May 4, 1970

It was the day the United States expanded the war in Vietnam by invading Cambodia.

In a picture that is embedded in the minds of many of those that were alive at the time 14 year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio is crying as she kneels over the body of a fatally wounded student.

On that site now is a granite memorial. When it was dedicated in 1990 a daffodil was planted for every soldier killed in Vietnam. A May 4 archive includes a student shirt with a bullet hole through it and a spent MI shell casings.

The Governor at the time called the protesters "the worst type of people that we harbor in America. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptoms."

In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsman fired 61 shots. The young runaway in the picture has spent her life trying to out run that picture.

The incident is said to be one of the reasons that there is no longer a draft. Forty years later it still gets front page treatment in the USA Today. For those that were alive at the time the following article will bring back memories. For those that weren't alive then the article tells of an important event in history. Today is the fortieth anniversary of the event. Here is the article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-kent-state_N.htm

Do you remember the day? Are protestors the worst type of people we harbor? Like the girl in the picture has there been an event in your life that you are still trying to run from?



Today's Who Am I

Born in Ohio in 1860 and died, also in Ohio in 1924

I was the eldest child of three children. Dad owned a hardware store, which led to his owning other businesses and banks, making him the wealthiest man in the city of my birth. Father was extremely tyrannical and my mother was depressed and submissive. At the age of 19 I became pregnant by my boyfriend. I did it to escape my father. We eloped in 1880 and moved to another city. I gave birth to a son. My new husband turned out to be a spendthrift and a heavy drinker and left me in 1882. I refused to ask father for help. I rented a room and began giving piano lessons. After two years of this dad finally asked me to move back them suggesting that my son and I take his name. I refused. In 1884 I filed for separation. Dad then proposed another offer. He would not support me raising my son but he would take his grandson as his own, easing her financial hardship. I agreed. I was divorced in 1886. From the ordeal I developed a lifelong empathy for people struggling against society's expectations and refused to judge the choices people made. The seeds of feminism were also planted; developing strong beliefs about the rights and abilities of women to determine their own futures without male interference. "No man, father, brother, lover or husband can ruin my life," I was quoted as saying. "I claim the right to live the life the good Lord gave me, myself." Before eloping I worked in my father's hardware store from the time I could walk. I was a skilled horsewoman, was physically strong, and skilled in the arts of needlepoint and housekeeping. After graduating from high school in 1876, and having great musical talent I attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Dad ordered me back home within the first year. In the 1880's I met a man five years my junior. I relentlessly pursued him even though he had a girlfriend. Dad did not want me with him and circulated rumors that his family was of mixed blood. In spite of my father's acrimony I married him in 1891. We did not have any children. Unlike other women of the time my own career helped establish my husband's success. I became the driving force behind the growth and establishment of his newspaper. I stopped teaching piano after and began going to work with my husband, looking at the accounting, whereupon he put me in charge of circulation. I organized local boys as news carriers, even spanking them when necessary, and devised the city's first home delivery service. I was the confidante big sister and boss to the boys, even sending them baskets and a top doctor when they were ill. I boosted their self-esteem, and organized a social club and a value system with awards for achievements and demerits for bad work. I increased the paper's revenue immediately and consistently. In 1894 my husband checked into a Sanitarium for the second time. While he was gone our business manager quit. I took over and never left. I went down there intending to help out for a few days, and stayed fourteen years. When hubby returned to the paper fulltime he was amazed at my success. At home I nursed him, trying to prevent another relapse. Hubby named me "The Duchess." When he ran for head honcho I enthusiastically backed him. Secretly I was concerned that his extramarital affairs would be exposed. He had had many affairs, including a 15-year relationship with one of my childhood friends. She became the only known mistress in U.S. history to blackmail the head guy. During hubby's run for the races I was concerned about my age and health. I had had a kidney removed in 1905 and was prone to debilitating infections. I put all my concerns aside and campaigned vigorously, even fostering the first use of Hollywood movie stars in a presidential race. The people, weary from The Great War, responded to my hubby's campaign slogan, "Back to Normalcy," and elected him in a landslide victory. I became the first wife of a head honcho to vote for my husband. The previous honcho had closed the big house. I delighted in opening the house to the public again. I held garden parties for veterans and group tours. I also visited injured veterans in the hospital. I always maintained my independence proving to be one of the great feminists of the day. I was my husband's key advisor, was involved in many charities, and crusaded for women's rights. I was the first wife of the main man to fly in an airplane. I made sure the pilot was a woman. At The House I invited other active women scholars, minds and athletes. In one letter to a women's group I commented about the partnership between a husband and a wife and their careers:

"If the career is the husband's, the wife can merge her own with it. If it is to be the wife's, as it undoubtedly will be in an increasing proportion of cases, then the husband may with no sacrifice of self-respect or of recognition, ... permit himself to be the less prominent and distinguished member of the combination."

During my husband's reign there were many scandals including one titled after a whistling kettle and about a lease to a private oil companies in Wyoming. On a tour to fight the scandals my husband became ill and died in San Francisco in 1923. Some rumors said I poisoned him. Others said he died of a heart attack or a stroke or anxiety about all the scandals. The official listing is a stroke. I returned to Washington by train with my husband's body. The public, still unaware of the expanse of the impending scandals greeted the funeral procession in droves. After my husband's death I tried to preserve reputations by burning every personal paper I could find. I returned to Ohio, where I died of kidney disease fifteen months after hubby's death. Who Am I?