Just got back from Cleveland, where my sister showed me some of the recent Plain Dealer coverage of the fortieth anniversary of the Kent State shootings May 4, 1970. I was not there, but I have friends who were, and I remember calling one of them during that scary time (maybe May 5th?). The news focused on new analysis of a reel-to-reel tape: chanting, gunfire, screams. It was all over ("four dead in Ohio") in less that 20 seconds. For the first time (oh, what computers are able to do with sound these days!) analysts were able to pick out a command to fire -- which explains why sixteen national guardsmen dropped to their knees and fired M1 rifles simultaneously.
At the time there was an investigation and a trial; no one could be found at fault. Now of course it would be difficult if not impossible -- and maybe pointless -- to re-open the case.
The PD articles are interesting but not surprising. We lived in a polarized country where soldiers perceived demonstrating students as dangerous & menacing and the anti-war movement perceived the soldiers as mindless and eager to kill. Both groups had evidence, and both were utterly wrong. That's how polarization works: we divide an issue into Two Sides, theirs and ours, and they become demons.
I saw some demonization close-up/first-hand during the last election. It's as dangerous now as it was forty years ago.
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