Kent State Revisited

It’s been 35 years to the day since the infamous moment in Kent State and our nation’s history when student protestors were gunned down. The picture of a girl screaming over her dead schoolmate galvanized a nation of protestors and remains to this day a picture of the horror caused by a nation at odds with itself.

The word used for the Ohio guardsmen who did the shooting, at least in one report of the events, is “ill trained.”

It’s the same problem Italians point to in their report on the accidental March 4th shooting of Nicola Calipari in Baghdad.

As it was the issue in Somalia yesterday when a security guard reportedly dropped his grenade launcher, setting off a grenade and killing at least 8 during a speech from the prime minister.

And it was the problem in Abu Ghraib, so aptly described by Bob Herbert.

When does it end? When do we stop handing people guns and power? How about when we recognize the mental effect holding a weapon has on anyone—particularly those who are young.

If we had wanted to improve our image in the world, convince radical movements that the United States is not the enemy, we shouldn’t have reached out for a handshake with a hand holding a gun.