Lest We Forget

May 4, 1970 dawned in Lexington, Kentucky just like so many others. It was a turbulent time with the nation at war but the military draft brought the consequences of war closer to home. The campus at the University of Kentucky had never quite bought in to the wholesale protests of the war in Vietnam and campus activities ambled along much as always. Efforts by some activists to engage the students in the protests that had gone on nationally had not met with much success.

Then in a place only a few hundred miles from the UK campus at a small university in Kent, Ohio a campus demonstration had caused the governor to call out the National Guard to quell the protests. The protests were due to a decision and announcement by President Richard Nixon to escalate the war in Vietnam to bombing in neighboring Cambodia after running on a platform to end the war. It was a pretty virulent protest as those things went with some stones thrown and epithets hurled. Then a small group of the Guard knelt down and began to fire into the crowd killing four students and injuring nine more. By nightfall the rumblings of insurrection were being felt around the 

By the next day even the staid UK campus was ablaze with anger at the killings and the mere idea that an arm of the United States government would actually kill students who were protesting what they perceived to be an egregious escalation of the conflict. At first a small group were present at the protest but it steadily grew as sentiment rose to a fever pitch. President Otis Singletary brought the campus police to control the crowd but it soon was evident that more would be needed. City police were brought in to assist and finally Governor Nunn was requested to activate National Guard to help and that just fanned the flames bringing to mind the actions in Ohio the day before.

I had already been called up for my draft physical in December of 1968 and had failed the physical exam. At this time I was living with a friend who was avoiding active service by serving in the National Guard. It was more than ironic to find the two of us on campus in the evening, each one of us on a different side of a hastily erected barrier. The fact is that in Lexington, at least from my perspective, the National Guard did not represent the opposing side any more than the soldiers who were drafted did. Most of them were of a similar sentiment as the rest of us but they had a duty to perform.

The intervening years have erased some of the details but I do recall that someone torched the Air Force ROTC building which was made of wood and it went up like a box of tinder. The culprit was never identified. President Singletary and Governor Nunn were frantic to avoid any further escalation and were apparently open to anything to do so. The University called off classes for the remainder of the semester and ordered students off the campus and that did the trick.

The killings at Kent State had sparked off a national debate over the war in Vietnam and it seemed to polarize sentiment and raise public awareness. People who up until then had managed to avoid taking a position on the war finally came down one way or the other. The event convinced some that change was not going to come peacefully and led to the creation of some underground groups that advocated violence to press the point if necessary. They were few but very vocal and effective.

I think that what one can take from that episode in our history, especially in this turbulent moment, is that there are times when peaceful protest falls on deaf ears and violence causes people to wake up and ask what is going on. We shouldn't be surprised since our country has a long history of violent uprisings. Indeed, we were founded out of one. If we as a people were patriotic enough to consider the well being of all citizens as much as we do ourselves violence would never be necessary. It is regrettable but sometimes it is.