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Re: Remembering Kent State, Times, May 7.
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000
Re: Remembering Kent State, Times, May 7.
I would like to compliment Bill Serne for his photos taken during the 30th commemoration of Kent State on May 4.
Driving 22 hours straight from St. Petersburg, I also attended the commemoration. On May 3 and 4, I participated in the candlelight vigil and heard the ringing of the bell on May 4 at 12:24 p.m. Believe it or not, many students of the present generation showed emotion and endeavored to understand the events of May 4, 1970. Others on the Kent State campus walked by the memorial not knowing even what it is or what happened.
I wonder if Bill Serne or I would have gotten as emotional, say, about an event that occurred in 1940, 30 years before we were college students in 1970.
The bell is rung also for the fallen at Jackson State University.
During this year's commemoration, various speakers were present. Some were friends or relatives of the four dead at Kent State, while others spoke of current issues. Barry Levine was Allison Krause's boyfriend in 1970. He spoke for Allison, trying to describe how she would have felt had she seen the 30th commemoration. Simply put, she would have wanted to see that people of her generation did something good in the world after college.
For better or worse, we should all remember May 4, 1970. We should learn from it and apply the lessons to our present lives. Allison Krause, Jeff Miller, Sandy Scheuer and Bill Schroeder are kept alive through memories and the bridge of love that extends across an eternity in time and space.
Bill Serne has gone out into the world and done much good for himself and this community. He has made this part of our world slightly better. That may be part of the lessons learned from May 4, 1970, and certainly, I feel, an important part.
Thanks to the St. Petersburg Times and to Bill Serne.
David Turcotte, St. Petersburg
Re: Don't pity Kent students, letter, May 7.
Any time someone mentions the Kent State massacre in the press, you can expect to see at least one or two letters on the opinion page claiming that the National Guardsmen were entirely justified in opening fire. This one from last Sunday is typical.
The National Guardsmen's volley on May 4, 1970, killed four Kent State students: Jeff Miller, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer and William Schroeder. At the moment they were shot down, all four of the victims were more than 250 feet away from the gunmen, and none of them was armed, so clearly none of them constituted any threat to the heavily armed Guardsmen.
Of these four, two -- Miller and Krause -- were active participants in the anti-war demonstrations. I haven't the patience, nor will the editors grant me the space, to try to justify to the letter writer their Constitutional right, as the First Amendment puts it, "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." It would probably be futile to try anyway. The right to criticize the almighty government has always been unpopular with some people.
But let's look at the other two, whose deaths the letter writer also claims were justified. Sandy Scheuer was an "A" student, and to maintain that status one has to attend college classes. She was on her way to her 1:10 p.m. class, when at 12:24 p.m. she was shot through the back of the neck at a range of 390 feet by the National Guard gunmen. Most people wouldn't think that for a college student to go to her scheduled class is so criminal an act that it deserves to be punished by firing squad.
The letter writer also thinks that William Schroeder's death was an excellent thing -- "the students got what they asked for," she wrote. So who and what exactly was William Schroeder, that he deserved to die as he did? Was he some long-haired, drugged-up punk, hell-bent on overthrowing the American way of life?
Well, no. William Schroeder was an athlete, an all-American straight-arrow, a clean-cut patriot. William Schroeder was an ROTC volunteer; had he lived past May 4, 1970, after graduation he would have served four years in the Army as an officer. At 12:24 p.m., he was 382 feet from the Guardsmen, facing away. An M-1 bullet struck him in the middle of his back, plowed through his rib cage and exited through his left shoulder. He bled to death.
There were, however, better days on the Israeli-Lebanese border before Syria's Hafez Assad entered the picture. Assad was more or less invited in to put a halt to the bloody battles between Muslim and Christian Lebanese. He has since made Lebanon a virtual satellite state in which the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah terrorists and the drug traders are given free rein. Thousands of Palestinians are confined to camps with no hope of Lebanese citizenship
In the better days, Lebanese and Israelis crossed the border freely. There was a fence known as "the Good Fence." There is a story that a Lebanese woman was in great distress as she was giving birth near the fence. An Israeli doctor climbed the fence and tended to her. The gates at the fence were thereafter open. A T-shirt purchased at a shop on the border has the flags of Lebanon and Israel with "The Good Fence" logo. It also states "Better a Close Neighbor than a Distant Brother."
As Bill Maxwell notes, Israel "is determined to pull the Israel Defense Forces out of Lebanon by July 7." To do so, Maxwell correctly observes that Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak "will need the full cooperation of Syria and Lebanon." Unfortunately, while Barak has expressed a willingness to be most forthcoming regarding a return of the Golan Heights to Syria, Assad is not willing to take "yes" for an answer.
Norman N. Gross, president, Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting; vice president, Greater Tampa Bay B'nai B'rith, Palm Harbor
Re: Privatizing has problems, May 6.
Your editorial pointed out, among other things, that there would be no accountability if the state were to transfer many functions to private companies. But I assume the editor feels that the various governments do provide the accountability which he/she (and I) deem so important.
I've recently read about numerous government laptops that seem to be missing. Nothing about who signed for them. Accountability?
Then we have those $700 toilet seats, $250 hammers and many other instances that make a joke of "government accountability."
I'm sure there would be problems with privatizing, but experience has shown that the main role of government is increasing its own size.
One of your comments, "State workers have had the ultimate say," really impressed me. Do you mean the HRS workers whose judgment has put so many children in danger? Or do you mean highway jobs overseen by government that take 10 years to widen 10 miles of road?
Anywhere I've worked required signing for equipment, as well as for decisions made like credit and project approvals.
I suggest government think about similar management ideas. Private industry would never stand for the mismanagement I've read about in government in this newspaper.
People, if you want and or require green lawns and plants go back from whence you came. Green lawns and constantly green vegetation are not native to this part of the planet. Our water supply is limited and should not be put at risk this way
We need the desalination part of the water supply puzzle now. We do not need the potable water supply system (municipal and private wells) being used on lawns and decorative vegetation.
Now that Washington has succeeded in correcting the "critical" problem of overpriced compact discs, maybe federal officials will now have some time to correct the problem of overpriced prescription medication