Murder

It's kind of a long time ago now. Almost exactly thirty-seven years, yet I, and probably millions of my contemporaries, remember it clearly. It's the Vietnam War, millions of young people, mostly students, are demonstrating against the war all over the country, and on one campus, a small state school in Ohio, four students are gunned down by the Ohio National Guard. Killed. Nine others are wounded.

If you were alive at the time it's hard to ever forget this photo.

I, and most of the people I associated with politically, considered this murder, not the panicked reaction of some inexperienced weekend warriors, but that was the story that was given out. That or that it was justifiable self-defense.

We didn't have YouTube then, and public events were not as well documented as they are now, but it turns out there is audio tape of the shootings at the archives at Yale, and you know what it says? "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"

I guess we're not as bad off now, because our government isn't gunning antiwar protesters down on the street. Still, people need to remember this.