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- It's my priviledge to join you on this long-awaited day. I wanted to start by saluting and thanking
the driving forces that we know as Laura Davis and Caroline Barbato.
[Applause]
Each, of course, was a student here in 1970.
Each became a respected member of our faculty and each was instrumental in creating the
world-class facility that we dedicate formally today.
We welcome all of you who experienced and were deeply touched by May 4th and those of
you who feel a strong bond with what happened on our campus 43 years ago and we are truly
thankful that you are here with us today. Thank you.
- I just came from a tour of The Visitors Center and I was struck by many things which
we'll go into but one of them was a letter that was posted on the wall from a young man
who wrote these words "A teenager from a small Ohio farm clutches his side in pain and feels
his life ebbing away". He wrote this in 1966. He wasn't writing about Kent State, he was
writing about Vietnam and the author was Jeff Miller, one of the 4 who died that day.
In some ways he saw what his life was going to be and he saw
what was going to matter in the next several years of his life.
- One thing I liked the best about it is it put the events of what happened here in 3
or 4 days into context. They made it clear it wasn't about that one day, wasn't about
that one incident, but more important, it wasn't just about Kent State. I loved the
map that showed all of the college campuses where the uproar happened. I think for students
today, this has got to seem alien to them. There's just not this kind of engagement,
this involvement, certainly not the violence on college campuses but mostly engagement
is what I'm concerned about.
-Memory about that war, the Vietnam War is essential to understanding our position in
the world today. Of course the protests in the 1970s played a huge role and Kent State
is one of those things that happened that really made a difference, moved the... was
a game changer also in the protests against the war. It's quite strong stuff and it's
very important for kids to see this, for a new generation to understand the anger on
both sides, the polarization that we now have supposedly in our country is evident here,
quite evident and in my remarks today, tonight, I wanna refer to the climate of the time to
give the young people, I hope, a memory of what it was like to be in this country in 1970
I'm honored that you, at the... after so many years of doing this have asked me here today
to commemorate the lives of four students who fought to understand something they did not understand.
- When you stand on the slope and you see the distance down to the parking lot there was
no need, it seems to me very clearly as an infantryman, there was no need to fire. It
seems like the fire, the need to fire came from built up anger and frustration. I'm glad
the protestors protested. I'm glad they had a conscience. I'm glad the students of America,
not just the, Nixon called them the bums but normal-looking, midwestern students were able
to express their outrage. These four kids meant a lot to the conscience of this country.
They died for a reason, a sacrificing and that has to be remembered because if you say
that no one's responsible and it's just a misunderstanding it's an insult to their memory.
- The challenge it seems to me for a place like Kent State, which is now stuck in kind
of a national narrative, is to do something with that and that's what this Visitor's Center does.
It doesn't look away from its history. It doesn't say "well that was an abberrational
moment that we have gotten past and have now moved on". It doesn't raize the buildings,
you haven't raized the buildings and tried to erase a shameful time but you've taken
it and done what a university should do which is turn it into a learning experience.