Those of you not old enough to remember Kent State in 1970 and the four students gunned down during a protest over the war in Viet Nam, let me tell you that one of my friends is married to her older husband, who was there and witnessed it. He remembers.
Now, colleges across the country are seeing protests over the genocide of the Palestinian people, 35,000 and counting. This is a result of Israel's bombs meant for Hamas, or a faction thereof, that carried out the October 7th massacre against Israelis in Israel. These college protestors are not anti-Semitic (maybe a handful are). I have a family member who is equally distraught over the killing of the Palestinians and she doesn't hate Jewish people. I have Jewish friends, and I find the killing of so many civilians unacceptable.
It is a complicated war. Our American government has always stood with Israel. The college students aren't okay with it. No one has ever questioned it as much as they are today. Netanyahu is determined to seek revenge over the deaths and hostage-taking of 1500 people. 35,000 civilian deaths isn't enough for him. He wants every last person who participated in the October 7th massacre and hostage-taking to be punished. He says they will strike again if they are not.
I watch the national news nightly and read a physical newspaper daily. Some of it is hard to view. The other night a Palestinian doctor was shown carrying a fetus still in the placenta, which had been removed from the dead mother who was killed in a bombing. The doctor saved the baby which was born three months early. Who will care for the girl, and what will her future be?
College students have the right to protest. Congress wants the president at Columbia University to resign. There is talk of sending in the National Guard. The New York governor denies that. Many other colleges have joined in with protests. Graduation is just weeks away. USC in Los Angeles has just cancelled graduation ceremonies.
Old people are quick to take sides. Don't they remember the sixties with everyone under 30 protesting the Viet Nam war? This is the United States of America. We have the right to peaceful protest. Get rid of the non-students there to incite violence.
Let the students say their say, and God help us that there won't be another Kent State anywhere across this country. Don't blame the college presidents. Listen to what the younger generation is saying.
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