Kent State :: essays research papers

Thirty Years Later- Kent State Thirty years later, just after noon, the Victory Bell again rings through the green grass of Kent State University's Commons. The bell rings twenty-seven times; one toll for each of the four students killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard May 4, 1970, and 14 times in solidarity for the two students murdered and twelve wounded by Mississippi Highway Patrol at Jackson State University May 15, 1970 Kent 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-five years, 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 backbone 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 promote activism and educate others." This year, the Task Force brought some of America s most prominent leaders of social and political change to embody all facets of the current movement. These speakers include; the American Indian Movement's Vernon Bellecourt, environmental and social justice advocate Julia Butterfly Hill, Phi ladelphia's MOVE member Ramona Africa, Global Exchange's 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 year's Commemoration reflects the unification of the current national movement. "So many movements are represented here today, the American Indian Movement, the environmental movement, anti-globalization, the MOVE organization. It's 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 wide 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 growing aware that these differences need not separate us from accomplishing our tasks.