"David Crosby cried when we finished this take," Young said in his liner notes for the Decade retrospective, adding that the Kent State incident was "probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning".

I too remember it like it was yesterday. Made me shed tears all over again, Thanks.

I cried also the first time I heard this song. Young captured the moment perfectly.

I was in 10th grade and very politically active.

One of the defining moments in my life……and still our government thinks lives are cheap and murders without consequence.

Peace ☮️

And much more so now.

I'm certainly familiar with the song so I started watching the chorale video just to get taste of their version. But when I went to pause it, I stopped myself, as though it were something sacred. I think it is.

Decades Later, No Justice for Kent State Killings

by Laurel Krausese
Kent State Truth Tribunal, March 7, 2014

On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired between 61 and 67 shots into a crowd of unarmed anti-war protestors at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. My 19-year-old sister, Allison Krause, was one of four students shot to death by the Ohio National Guard in the parking lot of her university campus as she protested the Vietnam War. I was 15 years old at the time.

It has been 44 years, and the U.S. government still refuses to admit that it participated in the killing of four young students at Kent State. There has not been a credible, independent, impartial investigation into Kent State. No group or individual has been held accountable. In 2010, after undeniable forensic evidence emerged pointing to direct U.S. government involvement in the killings, Emily Kunstler and I founded the Kent State Truth Tribunal (KSTT). Our hope was to finally receive a full account of the tragic events and to see that the victims and their families receive redress. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice refused to reopen the case, claiming there were “insurmountable legal and evidentiary barriers."

Snip...

The Kent State precedent has cast a shadow over our democracy for over 40 years. If Kent State remains a glaring example of government impunity, it sends a message that protestors can be killed by the state for expressing their political beliefs. This lack of accountability and hostility towards peaceful expression flies in the face not only of our Constitution, but also our international human rights commitments.

Continues to the present day...

Source: https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/decades-later-no-justice-kent-state-killings

A few years after the massacre, I wrote my own song about it (sung to the tune of "The Caissons Go Rolling Along"):

In a fight, on a hill,
We will shoot them all to kill,
And the Guardsmen go shooting along.

Fire at will, use live shells,
We will shoot them all to hell,
And the Guardsmen go shooting along.

And it's hi-hi-hoo, let's all get one or two,
Count off your victims loud and strong!
One-two-three-four!

We will blow our cool when we hit another school,
And the Guardsmen go shooting along!

I f*cking HATE Nixon.

I feel same way about Nixon, who kept Vietnam a go-go for Wall Street.



I like the one with the carburetor hole in the middle of Tricky's forehead.