Aid the Tsunami Victims

I am quite disturbed by the graphic images of our slain Emerson student [Victoria "Tori" Snelgrove]splashed on the pages of the Boston Herald. The motive for this type of sensational exploitation of the tragedy is clearly to sell papers. In the subsequent apology for printing the photos, the Herald story of October 29 quoted Steve Rendall, of the Fairness and Accuracy Center, that publication of these photos were similar to those published to portray the horror of the "Kent State Riots."

My doctoral dissertation at Illinois was on Kent State. The shootings at Kent State in 1970 were never referred to as "riots," except by the right wing types who tried to blame the students for the actions at Kent State. The facts surrounding the shootings at Kent State do not substantiate Mr. Rendall's claim of "riots" at Kent State. The President's Commission on Campus Unrest, called together by President Richard M. Nixon, and the FBI Report, commissioned by J. Edgar Hoover in 1970, reported that the gathering of the students at Kent State was peaceful prior to the actions of the National Guard. These official investigations concluded the shootings at Kent State were "unwarranted, inexcusable and unnecessary," and that the self-defense argument by the Guard that their lives were in danger as a reason for shooting the students was "fabricated subsequent to the event."

The Pulitzer prize winning photo at Kent State, taken by John Filo of Mary Vecchio over the body of slain student Jeff Miller, that was published globally was the least graphic of those taken by Filo. The Herald printed the most graphic grisly photos of Tori. Those killed at Kent State were like Tori, innocent bystanders -- all four students killed at Kent were honor students.

Another agenda setting cue is the use of "riot" in the description in the Herald coverage. This is an attempt by the establishment to once again put the blame on the victims, not the establishment agents -- the police in 2004 or the National Guard in 1970-who should have had adequate riot control training to deal with this type of disturbance. In 1970, the Guard used M1 bullets -- like what was used in Vietnam. In 2004, the Boston Police used a "non-lethal" response -- which we tragically have witnessed was lethal in Tori's case.

As the explanation for this terrible tragedy that has beset our community continues to unfold, I would ask all of us to examine the arguments provided to explain this horrible event. We owe it to Tori at Emerson, as well as to the memory of Jeff, Sandy, Jeff and Allison at Kent State - to learn from this horrific event. As Santayana said, "Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it."

Regards,

Gregory Payne, Ph.D.
Organizational and Political Communication
Emerson College
:: 10/24/2004

Ralph C.Darrow, 86 Ralph Darrow was a punster, a jokester, a teller of tall tales. And those jokes and puns and stories produced grins, groans and grimaces from students and faculty at Kent JMC for two decades. Now they're gone, and we miss them. Darrow, who taught public relations from 1967-1988, died Oct. 17 at his Kent home. He was 86 and had suffered a severe stroke a few days earlier. Contributions may be made to the Ralph C. Darrow Scholarship Fund. Contact Sharon Marquis for details. JMC Obituary ... Daily Kent Stater Obituary ... Record-Courier Obituary ... Record-Courier News Obituary ... Akron Beacon Journal Obituary ...

Kent State memories rekindled

At first she thought someone had foolishly set off some firecrackers.

"I heard the gunshots," said Deborah Peterson of Lincoln Township. "I didn't know that's what gunshots sounded like. To me, it sounded like firecrackers. I went into the cafeteria and told some friends that some idiot had set off some firecrackers." It was Monday, May 4, 1970, and Peterson, a freshman at Kent State University in Ohio, was watching the confrontation between demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War and members of the Ohio National Guard. She was at the old Student Activities Center building, looking down at the action.

But instead of firecrackers, what she heard was a fusillade of rifle fire from the Guardsmen into the crowd, a volley that some witnesses say lasted as long as 13 seconds. When it was over, four students had been killed -- one of them an Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet -- and several more had been wounded, some seriously.

A student at what she described as the most non-political university possible, Peterson had become an eyewitness to history.

"That's a scary thought," she said. "You don't expect history to come looking for you."

:: The Herald-Palladium 9/26/2004

Former Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom Dies
Called Ohio National Guard to Campus in 1970
Former Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom died yesterday. Satrom spent 50 years in public service, but is remembered as the mayor who called in the National Guard during the Kent State campus protests of 1970. [AUDIO]