#alan canfora

[garadinervi]

Kent State University, Kent, OH, May 4, 1970 / 2023

Allison Beth Krause (April 23, 1951 – May 4, 1970), student Jeffrey Glenn Miller (March 28, 1950 – May 4, 1970), student Sandra Lee Scheuer (August 11, 1949 – May 4, 1970), student William Knox Schroeder (July 20, 1950 – May 4, 1970), student

Nine students wounded: Alan Michael Canfora, John R. Cleary, Thomas Mark Grace, Dean R. Kahler, Joseph Lewis Jr., Donald Scott Mackenzie, James Dennis Russell, Robert Follis Stamps, Douglas Alan Wrentmore

(Bibl.: The Truth About Kent State. A Challenge to the American Conscience, by Peter Davies and the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY, 1973. Plus: The Kent State Shootings. An Annotated Bibliography, by William A. Gordon)

[filosofablogger]

♫ OHIO ♫ (Redux)

Today marks an important date in the history of the U.S., the 53rd anniversary of the brutal slaying of four students by National Guardsmen on the campus of Kent State University on 04 May 1970.  I offer up this song as a remembrance of that horrific day … and a wish that we could learn from our past so as not to keep repeating those same mistakes. Neil Young wrote Ohio shortly after seeing a…

[misfitwashere]

Four Dead in Ohio

Keith Newman

On this day in May 1970 Four students were killed at Kent State by the Ohio National guard. The governor was behind in the polls and these deaths which he ordered helped him climb into contention. Though he lost by one point in 1970, he won re-election in 74 and 78. Some Parents told their (unharmed) kids who were at the scene, the Guard should have shot them all. That is how divided our nation was. (We can overcome Trump).

William Schroeder- Sought to understand the war. He had chosen to serve in the armed services and intended to go to Vietnam so he could better under understand the events of his time Allison Krause- The day before she had placed a flower in the barrel of a National Guardsman's gun  saying; 'flowers are better than bullets. She was  leaving campus on her way to her car to  go to a job Jeffrey  Miller- intelligent and kind, he was  against the war in Vietnam but by no means was a  violent protestor Sandra Scheuer- was on her way to class. Her father escaped the Holocaust to see his daughter murdered as others expressed their first amendment rights. She and Jeffrey Miller were in a relationship but were not together when the shots ending their lives  rang out.

Source

A Not so Final Thought on May 4

Keith Newman

“There is, and there may never be, any closure for what happened at Kent State University. As I wrote almost 30 years ago: “No one was willing to confess. Which is understandable. After all, how would you like to go down in history as the man who started the killings at Kent State?”

                               William Gordon

Maybe Gordon is right. Maybe history will always treat May 4, 1970 as an open case, ensuring its lessons are taught and retaught to every generation of Americans. The dead cannot be brought back to life, the wounds of survivors hit by bullets cannot completely heal. The heartache affecting so many will not dissipate until their own hearts takes its last beat.

That is true for me as well. Though I feel a strong bond to those who fell on May 4, it was not my biological sister or brother whom was killed. My heart was not ripped open due to the unexpected loss of a loved one. For me it was my country. I lost the notion that our country was good, that our leaders could be trusted, that everyone deserved respect. And this loss I mourn. Questioning Authority became what I can do for my country.

     “The fundamental role of a democracy is to control the amount of police force that is used. What happened was an inappropriate and very unfair use of force against protesting students”

                                      Kent State Professor Jerry Lewis

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,"

       Patrick Henry

What happened that day was a 24 minute hunting expedition.

       Alan Canfora

The Boston Massacre did have closure. It served a lesson for our not yet formed country, that everyone is entitled to a trial, that the accused shall always be granted a lawyer. The results of that trial astonished many.

The Kent State Massacre deserves such a legacy. General Canterbury, the commanding officer has passed away, Sergeant Pryor, the man who claims he never fired his pistol, a gun that wasn’t his, that he should not have had with him that day has died. So have several of the student survivors of that day such as Alan Canfora carrying the flag in the above picture. Canfora had chosen the Black Flag to reflect his dark mood over having recently attended a funeral for a close friend killed in Vietnam.

 But Terry Norman remains alive. He was placed at the event by members of the City of Kent Police Department. He was given instructions on where to be, what to do. Acoustics say a gun was fired four times before the Guard returning from the practice field turned and fired on innocent civilians, just as German soldiers had often done during the Holocaust. We know Terry Norman on that day confessed to shooting his gun four times, admitted he may have killed someone, we know officers examined the gun stating it had been fired four times. We know he met on the practice field and conversed with several members of the Guard when the soldiers there realized their commanding officer was not prepared for the day, when discipline amongst the troops broke down, when several members of the Guard knelt in firing position guns aimed at students.

