I have parked in that parking lot. I have walked across it. Ive talked to my friends while walking across it. Theres something incredibly powerful about something that people encounter daily, having such a wound located there. I really am grateful that i have been able to attend kent state. Ive been able to exist in that space. It fires me up, honestly, every time i see it, to just keep fighting. Because some of the things they were fighting for back then, we are still fighting now. Complacency is not a privilege that we can afford. A law hello, my name is todd dai akin. It is my great honor and raw privilege to service you do not have to be a historian to understand the place of Kent State University and the history of modern america. But i am a historian and i do appreciate both the seminal place of our university and our nations history. And our ongoing responsibility to share this history and the lessons of may four, 1970. It is also my great honor to announce the creation of four scholarships, each of them bearing the name of a student slain on may 4th, 1970. Scholarships in the names of alison kraus, jeffrey miller, son drug sure, bill shrewd or, will be awarded to lafayette peace and conflict studies that can state university. My best wishes and deepest thanks to the families of our slain students. I appreciate your spirit and reconciliation as we work to create the events of me for 2020. Thank you to those who served on the task force over the years. Your work and dedication kept the memory and lessons of our tragedy alive and in front of everyone. I have been most gratified by and impressed by, the work of the made for advisory committee. Together, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship, we worked hard to create an inclusive and impactful may for, 2020 observance. In addition, the efforts and wise counsel of each Committee Member proved invaluable as we generated an entire years worth of meaningful programs. The covid19 pandemic unfortunately interrupted our plans. Once again, we came together to generate this virtual may for vent. My thanks go as well to rod, lush on the taylor, and to the Vice President and trustee michael. Of course i think each and every one of you watching right right now for your role and keeping the memory of may four 1970 alive and for helping us teach lessons of the importance of free speech and the dangers of polarization and division. I will finish with an observation from 1970 to 2020. In the aftermath of the shootings, our faculty acted in ways big and small. Immediate and long term to protect our students to ensure that the students finished the app academic order even though campus was closed. In 2020, our faculty likewise came together, acting in ways begin small, swiftly moving in the face of pandemics there ensuring that our students, our current students will finish this academic semester even though the campus is closed. If one person personifies our great faculty then and now, it would be the professor of sociology, doctor jerry lewis. Thank you doctor lewis. For more than a half of a century of dedication to kent state and thank you to all faculty past and present. We should make no mistake about it. What happened here 40 years ago had very little to do with bonds and snipers. It had to do with the right of free speech and the right of Free Assembly. applause it is not our power but our will and courage they have one thing in mind and that is to destroy Higher Education in ohio. On the morning of monday may 4th. I was in waking with the realization that the soldiers that were outside and guarding the doors of my dorm were not there to protect me. I had a history exam monday morning. I remember the professor announcing to the students on monday morning that if any of them felt that the events of the proceeding days that interfered with their ability to adequately prepare for this examination, but they would be able to take the examination at a later date. My girlfriend at the time made me promise that i would not go to the demonstration. The rally was going to happen. People were going to show up and what we would try to do is give it some more positive, more constructive direction that weve had the trashing downtown, the burning of the building, we had confrontations the previous night where people the governor list comparative to the fascists or hitler hues or Something Like that. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptom. I had to decent professors. Just make yourself a simple task. Come up with something thats the student protest in america. I kept seeing that rally on monday as the moment that we would not just be students at can state, but across the country all at the same time at noon with a concerted call to end the war in vietnam. I just made a commitment that i was not going to go to that. I also said to myself this is too important for me to pass a. There was a string of guardsmen stretched up information. Its like a past the last guardsman, he said to me, hey boy, what is that you are carrying there . I said just a couple of black protest likes. He said today we will make you eat those flags. I was still the Vice President to the student body. I felt it was my obligation to be out there to make sure nothing occurred that was