May 4, 1970 was the date of the Kent State massacre. I was a senior at Euclid High School. I know people who went to school at Kent State and had been there several times. I’ll always remember how small the dorm rooms were. It felt like the college campus shootings happened right down the street.
My parents had kicked me out of the house when they found out I had enlisted in the Marines. My friends and I had watched the draft lottery and I knew I had a good chance of being drafted into the Army and twelve weeks later, fighting in the Vietnam war. For a seventeen year old kid, being conscripted into the military along with all the other difficulties associated with being a teenage high school senior was a confusing and troubled time.
My parents, as usual, offered me no advice or assistance during this difficult time. I had managed to secure a scholarship from nearby Cleveland State University because of my swimming ability and decent grades. After the draft lottery, I made the decision to join the Marines. My seventeen year old mind figured if I was going to go to war, I wanted to be with guys that could fight. The Athletic Director from CSU wanted to get me to try for an exemption, but the government was cutting back on exemptions, so I decided to enlist. My parents were not interested, nor involved, in any of this.
I had to have my parent sign papers to enlist in the Marines because I was only seventeen years old. When I presented the papers to them, they went ballistic. They were outraged that I had earned a college scholarship and doubly outraged that I enlisted in the Marines. They were mad because I had done these things on my own, without them being involved. Because I had done something they could not claim was their decision and that I had made a decision on my own behalf, they kicked me out of the house.
My friends were getting ready to graduate from high school, planning for graduation and the senior prom, I was living in my friend’s garages. For me, there would be no senior prom, no graduation, no high school sweethearts. I missed all that. When the time came, a friend drove me to the airport and I left my childhood behind, returning only for short visits. While I was in the service, my parents never wrote me a letter or sent a Christmas card.
I graduated boot camp and was sent to MCRD San Diego as my first duty station. My company was required to undergo “riot training” with shields and batons, presumably to be deployed to anti war riots in the San Diego area. With Kent State fresh in my mind, I requested to speak to the Commanding Officer. I explained my position related to the Kent State massacre and told him that I did not join the Marines to beat up innocent American civilians. He told me that I would have to obey orders or suffer court martial. He also told me that just about every enlisted man and non commissioned officer in the company had been in his office telling him the same thing. He said the odds of the Marines being placed on riot duty on the streets of San Diego were slim and that there were legal questions. Thankfully, we never had riot control duty.
In my opinion as a first hand participant, I believe it was the Vietnam war and the way the American government handled it and the American citizens who opposed the war, that split America into two distinct groups. This division was lurking beneath everyday life in America, and as time went on, politicians cultivated this division for their own benefit until Donald Trump, a Vietnam era draft dodger, came along to specifically advocate division and violence between Americans, based solely on partisan politics.
Now, May 4, 2024, America has had one attempt to overthrow the government and the country is as divided as it has ever been. Trust in anything or anybody, especially the government, is nearly non-existent. The country is on the verge of failed elections and very possibly civil unrest or even civil war. America is dead set on repeating the mistakes it has made in the past. May 4, 1970, four innocent people were murdered by the government. On May 4, 2025, what will the death toll be?