No one knows what happened during that time on the practice field, what plans were hatched as soldiers left the field and began their march up Blanket Hill, across the Commons, and back to the ROTC building. Americans deserve to know the truth of what happened on the day Democracy died. If the FBI wants to be taken respectfully by honest American citizens, it needs to come clean on what the FBI Agent who met with Terry Norman on May 3rd discussed. We need to know how Democracy died on May 4th.

Concepts, unlike human life can be brought back from the dead. When I visited Germany, another place where Democracy once died, I visited a Gestapo headquarters in Cologne. Blood was still on the walls. Fear gripped me even though I had nothing to fear. Anger rifled through me though there was no one I could vent my anger upon. Last night I dreamt that building was dismantled and shipped piece by piece to my house, and that it was my job to reassemble that shrine, a shrine that exists in a thriving Democracy. Kent State has done no less, and yet I fear in these Trumpian times, it’s not enough. That nothing will be enough.  Martin Scheuer, the father of Sandra Scheuer escaped the Holocaust in Germany to see his daughter be killed in America while walking to class as others were expressing their first amendment rights. We who value these rights must be committed to “Never Again.”

Visit to Gestapo Headquarters

I walked into death

Cold burning into my soul

Screams imprinted onto the walls

White filth, charcoal blood, the empty rooms filled with unlived lives

Visitors spoke silently respecting the dead, fearing the torture,

Sounds no longer heard, still visible

The unspoken greeting at the door was not a welcome

Just an acknowledgement.

The guard, aware of my guilt though he knew me to be an innocent witness

An innocent witness no different than he the guard of guards

The preserver of the past, the guardian of the future.

Our eyes met.

We shared the acknowledgement.

I recognized his pain.

He recognized mine.

Our only sin We are survivors

Not in blood or tatoos, but in tears,

Not just for our own, but for those with whom we share the spirit,

I get to walk out of death and he comes home from it every night

We leave the cold death burnt into our souls and daily exchange it for the warmth of love

Tomorrow he’ll greet a new face with another silent acknowledgment

And I’ll be linked to all who visit through his ghostly but knowing stare

It’s not just the guilt we share, But the spirit

And the hope

No one will be guilty again

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

I’ve been writing annually about what May 4, 1970 means to me for three years now. Fifty-two years since a day that feels all too relevant.

I remember when I first heard about National Guardsmen slaughtering four college kids at a peaceful anti-war protest in Ohio. I would have never expected that I could have been able to contribute directly to keeping the spirit of Kent and Jackson State alive, to honoring a truth that continues to be neglected and slandered.

Receiving this honor leaves me humbled and at a loss for words—and feeling more dutiful than ever.

The fact is is that it is a crucial time in terms of human rights. It’s sickening that only more and more progress is being made to strip humans of the lives they want to live, and as too many seem to forget in our emotionally charged world, the oppression of one opens the door for the oppression of the rest. If, say, reproductive rights are stripped away, what’s next? The right to nonsegregated schools? The right to marry the one you love? The right to live in a world that is not polluted, overcrowded, and disgusting? The right to speak your mind without a gun being pointed at your head?

It’s up to critical thinkers with vigor and skill—like the kids who protested on the Kent State commons that crisp spring day—to stand up against those who tell us that violations of human freedom and autonomy are okay. And as the world becomes bleaker and darker and more repelling and more constricting with each passing day, somebody’s got to be willing to rub some sticks together and try to find a light.

As we march into an uncertain future, we cannot forget our past.

I give my salute to all of those raising awareness of Kent State and keeping the good fight going.

[wrunkerjim]

Recalling Kent State, 50 years after

Recalling Kent State, 50 years after

Thirty years ago today, The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY, published a series of articles I wrote about a Syracuse native, Tom Grace, who was one of the nine students wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.

Four students were killed, of course, during the anti-war protest.

Now here we are, 50 years after that horrific day. Grace was a 20-year-old history major…

[weepingmusicartisan]

(WBAI News with Paul DeRienzo)

[starforsharon]

Sharon photographed by Alan Pappe at the home she rented from Patty Duke on Summitridge drive in Los Angeles, California, 1968.

The dress she is wearing was designed by Betsey Johnson and her sandals are by Canfora Capri. Her dress can be seen briefly during Inside Edition's segment on her wardrobe which aired in May, 2008. Most of the clothes shown during the segment were auctioned last year, but Sharon's sister, Debra Tate, probably kept this dress which explains its absence from the auction.

