44 YEARS AGO TODAY

Our U.S. government sending no doubt badly briefed National Guardsmen to panic and kill students protesting the Vietnam war: it happened. I remember, as a college student of similar inclination at UCLA. A fusillade fired throughout 13 seconds killed four students and badly wounded nine others, resulting in one permanent paralysis.  

Kent State University remembers too, yearly. In 2009 the grief-shocked kneeling bystander Mary Ann Vecchio met her documentarian of this Pulitzer Prize winning pic (within the pic above,) John Filo for the first time at one of the university's commemorative ceremonies.

Tech note on famous photo: one of the few cases where news agencies were allowed to retouch the photo, but not what you think-- many outlets removed the distracting pole in the background behind Ms. Vecchio. 

Caption on the viral photo above, photographer unidentified: On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Knox Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer during an anti-war protest at Kent State University.

Courtesy of Ken Shimamoto who noted "Forty-four years ago today. Just kids." the rest of the photos for context in the video below.  This song was recorded May 21, 1970 and released in June 1970 by Young within a month of the event, very unusual for the pre-digital era, such was his outrage.