Kent State’s psychic wounds have finally healed : Town-gown relations were scarred by the 1970 shootings. A memorial, and understanding, has replaced bitterness.

It took 25 years, but Kent State University has finally found peace.

The raging bitterness that polarized this community over the tragedy of May 4, 1970--when four students were killed and nine were injured in a hail of bullets fired by Ohio National Guardsmen--has given way to quiet reflectiveness and understanding.

Gone are the vitriolic exchanges between townspeople who contend that the students got what was coming to them and students and faculty who argue that the Guard had no right to be on campus, let alone fire for 13 seconds into a crowd of demonstrators.

After more than two decades of arguing, a consensus will never be reached. But town-gown relations have never been better. Those who long have debated about who was right now say that time has allowed Kent State and the community to view the event in a more sober way, as a collective tragedy.

“What impressed me most for so many years following the shootings was the extent to which people expressed their anger,” said Kathleen Chandler, the mayor of Kent for the past five years. “It seemed no one had balance. No one had perspective.

“There were many people in the community who just hated the students. They felt more of them should have been shot. On the other side were people who felt there was no excuse for the shootings. There was no middle ground. None at all. At last, most of us are remembering the tragedy with great sadness, but also with a sense of its place in history.”

In place of acrimony, there is the quiet memorial erected in 1990, a 70-foot-wide plaza of black granite on a hillside next to the parking lot where the students were shot. And there are the 58,175 daffodils on a nearby hillside--one for each American who died during the war--that have multiplied since they were planted five years ago.

So when the bell on the school’s commons rings at 12:24 p.m. today to mark the moment of the shootings, many in Kent and Kent State University will be able to say their war is over.

“It’s ironic that in a historical sense, May 4 is gaining much more importance,” said Jerry M. Lewis, a professor of sociology at the school for 29 years and an eyewitness to the shootings. “You would think that kind of added significance would increase the level of contentiousness, but that’s not happening. The bitterness is no longer there.”

What was never in dispute was that four students--Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder--were shot and killed by National Guardsmen. Nine other students were wounded, including one who was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The shootings came after a weekend of increasingly violent protests over President Richard Nixon’s announcement that he was expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia, a move the students vehemently opposed.

Windows were broken in downtown shops. A sit-in blocked a major roadway. And when the campus ROTC building was torched on May 2, the National Guard was called in to quell the disturbances.

Two days later, a protest was called for noon in the heart of the rolling campus of towering maple trees. The protest was not about the Vietnam War but, as the chant went, getting the “Guard off campus.” When the student demonstrators failed to disperse, the Guard moved in.

Lewis said the construction of the memorial five years ago has helped ease the emotional sting of May 4. Also, the passage of time has allowed people from both sides of the issue to look at the facts more coherently.

“I think we’ve succeeded in educating the community,” said Lewis, who taught a class on the shootings for many years. “I think people now realize that the kids who were out there that day were not all a bunch of drug-crazed, rock-throwing monsters. The days of the ‘knee-jerk Commie’ stereotype are over.”

Recent statements by former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara that the Vietnam War was a mistake and this week’s 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon have brought more attention than usual to the commemoration of the Kent State shootings, which many here still consider the turning point of the war.

The university, in conjunction with the student-run May 4th Task Force, has assembled a week’s worth of programs and speakers to memorialize the event, including a candlelight procession and an appearance by Mary Ann Vecchio, who kneels in horror over a body in the most famous photo of the shootings. The theme of the commemoration is “In the Footsteps of History, We March With Them.”

Earlier this week, Sarah Brady, wife of former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, spoke along with former U.S. Sens. George S. McGovern and Eugene J. McCarthy on the legacy of the Kent State shootings. Peter, Paul and Mary are scheduled to perform this evening.

There also will be a repetition of the events traditionally used to commemorate the shootings, such as overnight candlelight vigils held in the parking lot where the students were slain. But some wonder how many more such events will be held in the future.

Angi Semler, editor of the university’s newspaper, the Daily Kent Stater, said students, like townspeople, now are saying “enough.”

“The main thing we hear from students is that it’s a shame that the shootings happened,” said Semler, a senior. “People want to commemorate it and view it as a tragedy, but I think a majority of the students wish there wouldn’t be such emphasis placed on it.”