent State University Kiva organized by the May 4th Task Force.
“The situation isn’t the same as it was in 1970,” said Alan Canfora, who was wounded by a National Guardsman on May 4th. “The antagonisms are gone. There’s still the need for the truth.”
“There’s a need for talking, for healing and for dialogue, and as a result I have no real antagonism toward (Snyder). I respect him. I think he has great courage coming here tonight,” Canfora said.
The panelists included Ron Snyder; Alan Canfora; Tim Moore, a Kent State freshman in 1970 and now associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Laura Davis, who witnessed the shooting and is now a professor of English; and Vietnam veteran Tom Saw.
Snyder, who fired no shots on May 4th, noted that the National Guardsmen were called to the campus and didn’t go there on their own, which he said some have misunderstood. He also said that by bringing the National Guard to campus, politicians are also partially responsible. “This is one of the problems with sending military personnel to deal with civil service,” Snyder said. “Before you send military to handle civilian protests, you really need to put the politicians’ feet to the fire, as the expression goes, because once they start the ball rolling, they don’t have any control over it.”
Moore said he appreciated Snyder coming to share his point of view. “I really feel that anyone in the military is for the most part going to follow the orders of the commander,” he said. “And so I hold no malice toward anyone in the National Guard. I’m glad that we’re finally getting his point of view because we need to know that.”
Learning more about different perspectives was the driving force behind the forum. The details of the Kent State Massacre are still greatly surrounded by mystery, Davis pointed out. “Ask questions. Continue to look for answers,” she said. “It’s still very much an unfinished story.”
Canfora encouraged the undertaking of an organized effort to uncover truths about the shooting. “One thing we’d like to see at Kent, whether it’s through a Truth Commission sponsored by the government or the community, would be to have the guardsmen and the students and all the eyewitnesses come together to testify about what happened,” he said. “Not for the purpose of jailing the guardsmen or punishing them at this late date, but just for the sake of the truth for the families of the dead and for the sake of history.”
I was surprised that no one at Kent asked Snyder to apologize for fabricating a story that he confiscated a gun from the dead body of Jeff Miller. Snyder told this story to the Ohio Highway Patrol and to reporters for the Akron Beacon Journal, even though Snyder lated admitted there was no gun and that the gun he produced for the Highway Patrol came from his own desk. The only reason he came clean was because he was subpoenaed a federal grand jury and it became clear he could be indicted for perjury.
There is also a silly claim in the article about asking for a “truth commission” to get to the bottom of the Kent State shootings. There is no such thing as a “truth commission.” This is utter nonsense. There are only grand juries and Congressional investigations. And no instrument of government is going to reopen a 40-year-old case without there being a major breakthrough or compelling new evidence against the National Guard. As Laurel’s father pointed out, going against the Guard is like going against motherhood and apple pie. If there was, as many of us suspect, an order to fire, it would only come to light if a Guardsman tried to peddle that story or if an investigative reporter elicited a startling admission from a Guardsman. Investigative reporting is practically dead today, and there is hardly anyone left in Ohio who would revisit the killings.
Bill Gordon is overlooking the infamous order to shoot on the tape–that is the key evidence. Certainly cowardice in journalism is the norm but surprising moments of truth can come out in the course of pushing back. Even though a government commission is unlikely, a community truth commission is doable; in fact that is what they are in essence organizing. At the grassroots level, you don’t have to wait for the government’s permission to act.
Stay on it. Outreach from the heart. You’re doing a good thing.
Great point about Snyder’s fabrication of the gun confiscation. pt
Dear Pebbles, I am not overlooking “the infamous order to shoot on the tape.” A few days after Alan Canfora made this accusation I wrote an op-ed article for the Akron Beacon Journal (www.nrbooks.com/kent-state-hoax-editorial.html) dismissing it as a hoax and a complete fraud. I knew it was a hoax the minute I read on Canfora’s web site that the order to fire consisted of the words “Right here. Get set. Point. Fire.” I have reviewed all the eyewitness statements, including the many hundreds obtained by the FBI, and not a single witness reported hearing anything close to these words. Not only that, but several former Guardsmen and others who have served in the military say that does not remotely resemble an order a military officer would give.
I am also not the least bit impressed with Canfora’s claim, which, after all, comes from what the New York Times described as a 5th generation copy of the original. Plus there is the fact that Canfora will say or do anything to keep himself in the headlines. He is someone with no compunction whatsoever about lying under oath, and he will do or say anything to keep May 4 going. He will even fabricate accusations out of whole cloth, as he did when he claims on his web site I was thrown out of family legal meetings I never attended.
As for a “community” truth commission: it still would not have the power to subpoena witnesses, grant immunity, or compel testimony. You cannot force people who lied 35 years ago to come clean now, unless they are scared out of their minds they will go to jail or are financially compensated, because otherwise they would have absolutely nothing to gain. If a Guardsman wanted to clear a guilty conscience, he would probably try to get a book published. And he will find that no commercial publisher would revisit May 4 unless this Guardsman made some sensational admissions or alleged another Guardsman started the shootings.
If I were Laurie, I would be less concerned about a new investigation and more concerned about how Kent State is trying to rewrite history. 40 years later, the university still refuses to acknowledge there were issues of accountability, due process, equal justice, or that the central questions of May 4 (Why did it happen?) existed at all. In throwing all the central issues down a memory hole, Kent State has consistently harmed the interests of the families of those killed. I expect it to do it again with its proposed visitors center. The university wants to showcase works of art, even thought the killings did not inspire one memorable painting or other work of art. I have never met anyone on the faculty who has a real grip or a handle on what May 4 was all about.
Dear Bill,
Your comments are not shared by me or the Krause family. Also, we do not support your views on Alan Canfora, the tape or really anything in your comments here.
The Krause family and our supporters do not wish to create a new investigation or support any legal rehashing related to the Kent State Massacre.
Our 2010 goal is simple: At the 40th anniversary, there will be “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.
We wish to enable a sharing, healing and optimum opportunity for the truth about the Kent State Massacre to finally be made known by actual participants, interested/knowledgeable persons and all others who care!
I’d like to see and hear your positive contribution here…stop the slander!