[gregor-samsung]

“ Da oltre trent’anni l’Italia vede attuarsi periodicamente soluzioni ‘irregolari’ delle crisi politiche. Ciampi, Monti, Draghi. Da tempo i presidenti della Repubblica si regolano come se fosse in vigore da noi la Costituzione della Quinta Repubblica francese, o forse pensano che sia ritornato lo Statuto Albertino: convocano ‘qualcuno’ che metta le cose a posto. A ben vedere però il 28 ottobre 1922, vigente quello Statuto, il convocato era pur sempre un membro del Parlamento, esponente, certo, di una minuscola formazione politica. Nel ‘caso’ Monti, di cui Alan Friedman, in un noto libro, parlò come di un «colpo di Stato», Napolitano fece comunque ricorso alla nomina a senatore a vita del convocato il giorno prima di convocarlo. (Enorme passo in avanti rispetto al modus operandi di Caligola.) Ciampi era pur sempre il governatore della Banca d’Italia (e a pochi anni di distanza fu la volta anche di Lamberto Dini). Il presidente dell’epoca aveva in mente il precedente di Luigi Einaudi? Il quale ad ogni modo, prima di essere portato al Quirinale da un voto parlamentare, era stato eletto alla Costituente e poi designato senatore di diritto nella prima legislatura repubblicana. Il caso-limite, privo di possibili richiami ad un ‘precedente’, è invece quello di Mario Draghi. Anche Erdogan, definito proprio da Draghi «un dittatore» (per ripicca allo «sgarbo della sedia»), è stato eletto. Anche Putin, quantunque ciò dia noia ai nostri opinionisti, che fatuamente lo chiamano «zar», è stato eletto e rieletto. E persino l’impresentabile Bolsonaro! Ma, se vogliamo dirla tutta, anche i capi sovietici venivano fuori da una severa selezione nell’ambito di un corpo sociale decisivo e, per decenni, effettivamente rappresentativo quale «il Partito». Non venivano calati dall’alto da qualcuno convinto di avere il potere di farlo. Insomma, questa anomalia tutta italiana, quasi retaggio di pratiche «ancien régime» (il re convoca Necker, ma, se del caso, lo congeda ecc.), è uno dei fattori del crescente discredito del Parlamento e dei partiti politici. “

Luciano Canfora, La democrazia dei signori, Laterza, gennaio 2022. [Libro elettronico]

[corallorosso]

Ho voluto fare una ricerca per capire quante sono le persone a vario titolo attaccate, prese di mira o insultate da Matteo Salvini da quando è ministro. Escludendo le categorie generiche (i "rosiconi", i "radical-chic", i "professoroni", le Ong) ho stilato la seguente lista, sicuramente incompleta ma nella quale non mancano le sorprese. Non c'è molto da dire, le parole "bullo" e "prepotente" sono le uniche due che mi vengono in mente. PERSONE ATTACCATE DA MATTEO SALVINI DAL PRIMO GIUGNO A OGGI: Gad Lerner; Roberto Saviano; Laura Boldrini; Gino Strada; Padre Zanotelli; don Paolo Tofani parroco di Pistoia; Matteo Renzi; Maria Elena Boschi; Aboubakar Soumahoro; Eugenio Scalfari; Elsa Fornero; Alan Friedman; JAx; Emanuelle Macron; Luigi De Magistris; Enrico Rossi; il settimanale Left; Leoluca Orlando; Maurizio Martina; Claudio Baglioni; Massimo Cacciari; Famiglia Cristiana; Luciano Canfora; Mario Monti; Heater Parisi; Susanna Camusso; Francesca Re David; il prof. Alex Corlazzoli; Fabio Fazio; Morgan; Carlo Lucarelli; l’Associazione Nazionale Partigiani; la Cgil; l’Arci; Piero Sansonetti; Valentina Nappi; Giuseppe Genna; Marco Minniti; Pamela Anderson; Gonzalo Higuain; Frankie Energy; i Pearl Jam; Beppe Sala; Jean-Claude Juncker; Tito Boeri; Armando Spataro; Mario Draghi; monsignor Galantino; l’Unicef; Mimmo Lucano; Virginia Raggi; Roberto Fico; Mario Balotelli; il rapper Gemitaiz; Asia Argento; Fiorella Mannoia; Nina Zilli; Ghali; Oliviero Toscani; Chef Rubio; Michele Riondino; Don Biancalani; il sindaco di Latina Damiano Coletta; Pif; il rapper francese Nick Conrad; l’Associazione Nazionale Magistrati; il ministro del Lussemburgo Jean Asselborn; Spike Lee; Ugo De Siervo; Pierre Moscovici; Gianluigi Donnarumma; Giovanni Malagò; il rapper Salmo; Michela Murgia; la preside della scuola elementare Anita Garibaldi di Terni; la Cina; Avvenire; Hezbollah; il vescovo di Caltagirone; , il ministro francese Nathalie Loiseau; Marco Damilano; Vauro; Yanis Varoufakis; Repubblica; Giampiero Mughini; il sindaco di Barcellona Ada Colau; Martin Schulz; Federico Fubini; Reinhold Messner; Lello Arena; Valeria Fedeli; Udo Gumpel; il Roma Pride; Emma Bonino; Fabrizio Corona; la Coca-Cola. Federico Mello mancano: Francesco Di Gesù a cui ha dato del cretino 3 volte per i selfi al funerale di Genova I Pearl Jam Rino Gattuso Due liceali minorenni additate al ludibrio dei suoi fans su FB il cittadino che ha denunciato la capotreno razzista di Trenord Elsa di Frozen Claudio Baglioni Fabio Fazio Coca-Cola: durante un comizio ha sostenuto che gli faceva schifo perché è sponsor Gay Pride Higuain Pamela Anderson Rolling stone la rivista La Cina Ministro di tutti Capitan Coniglio

