MAY 4th - FOUR DEAD IN OHIO at KENT STATE (1970)

HOW MANY MORE ?

I remember that I turned 14 that day and it was my last actual full-on sorta birthday party. I was in the 9th grade and had only invited my two best gal pals who were in the 10th grade to the party.... and of course my MOM and DAD and two younger brothers were part the early part of the birthday. At some point the news came down that day and later that evening I remember getting the new-ish to me John Mayall Empty Rooms album as a present and spinning his song "Plan Your Revolution" as flags and tokes were burning. Bittersweet day... definitely the end of my youth. Although it seemed futile, I remember only a few of us wore the black arm bands as protest and respect that week at high school, but most were and still are clueless.

Having been raised on rock lyrics since I was eight had fragments of truth and by my twelfth birthday in 1968 I was already starting to be clear on the lies and crimes of the government and the old grey haired thugs that run it. I had read Abbie Hoffman's "Revolution For the Hell of It (1968) book and had just scored Jerry Rubin's Do It (1970) book and was fully aware of the Yippies and SDS and Weathermen etc, but that Ohio massacre just hit me a bit heavier, decades later it still reminds me that we are still being lied to.