going to harm any of those students. I actually stood up on a brick structure and try to call for a student strike. He made a very brief speech. Is it the feeling of the students on the campus that we should join the National Student strike to oppose the invasion of says the guard on campus and the betrayal sunday evening, there was an extra edge of anger and frustration. One of the National Guard chiefs drove up to the front. They started heating an order for everybody to disperse. There was nothing out of control. We had a right to be there and they could not stop us. We were not unlawful. Get the hell off our campus. Now its tear gas time again. By then, we had gotten fairly good at being able to pick up the cool ends of the canisters. We would toss it back. Return the favor. National started marching toward us. They had on helmets, gas masks. They were carrying rifles with by units attached. The guardsmen came marching across the campus and filed us up the hill. We all ran down the other side of the hill. We started picking up whatever we couldnt try to throw it at the guard. We were at the bottom of the hill. It was not a good strategic position. We did not have steel helmets and gas masks to protect us. Students started chanting, they are out of gas. Then i see this one student with a black flag. Once the guard had stopped, he started slowly working his way i thought wow, theres my picture. I waved my black flak. I knew my life was in danger. At that time i thought if i had to risk my life to make the most powerful statement i can make, im going to do it. I walked up behind my brother and said allen, they are aiming right at you. They are aiming right at you. Just as i said that, they started to move away in a few formation and started their ascent up the hill. I asked him to come back to the parking lot. Allen said wait, i want to see where they are going. My sister watched. They got to the top of the hill. About a dozen men stopped, turned, raised their weapons, and i got a rifle pointed at me. The guard with the baton in his hands that gets set, get ready, fire they hit a tree. A student got it to the right. I got not to the ground. The bullet hit my wrist. This was a bad dream. Bullets passed over our heads and some fell to the ground. Tom grace, he is screaming. I look over. The boot was blown off his foot. Hes yelling at me, stay down, stay down we are being fired at with no opportunity to defend ourselves. It is the sickness experience you could imagine. When the shooting stopped, the silence fell. I still feel and hear everything from that moment. One man, one square i, one cry, when scream was joined by more and more and more. There was a collective cry of anguish. You did not do this. You did not do this. I could see at the foot of the hill. A boy was lying face down. There is probably not a worse image in mind for all of us. Someone tipped over a bucket of blood. People were picking themselves up off the ground. They started sobbing and screaming. That prizewinning photo with outstretched arms. She gestured at the shot. First a forced students to be killed was jeffrey miller, 20 year old Honors College student. I had been with jeff miller the whole morning. I went back to where i thought he was and it is still unbelievable. If there is such a thing as a temporal this should not be here. How do you process pure naked violence . As the shock set in that they had done this to us, our worst yet image was looking up at that hill watching those men watching those 13 young kids playing bleeding. They walked away. Many of us then just ran off looking for the people we loved, trying to make sense of it all. I had no idea was running past Allison Kraus who was dying. Alison kraus stood 345 feet from the guardsmen when she was hit on the side. She was 19 in the Honors College. Sandy was not involved with the protest. She was walking between classes with her speech there urpy partner when she was hit in the neck. She was placed in an ambulance as paramedics attempted to stop the bleeding. I remember the ambulance attendants trying to revive her. She had a nickel and. I remember them saying, there is no use. I remember them pulling the sheet up over her head. It is probably one of the moments that will never leave me. Bill shrewd are, like sandy, had nothing to do with the protest. He was an eagle scout raced and lorraine on the shores of lake. Bill was shot in the back from 182 feet away. He died in the hospital an hour later. The University Campus has been closed. Please return to your dormitories and leave the campus by the shortest route. We went into our rooms and grabbed a few things and packed hastily. Before we left, i remember my father saying, show me where it happened. As i walked up the hill, i saw bullet shells. I just reached down and picked up a handful of them. And i was holding those shelves i started screaming. Murderers murderers i was holding the shells and i had my fist out. I remember being so angry. I felt my father putting his arms around me and holding the really tightly and begging me to stop screaming at them. My father, this world war ii veteran realized, this can happen and it just did. The next day, johns photo made pictures on the front page of the new york times. Across the nation, cant