Opinion: Kent State, May 4, 1970, 4 Dead In Ohio

On May 4, 1970 at Kent State in Ohio, four students were shot dead by the Ohio National Guard on the school campus.The above photo is the famous photo by John Milo of the shot dead student Jeffrey Miller. I watched the footage that night on the evening news. I am 65 years old now yet I can remember seeing the puffs of smoke from the soldiers guns as they fired into a crowd of student protesters.

At the time the country was divided in a cultural shift that ended up defining the rest of the 20th century. A county divided is not new in America. The years 1800, 1828, 1860, 1932, 1960, 1968, 2000, and 2016 are huge divisional election years with historical consequences. May 4, 1970 is different because it changed the U.S. government's policy on protesters. The ramifications of the horror parents felt from all political persuasions was enough to change policy. In 1972 I spoke/worked/knew someone whose dad watched the evening news of the shooting that night with President Nixon. He said it shook the president in a profound way, and back then Nixon was more unpopular than the present president is in progressive circles, yet the next day he was forced to advocate a changed U.S. policy about using deadly force on student protesters.

Jeffrey Miller had just turned 20 years old seven days before he died. He was actually from Plainview, Long Island. He graduated from the original Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School — a new one now exists — and is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, NY.

I am sure Jeffrey would have enjoyed visiting Montauk, watching the 1973 Mets, and doing all things many Long Islanders did these last 48 years. I write this to make us all once again remember a 20-year-old Long Island kid who had just transferred from Michigan State University to Kent State on the advice of a friend. A kid who went to protest the news of the illegal war being waged in Cambodia by a government that denied it was happening. Jeffrey died on May 4, 1970 along with his friends Allison Krause and Sandra Scheuer along with William Knox Schroeder. Not too often mentioned are the nine other students who were shot that day with one student left to live the rest of his life paralyzed.

This post is contributed by a community member. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Registered users are welcome to post on Patch.

Photo, public domain by Wikimedia Commons.