MURDER MOST INEVITABLE
A Brief Rough Draft of Yet Another Dark Moment in American History
In the wake of yesterday’s ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good, Fordham University Professor of History Mark Naison and others made comparisons to the Kent State Massacre in May 1970. Four students peacefully protesting against the invasion of Cambodia, an escalation of the Vietnam War, were gunned down by National Guard troops deployed to the campus of Kent State University in Ohio.
I’m not sure the analogy holds entirely.
For one thing Kent State came after half a decade of civil unrest around the country over Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. A couple of No Kings Saturday outings don’t really compare.
But in one way the analogy does hold: There was an inevitability to the events at Kent State. The deployment of the National Guard to the campus occurred against a background of bloodlust rhetoric of Nixon administration officials and Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes and the commanding officer of the Ohio National Guard. The poisoned atmosphere gave the troops “pre-clearance” to use indiscriminate violence against peaceful protestors. Killing some was pretty much guaranteed.
Today, the Trump regime and its propaganda wing Fox et al pump out lies and hate 1000 times worse than anything that existed in 1970. Murder was pretty much guaranteed from the day MAGA resumed power and sent ICE on its snatch squad missions. When the National Guard was added to the mix I did think of Kent State, but they have been forced to stand down by the courts. So ICE did yesterday’s killing.
To go back to the Kent State analogy: within 5 days of the murders a mass demonstration was organized in Washington. Official head count was 75,000. I was there and can assure you it was more like 125K. There was no internet back then, it was organized by phone via well established networks of anti-War activity.
An equivalent gathering today would see a million people descend on Washington this coming weekend. Not sure the networks exist to make it happen even with our superduper communications tools. We’ve all been spending far too much time on social media the last decade, scaring each other to death, offending potential allies with purity tests and ritual denunciations, rather than building a rapid-response capability to confront the fascist minority destroying not just our government but our entire society.
In one other way I hope the analogy doesn’t hold. After Kent State, and more killings a few weeks later at Jackson State University, a historically Black university in Mississippi, a fear slowly worked its way into the subconscious — they will kill you. Students went out on strike over Cambodia, two years later when Nixon chose Christmas to escalate again by bombing Hanoi nothing happened. When the US helped overthrow the government of Salvador Allende in Chile, nothing. And so it has been. Marching has been ritualized but it does not represent a movement of sustained pressure.
Perhaps yesterday’s events might lead to more concerted action. Between last weekend’s assault on Venezuela and yesterday’s murder — and the other murders that seem likely to follow if ICE continues to operate as it is — November 3rd’s midterm elections may be too far away to make much difference.
Full story of Kent State and its effect on those who were there and in Washington after is in this documentary I made for the BBC to mark the 50th anniversary of the event.
If you’ve never listened please do. If you have listened share it with someone under 30, so they know what they’re up against.
On the mark as always.
I wrote a long reply! Did I lose it? Rats! Anyway, I agreed with you, but it was full of felicities, ironies, other wonders I can’t think of now - going to be a big news night - we still get PBS news hour but for how long? this seemed even uglier than Kent State, more sadistic - take care, be careful Michael!