Kent State Massacre

On May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by police during a demonstration against the Vietnam War. This picture depicts a student distraught over another student's untimely death at the hands of police who fired on peaceful demonstrators, and while it may seem that deaths at protests may be a common occurrence, the deaths of these students would change how America saw the movement against the Vietnam War and on a larger scale, peaceful protests.

Despite not living through the event, this picture utterly shocks me, how could such an event occur at a peaceful protest. It is hard to imagine the feelings of the parents whose children were in college when this picture appeared on the news. One cannot even begin to gauge the feelings of the students whose friends and classmates were killed when we see college protest as an integral part of the college experience while these students did not get the chance to exercise that right to support a cause trying to save young lives. When looking at the picture directly, it makes me wonder: where is that woman now, has she dealt with the grief she experienced on that horrible spring day? Can she ever forgive a system that murdered her friend before her eyes?

The picture seems to be a snapshot of time, a time when our democratic ideals of freedom of assembly and speech were questioned to maintain safety while four students, who were not planning to die, did die. It makes me wonder about current university protests, but also protests in general. Could this ever happen again?