Going to Kent on May 4th is always bittersweet. Yesterday was eerily reminiscent of May 4, 1970. The same lilac bushes blooming along Lilac Lane; the broad space of the Commons and the slope up to Taylor Hall soft and green; the day balmy with a wind out of the west, the same prevailing winds rendering the National Guard’s tear gas useless in 1970. And many of the same people were there, battered and grayer perhaps, but persisting.
More sub scribble
Buddhism is based on dharma, the natural order, and sangha, the spiritual community. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the late 60’s in Kent created a sangha of students, faculty, artists, musicians, writers, poets, scientists, scholars, protestors, non-conformists, beatniks, rebels, hippies, yippies and crazies that has persisted for more than 45 years. When I see these old friends in Kent I experience multiple flashbacks to daily events of the past, when I was surrounded by those friends on campus or in the town; I am happy to see them, but saddened I don’t get to see them more often, as we are scattered across a broad canvas.
Each year there are fewer of us; this last year we lost my dear friend, artist and painter Peggy (Freemon) Mainwaring. And I was saddened to learn from my friend Jim Powrie that his brother, Speed, had died. I competed against Speed in Pony League Baseball, basketball and football. He nearly broke my jaw with a well-placed forearm when Bolich played Sill under the lights at the high school stadium.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I am proud and glad to be part of the sangha of Kent, and look forward to seeing my friends in the future. I invite those friends and all Kossacks to come to Kent for the annual commemoration some time.
I suggest anyone interested put May 4, 2020 on your calendar now. The 50th will be a big year, and the message of Kent State and resistance to tyranny perpetrated by the hegemony deserved to be preserved.