Kent State :: essays research papers

Thirty Years Later- Kent StateThirty years later, just after noon, the Victory Bell over again rings through the green grass of Kent State Universitys Commons. The bell rings twenty-seven times one toll for each of the four scholarly persons killed andnine maimed by the Ohio National Guard May 4, 1970, and 14 times in solidarity for the two disciples murdered and twelve wounded by Mississippi Highway guard at Jackson State University May 15, 1970Kent State University officials stopped holding Commemoration ceremonies in 1975, but dedicated students have kept the ideals represented by the Kent State shootings alive. For the past twenty-fiveyears, the students of the May 4th Task Force have organized the annual May 4th Commemoration ceremonies, bringing such speakers as Jane Fonda, William Kuntzler, Dr. Hellen Caldicot and performers including Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Co-chair of the May 4th Task Force from 1995-98, and still considered the ba ckbone of the organization by many students, Kent State senior Wendy Semon believes that continued student activism is the true remembrance of May 4, 1970. "The living legacy of those four students is activism," Semon states. "The only appropriate way students of today can keep that legacy alive is to labor activism and educate others." This year, the Task Force brought some of America s most prominent leaders of social and governmental change to embody all facets of the stream movement. These speakers include the American Indian Movements Vernon Bellecourt, environmental and social justice advocate Julia Butterfly Hill, Philadelphias MOVE member Ramona Africa, Global Exchanges Julliette Beck, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and world-renowned political theorist Noam Chomsky.Kent State junior Jeff Ritter, and current co-chair of the May 4th Task Force feels that this years Commemoration reflects the unification of the current national movement. "So many move ments be represented here today, the American Indian Movement, the environmental movement, anti-globalization, the MOVE organization. Its a real symbol of solidarity, of all the things that are going on today."Kent graduate student Kabir Syed, a ten-year member of the May 4th Task Force sees the Commemoration as a place for political activists to gather and connect with one another. "The spacious variety of issues speaks to the growth of the social-political movement which exists in the U.S. We see a range, and yet, an integration of ideology here today. Though there are differences between us, we are ripening aware that these differences need not separate us from accomplishing our tasks.