Peaceful Protest At Kent State University

The morning of May 4, I woke up ready to rally in what I hoped to be a peaceful protest. The past week had been filled with the most tragic events at Kent State University. Violence had broken out everywhere. Students were injured, officers were injured, buildings were injured. I watched the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) building burn to the ground. That building had only been 30 feet away from my dorm room complex. The streets replicated that of a war zone rather than a peaceful protest. For several days we protests on the streets. However, the protests were not held for no reason. We chose to protest because we believe the war is wrong. The war is aiding racism. It is causing our own President to disobey the law. He chose to invade

Not only among our protests, but among our world, our country. At noon I meet my friends in front of our favorite coffee shop with our signs reading, “GET OUT OF VIETNAM NOW” and “Bring Our Troops Home”. As the march to the Commons began, university officials attempted to diffuse the situation by prohibiting the event. About 100 Ohio National Guardsmen were already stationed outside the destroyed ROTC . As more protesters filled in I began to get more and more worried that a violent outbreak would eventually occur. I kept close to my friends and continued to chant. I watched the Guardsmen move to a hill where students we approaching. Rocks and sticks were thrown at these Guardsmen, angering them. My heart bean to race. I knew angry Guardsmen was never a good thing. I drifted my eyes away from the hill for a short moment until I heard the sound of multiple gunshots in my left ear. My head whipped to face the direction of the sound. It came from the hill. I could not get myself to move but my friends were yellings and ducking. When I finally broke myself free of shock i chose flight, not fight. I am not one to be involved in violence, but I am one to voice my