We will never forget

Every spring, every May, we citizens of Kent remember the horrible events of 1970 when National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State students and wounded nine others. I attended Kent State just five years after the shootings took place and emotions were still very raw even then. It was at a program put on by wounded students Alan Canfora and Dean Kahler while I was still a KSU student that I met those two and have remained friends ever since. I came to realize that those who died and were wounded were but the age that I was at that time. That thought really struck me, because when I was 13, the age I was at the time that the shootings took place, I remember thinking that those students were so much older than I was, when in fact, they were only a few years older than me. By the time I had reached their age, I realized that I was indeed very young and still had a lot of living yet to do. For those of us who are Kent State alums, and for those of us who are also lifelong Kent natives, we have had to spend most of our lives identifying our alma mater and hometown as that place where the students were shot. People will ask, when I travel, where I am from, and of course I say, "Kent". They usually hear me wrong and say, "Oh, Canton?" And I have to correct them and say, "No, Kent....as in, Kent State, you know?" In the years right after the shootings when I was a college student and doing some travel in my spare time, I would always experience that moment as a very awkward one when I would say, "Kent, as in, Kent State, blah, blah, blah....." explaining away what we're known for. I hated that whole idea of having to use such a terrible event as the thing for which my hometown is best known, and I still do dislike having to use that as my identifying factor for my hometown. But it's history and we have to acknowledge that much as something that happened here from which we can never escape. It's our burden to be the ones to tell the stories of how it affected us and continues to do so today. We are the bearers of living memory of what it was like to live through that time. Our stories matter. We must continue to tell them so that others will remember, too. It's our responsibility, as tough as that is to bear as a burden, but that is what it means to be someone who lived through those dark days. We must never forget and we must urge others never to forget, either. Fortunately, Kent State just opened its new "May 4 Visitor Center" on the lower floor, north side of Taylor Hall in the former Daily Kent Stater newsroom that overlooks the Commons where the events of May 4 began. It is the living memory for people who want to know. My only beef is that it asks visitors to "Inquire. Learn. Reflect", to which I would add, "Act", as in, "Do Something". What good does it do to think about the events of what happened and not act on preventing another such event from ever happening again? We must not only remember, but act, do, be the change. Otherwise, it's all in vain if we don't work for real, lasting change and justice and equity for all people. That should be what we strive toward every single day. Remember. And act to change this world for the better. Stop oppression where it exists and where our freedoms are threatened by laws and commonly accepted practices that violate our Constitution. This is what May 4 is all about, and we must never forget the lessons that it imparts even in our own time.