[aiiaiiiyo]

Kent State activist Alan Canfora confronts National Guardsmen just before the deadly shooting in 1970 [1200 × 778] Check this blog!

[filosofablogger]

♫ OHIO ♫

Had I remembered the all-important date of May 4th, this is the song I would have played yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of the brutal slaying of four students by National Guardsmen on the campus of Kent State University on 04 May 1970.  I did not remember until Jeff reminded me with his post yesterday afternoon, so I am one day late with this song.

Neil Young wrote Ohioshortly after seeing a…

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

My Side Of The Story…Again

Originally posted 2021/05/04 at 8:08 pm

Today marks the fifty first commemoration of the 1970 massacre at Kent State, where four students were murdered by the National Guard at a peaceful anti-war protest.

I had first learned of the massacre in a book about the 1970s that I had rented from a library as a middle schooler. It shocked me, as did reading of other protests and more subterranean movements of rebellion that came into fruition in reaction to the Vietnam War, and I never forgot about it thanks to the ever-striking image of a young teenager kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller. Down the line, I would become more familiar with the event after learning that one of my greatest role models, Jerry Casale of the musical group DEVO, was present at the protest and was forever altered by it; he had been acquaintances with two of the students killed that day. [Last year, coinciding with the event’s fiftieth commemoration, I wrote on my Instagram about the great influence that Jerry’s story had on me; it is a much better read than this post.] It was only then that I became exposed to the true horror of May 4th’s aftermath—misinformation campaigns brainwashed the majority of America into believing that the students were to blame for their deaths while Kent locals flashed each other four finger signs—”at least we got four of them.”

Not much has changed in terms of illegitimate authority silencing the voice of reason and filling the masses with pro-complacency propaganda. To this day, some still consider the protesting students to blame for not being armed, even though it would have been even easier for those in power and the public at large to demonize those students had they been given the ability to fight back, and who knows how many more would have died that day had both sides been exchanging gunfire. (Ah, the irony: the oppressed can only rise above via force, yet that force gets them an even worse beating from their oppressors, who have the power to use the same tactics scot-free.) Even more people continuously bend over backwards to excuse the abuse of power and proliferation of idiocy that has become the status quo. Popularizing and normalizing alternatives remains difficult; not many have the guts to nip the hand that slaps. Some brave souls do, even if mainstream acceptance seems out of reach. Jerry Casale himself, who obviously has much more authority on this subject than I do, has been outspoken against injustice in all forms through his work; see this essential article from last year’s commemoration. Many more also worked to promote the truth about Kent State, such as Alan Canfora, who was shot on that day and passed earlier this year. Others across the planet who were not there, including myself, cling to a similar fire of urgency, militancy, and passion, having never fallen prey to the mainstream’s program.

Not many, but some.

It’s a bit surreal observing the commemoration this year, as I have plans to visit Kent State this summer as a prospective student. Having been aware of the university’s history for a while now, I always wanted to step foot on campus to at least pay my respects; simultaneously, I do find the university appealing as a place of higher learning to attend. I’ll admit, it would be pretty neat to help keep the memory of Kent State alive from Ground Zero.

But no matter where I attend college, I still plan on continuing the legacy of those brave individuals who came before me, even if I know it won’t be easy.

My deepest respects to all of those who keep raising awareness of Kent State and all who continue to fight the good fight.

[nasirparwazthings]

Alan Canfora, Who Carried Wounds From Kent State, Dies at 71 https://ift.tt/39IaZI6

[nedsecondline]

Alan Canfora, Who Carried Wounds From Kent State, Dies at 71

Alan Canfora, Who Carried Wounds From Kent State, Dies at 71

RIP He devoted his life to pursuing the truth about the tragic events of May 4, 1970, and to keeping them in the public eye.

[hellofastestnewsfan]

By BY KATHARINE Q. SEELYE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3immOb5