A friend and I were talking about the 1960s — not the ten years on the calendar, but the era of social and political upheaval. The sixties began, I declared, not on January 1, 1960, but on November 22, 1963, when John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas.

We argued about that a little, and considered a few earlier dates, but there’s no denying that Kennedy’s assassination changed the way we thought about ourselves. So we moved on to the question, when did the sixties end?

December 14, 1972, the last time a man walked on the moon? August 9, 1974, the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency?

I proposed May 4, 1970, when National Guardsmen fired a 13-second volley of gunfire into a crowd of student anti-war protesters at Kent State University, hitting thirteen students and killing four of them. The closest of the students killed was 265 feet from the gunmen.

Richard Nixon and Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes each put on a sad face, and each blamed the deaths on anti-war protesters themselves. Campus activism against the war — or about much of anything else — never again reached the same levels. Nixon remained as president for four more years. Rhodes served another eight years as governor. The Vietnam War continued for five more years and claimed thousands more lives.

For me, the Kent State killings changed the way I thought about everything. Every year on this date, I try to take a moment to remember those who were killed for speaking up against war here in the Land of the Free.

Allison Krause
Jeffrey Miller
Sandra Scheuer
William Schroeder

Freedom isn’t free.