Kent State
“Kent State Shooting Shattered a Generation” (Dec. 4) once again omitted a couple details that I remember. I lived for 30 years in Stow, Ohio (the next community west of Kent). I saved copies of the Akron Beacon Journal until they turned yellow.
No one seems to remember that for three days, protesters were destroying businesses in downtown Kent and burned the ROTC building. Kent was not that large a town and local authorities appealed to the governor. He sent in the National Guard, young men with live ammo, which was not too bright. At least 20 of those rioters arrested were transfers from California (Berkeley).
Sadly, the next fall, Kent State’s enrollment dropped by the thousands. It was and probably still is a very nice campus and university.
Peaceful protest is quite different from rioting and destroying merchants’ livelihoods.
ANN WRINKLE
Exeter, Calif.
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