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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 3, 2014 - 10:59pm PT
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...where were you?
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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May they rest in peace. . .
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jgill
Boulder climber
Colorado
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Probably bouldering at Horsetooth Reservoir in Colorado.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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OK, I'll be the first to admit it…I had to look it up on Wikipedia.
Vaguely heard of it over the years but thought it was "just another school shooting" as opposed to National Guard (?!?!!).
Yes, before I was born…and I'm not exactly a youngster (I'd probably be a new grandfather in small town Utah…).
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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On a different note, May 4th, 2014 I'm getting married.
I suppose there's a first time for everything you do. Tomorrow will be one for me!
1970, I was 12. In the US, you're green behind the ears at that age (or, at least I was). Not so much in countries riddled by war.
Peace to you all.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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congrats k-man!
I was a sophomore at Claremont High School... it was a pretty terrible day, then 10 days later 2 students were shot and killed at a war protest at Jackson State University by the police.
Sad times.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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I was in Lemoore, CA 332 days old. Soon to move back to the flatlands.
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Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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I was a 7th grader at Kings Canyon Junior High on Tulare Street in Fresno busily gearing up for the Sierra summer – which included an early season trip to East Lake and Lake Reflection. Summer accents with Tehipite Chapter may have included Conness, Dana and Banner. That’s about when I rode my Schwinn 10 speed down to Alpine Sports on Blackstone to buy my North Face Superlight for $77 with money I earned delivering the Fresno Bee all winter. I was aware of the conflict and the incident, but pretty out-of-touch. Not much has probably changed there . . .
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DanaB
climber
CT
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Read a bit about this, still a mystery and no answers as to why the Guard did what it did. There was no risk to the Guardsmen, yet the soldiers were clearly ordered to turn and confront the protestors. But no one in the rank and file or in command was prosecuted and although someone had to know why/how, nobody would or could confess.
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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I was in a Vietnam clinic, after nearly getting blown away on May 3rd. There was a sapper attack at around mid-night and a bag of explosives, loaded with shrapnel landed at my feet. I got about 6 feet away before it detonated. Spent from May to Sept. recovering Stateside.
I was due to leave Vietnam the next morning, but the injury extended my stay in the Army till October. I still feel we made a big mistake in entering that conflict; as well as every war afterwards.
Don't bother to thank me for my service, as the war was NOT justifiable.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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I was moving across country with my family from D.C. back to San Diego, just about to become a 7th grader. Being part of a military family, my default response was to assume the protestors were just a bunch of lazy, long-haired radicals who probably brought it on themselves. At the same time, there was something really unsettling about students being fired on in such an asymmetrical way. It was one of the first of many protests that began dislodging me from just blindly accepting a party line. I seem to remember that My Lai had surfaced not long before that, and these things were game-changers for a lot of people.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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I was probably watching the snow melt in Bethel, AK.
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John Duffield
Mountain climber
New York
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I was a Junior at UCONN and having my best semester ever. The Student Strike kicked in, we all got an "S" or something for grades, it hurt me going into Grad School some years later, after the Army.
Since there were no classes, we had nothing to do but trouble for a couple of weeks until school let out. So we took over the ROTC Hanger, and painted it into a Day Care Center.
I graduated the next year and got drafted. The machine pretty much always wins.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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I was only 12 at the time and gowing up in N. Idaho.
My dad was a prof. at Kent State in the 1950s and my mother a student. In another reality I would have grown up there.
Dad had many friends there, one of whom put his future on the line in expressing outrage. It was a dark time for this country.
Today however, thanks to freedom of the press, every single purp in this incident would be outed and pilloried as a tabloid spectacle. (Like the pepper spray guy a couple years ago.)
Civilized people don't shoot live ammo into unarmed crowds.
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philo
Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
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Hey K-Man, Congratulations you old dog.
I got suspended from school for organizing a "Sit Down" protest about the slaughter at Kent State.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming".
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philo
Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2014 - 11:06am PT
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I was 18 living at home going to Pasadena City College with a 2-S deferment that kept me from being drafted. Ron A. is correct it wasn't cut and dry in 1970, there was still a lot of support for the war. Nixon was in his second year as president and would be reelected in 1972.
The returning war veterans along with students who voiced opposition were still being branded as traitors by a generation that fought in WWII and their children who had yet to learn how to think for themselves. It was a dark time, lots of anger and fear. The only thing that made any sense to me was to go climbing!!!
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markf
Trad climber
Frisco, CO
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I was 13 and going to school on a US military base in Germany. I was aware enough of world events to understand that the US had made a horrible mistake in getting involved in Vietnam, which was not necessarily a popular view to hold in that setting. Some of the comments I heard from military community about the Kent State shootings and the anti-war movement in general back then were pretty sickening, to say the least.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2014 - 11:40am PT
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At least now we have a name for it. It's called Groupthink, recognizing when it's occurring is a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
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