became a rally as nearly 3 Million Students joined the strike against the war. What is it in the makeup of the american psyche . What is it an our country that we would come to that point, that we would shoot down innocent young people on a College Campus . I think it changed america. It changed the way we did things forever. I will never ever forget what happened at kent state. It is currently 12 23. We are going to get ready to get started. When 12 24 strikes, we will be ringing the victory bell 50 times. Four times for the four students slain on may fourth 1970. Nine times for the nine wounded. Two times for the two murders at jackson state. For 13 horrifying seconds we wondered how all those students out there in the open who did not find a car or a tree to get behind, that is what i remember thinking the entire time i crouched and waited for 13 horrifying seconds. When the gunfire stopped, i think every one of us recalled the deafening silence. The silence of shock and disbelief and the horror which is crescendo into this unified cry of, what have you done what have you done then we saw all around this, what they had done. So you have a couple hundred students there. Can we move first . Please listen to me right now. I am begging you right now. If you do not disperse right now, they are going to move in. I do not want to be a part of this i got into my apartment. I told him to get out of there and not hang around to get into all this trouble. I called to try to get through to the hospital. Telephone operator got me through. I identified myself. I said i am mrs. Kraus and i want to know where my daughter is. I want to talk to the administrator. I called his number. It rang and rang. I said let me speak to jeff. I said who is this . He said who is this . I said it is his mother. He said, he is dead. When he came on the phone he said, she was taken away. That is all i found out about my daughter. Hi my name is john. I was shot in the chest near the iron sculpture. Im not the curiosity brought me to the comments to watch the rally. It was a long before the number of students swelled into the thousands, mostly students like me who wanted to see how events would unfold. I was not a protester. I watched the National Guard meal and aim their rifles at the student in the parking lot. I lingered near the middle sculpture. Suddenly, the turned and fired directly into the parking lot without any warning. I was caught in their line of fire falling immediately after having been shot. My next recollection was in the hospital awaiting treatment. I was roommates with joe lewis, witnessing their pain and agony. I was privileged to attend a book citing last fall. We were bound together by a picture of me on the ground which made the cover of life magazine. They had another picture that had an impact on me. It was a picture of me on the ground surrounded by people protecting me from the guards and several people tending to my wounds, including joe column and brother far go. This is the picture i am referring to right here. These people in my mind our heroes who saved my life. 50 years later, we are called to remember that awful day and remain remember those who were slain and wounded. This year is especially difficult as we are unable to come together as a family on this milestone date. Often i am asked, what is the significance . It was the first time that the u. S. Military was sent onto a american College Campus where lives were taken. Not protected. A polarized campuses across the nation to expressed their outrage over the kent state killings and shut down many College Campuses in response to the killings. Why do i attend the commemorations now . It is an opportunity for me to show my respect and remember the other wounded students, those who are witnesses of that day, those who have actively put on the may 4th commemorations, and those whose lives were cut short. It is up to us who were there to keep the memory of may 4th alive and hopefully teach a new generation of students never to forget the historical importance of what occurred that day so that it will never happen again. Thank you. It is very important, especially at this state down through the years and decades. There was some antagonisms in the earlier years where the students had to kind of increase pressures for the purpose of raising awareness to the public. The university really was not on board as much in the earlier decades, but now they are. In fact, the university and especially the last two or three administrations, doctor warren, doctor left in and doctor cartwright, the three president s i think have stepped forward during the last 20 years, so that the university has embraced the educational imperative. It has been their duty for a long time to see the university administration, the faculty, the students, everybody is on the same page. I think this is just a much better situation to see the administration and the trustees embrace this issue, because really, this university is where the tragedy happened. The university has a duty to make sure that this does not happen again. Hi, this is joe lewis. Im speaking to you from my home in oregon. I am very sorry we cannot get together for the 50th men commemoration ceremony and celebration. For me, it was always