PrimeWire

That happened a week before my 18th birthday. (Yes, I’m old). I grew up during Viet Nam, and had already lost two friends killed in the war. Lost more who came home so messed up they killed themselves. We grew up with news video of them dragging bodies out of the jungle every night. We were so traumatized. That’s why they didn’t have live battle coverage of the first Iraq war, because they had promised they would never traumatize a generation like that again. Viet Nam is also why they stopped the draft. Kids who weren’t even old enough to drink (legal age even for beer was 21) were getting killed.

I remember Kent State like it was yesterday. I came in from school and it was all over the t.v. No cell phones then, no social media. I remember watching and falling on the floor screaming and crying. My mom came in and held me. She said “I meant to turn the t.v. off. I’m so sorry.” I remember the sign they hung from the dormitory windows that said “They can’t kill us all.” It was one of the worst things that ever happened in my lifetiime.