An Anniversary Without Significance to Most Here

Today is an anniversary which unfortunately has no significance for most of us.
Today marks the 40 year anniversary of Kent State, a watershed moment in current American governance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

Few of the ladies, and maybe only half of the men were even alive, much less remember the day. Which is too bad as Kent State is a watershed moment in current American governance. And some hold it's the day the Vietnam Conflict ended for middle America.

Fortunately it's been a long time since there have been armed troops stationed in front of Federal buildings or bivouacked in the basement. The tragic misunderstanding of military men and women has turned into their deserved respect.

On a side note the American drive for getting down to business and wrapping up agreements made for an interesting juxtaposition.
When we arrived for the Paris Peace talks the American delegation reserved hotel rooms by the week. The North Vietnamese rented a villa for the year.
The talks ran from 1968 until January 1973.

I remember it well, and I have visited the Kent State campus many times and walked on the grounds where it took place.

This famous photo by a Kent State undergraduate won a Pultizer Prize. The students all looked dazed because they were quite far away from the action and everybody thought the guardsmen were firing blanks.

Four dead in Ohio.......Who can forget a day like that? Hopefully, we learned something from that ominus day in history. (Do they even teach kids about that day?)