Forty years ago today was the tragedy at Kent State University. It's hard to believe the country was so horribly divided over the Viet Nam conflict. I remember sitting in front of the television watching the draft lottery, praying that my friends' numbers would not be high in priority. I also remember watching as the POWs came off the plane, including Jeffrey Singleton, whose wife had taken a class with me at Richland College. He had been a prisoner of war for 5 years when I met her.
One of the sad things about Kent State that spring was that some of the National Guardsmen who had been sent to the university were the same age as the students who were protesting. They probably were sympathetic to the students, but our members of the military had been treated horribly by the citizens of this country. Young men coming home from military duty were spat on and jeered as they arrived back in the US. It was a confusing and frightening time.
I wonder if today's college students would be as politically active as the students in 1970. Most seem unaware of events in the world today, in spite of being electronically connected to news medias through their cell phones, laptops, and cable television. Are they just more self-absorbed than we were in 1970? Or have we bombarded them with so many horrible events in the world that they've opted to tune them out? I wonder if we'll ever see them "tune in" as we did in the 60s and 70s.
0 comments:
Post a Comment