Shimmy just reminded me that today's the aniversary of the Kent State thing. When I was 19 and still optimistic about the government and the possibilities of freedom of speech and wanted to go to law school, I made the mistake of reading this book. An excellent book, I was riveted, but woefully discouraging and sad. It gives a run down of everything that happens in the days before and afterwards in a sort of novelistic way, sometimes from the point-of-view of those involved and those that were killed. The worst thing was not even the official response--goverment and school administrators, but the people they talked to in the community, who completely sided with the National Guard and said the protesters deserved to be shot at. The silent majority who still seems to be pulling the ropes these days. As for the book, I'd checked a paperback copy out from the Cherry Valley library and read it until it dissolved in my hands and had to turn it in rather sheepishly bound with a rubber band. They let me keep it, but hell if I know where it's at now. All I know is I was (I am) alot less optimistic--try to change the world and they'll shoot you in the back.
