Four Dead in Ohio: It Could Have Been Me

May 4, 1970    Four Dead in Ohio, song by Neil Young. Here is the background history of the song.

It could have been me. song by Holly Near.

 In retrospect, my mother didn’t let me go to the big protest for a war moratorium in DC in October, 1969, but I doubt that it was our government that she was afraid of

Here is NBC Nightly News, Huntley-Brinkley Report

It was followed on May 15 by shootings of Black student protesters at Jackson State College, killing two and injuring 12.

Philip Gibbs and James Earl Green, killed at Jackson State College, May 15, 1970

The afternoon of May 4, 1970 is seared into my being. I was on the courtyard of Columbia University between classes when I heard the announcement that four students my age at Kent State University were shot dead by the National Guard for protesting the expansion of the Viet Nam war into Cambodia.

I was in shock and speechless. I went to my English literature class with my favorite professor. He asked me what was wrong and I couldn’t answer.

I was in my second year at Columbia University and a founding member of the Columbia Barnard Experimental College (EC). We were a community of students who lived on the fourth floor of the Hotel Paris. We created our own courses. I studied psychology and education. We had marathon encounter group dynamics workshops where we became conscious of gender (like “How come the girls aren’t talking?”) in the early days of feminism and other group phenomena. We had two wonderful resource people – psychologist Paul Lippman and pioneering feminist author of Sexual Politics, educator and activist, Kate Millet. It was one of the best years of my life.

Erica, one of ECers, grew up with Jeffrey Miller, one of the murdered students. There was a huge funeral procession down Broadway for him.

Like many other campuses, went on strike. There was a bigger strike in 1968. Since the Experimental College was the most organized groups on campus, we ended up running the Columbia Strike Information Center.

That was the most formative year of my life. It shaped my political consciousness. I can’t imagine going to college without a war to protest.

I got to live. Like Holly Near says in her song, we are working on behalf of those who can’t.

Reflecting on things today, we should not be surprised that some want to kill protesters and sacrifice many as cannon fodder for their political agendas.

At this precarious time of upheaval and revelation, after a long learning curve, maybe we are in a stronger and wiser position to make a quantum leap at this time.

https://www.songlyrics.com/holly-near/it-could-have-been-me-lyrics/

Partial lyrics

STUDENTS IN OHIO AT KENT AND JACKSON STATE
SHOT DOWN BY A VICIOUS FIRE ONE EARLY DAY IN MAY
SOME PEOPLE CRIED OUT ANGRY

YOU SHOULD HAVE SHOT MORE OF THEM DOWN
BUT YOU CAN'T BURY YOUTH MY FRIEND
YOUTH GROWS THE WHOLE WORLD ROUND

IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME, BUT INSTEAD IT WAS YOU
SO I'LL KEEP DOING THE WORK YOU WERE DOING AS IF I WERE TWO

I'LL BE A STUDENT OF LIFE, A SINGER OF SONGS
A FARMER OF FOOD AND A RIGHTER OF WRONG
IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME, BUT INSTEAD IT WAS YOU
AND IT MAY BE ME DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHER
BEFORE WE ARE THROUGH
BUT IF YOU CAN WORK FOR FREEDOM
FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM
IF YOU CAN WORK (LIVE, DIE, SING) FOR FREEDOM I CAN TOO

Here are some of the materials from the Strike of 1970.

(There are more pages - I am unable to paste them for some reason the editor is not letting me paste them.)