a bittersweet reunion. I am very glad to be able to get together in honor of the memory of allison, sandy, jeff, bill. I am also happy when i can get together with my blood brothers. Very kind and wise men who share a unique experience and life. I am glad for the participation over the years of the may 4th task force. Their various leaders and the students at Kent State University who join us each year for the commemoration. I am happy to say ive only missed a couple in the last 30 years. I would have been there this spring as well. It is important to underscore the importance of peaceful protest and to protect it as a value in our society. The free speech and Free Assembly rights that we exercise at kent state of may 4th 1970, but also to remember the tragic deaths and loss of allison and sandy, jeff and bill. After 50 years, i do not think about the kent states shooting every day. My focuses on my life and my occupation, but mostly my family. I am a father and grandfather. It just adds to the tragedy for me that those four would also likely be grandparents at this point and their lives. To me, the sadness continues in the loss of the students. It is a crime that no one has ever accounted for. Bigger than that, it is a crime in our society the media was manipulated to make it seem like the victims were the criminals. Like peaceful protests was a criminal act. I think that is the most important thing to take away, that we can never have this kind of thing again. We need to allow for peaceful protest. We need to have training for Law Enforcement people so that they do not think that theyre going into war when it comes to crowd control. I want to acknowledge the work of many many people, most of whom i will not name. Especially my mind today, is the work of laura davis, carroll comes to mind, may she rest in peace. She said she would never miss a may 4th commemoration. I am so sorry that she is no longer with us and that we wont be together as a group and family this year. Good health. Joy to you, and peace. Thank you from oregon. Even in the face of violence of a National Guard who had guns, students knew they had bullets and their guns, they were Still Standing in the face of violence and willing to speak about things that were passionate to them. Even at the very local level, about a very federal issue. Students my age should look at issues that are facing us today and act. Why are we not more sad about the price of College Tuition . Why do i have to choose between getting an education and surviving . That should not be a decision i have to make, but those are things that have to consider. Until i visited the Vietnam Memorial for the first time, i knew it was this big black slab of granite that you could see your reflection and. It had the names of all the soldiers that died in vietnam on it. I walked the entire length of that slab looking for my brothers friend bill who died and was buried just less than two weeks before may 4th 1970. I wanted to get the etching of his name. When i finally found his name right there near may fourth 1970, i continued to the right to finish looking. I noticed for the first time, how much smaller and smaller and smaller that granted memorial got. I saw the visual representation of the impact of the student anti war movement, because the war began to wind down. I will never forget how i felt when i walked to the very end of it and saw that. I saw that last name. 50 years ago, i was still a young lad when i heard the tragic news. I would sing get together with extra hole. Hope that we would find a better way to settle our differences. I still carry that dream to this day. Im still singing the song. Love his but a song we sing shot thinking of you my dear sister. Sandra. How can i tell you, i cannot think of the right words to say but i am always walking with you, but you are if there. 15 years have passed and i am saddened to think of the lives lost in the sixties. May 4th 1970 changed my life and the lives of my family. My sister was an innocent bystander. But for me, there is some comfort of mind. Thanks to those concerned individuals and groups that have been responsible for the truth and the permanent records of the events. By voting to keep the First Amendment to the United States constitution alive and functioning, we will be working to keep such a tragedy from happening again. Thus, we will protect our freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom and respect, and the important right to petition the government for a really dress of grievances. Im missing you so much. Archery. One of the lessons i pull away from my education on may fourth is this idea of learning to think for yourself and standing by what you believe. To encourage others to do the same even if they disagree with what you think. On may fourth 1970, i was 50 years old with brown hair and two good legs. Today, i am 90 years old and can no longer noise applause the death of a child is very heartbreaking, but life goes on. There have been many deaths in our family. I believe our efforts to prevent another tragedy can be rewarded for with a new resolve for peace on earth and good will. One of his last poems included the line, learning from the past is a prime consideration. I pray we all learn that lesson