KENT STATE CRYBABIES | 2000-05-27
On the anniversary of the incident, all the media were crying about the killing of Kent State University rioters by National Guardsmen in 1970. Like the Littleton, Colorado incident, Kent State is something liberals love to celebrate.
When I was working on Capitol Hill, my boss, Congressman John Ashbrook, represented an Ohio district in Congress. Each year, while leftists were bemoaning the Kent State "Massacre," he would put a speech into the Congressional Record called, "Kent State Crybabies." The students, he said, were acting like thugs, and they were treated accordingly.
Al Capp, the creator of Lil Abner, who described himself as "a New York Jewish liberal who learned better," made the basic point about the Kent State riot. He wrote, "what these so-called young revolutionaries seem to have forgotten is that, in a revolution, BOTH sides are allowed to shoot."
Capp also said, "It doesn't take a college education to know that the best way to get killed is to throw bricks at armed men." But until Kent State, it was considered the right of leftist rioters to throw bricks, rocks, and anything else at anybody in uniform, and the uniforms could do nothing back.
In one case of a full-scale race riot in the 1960s, the National Guard was sent in WITH EMPTY GUNS, for fear they might hurt some of the thieves and burners they were sent against.
This sort of leftist whining occurred a few years ago in North Carolina. A Communist speaker demanded that the Klan come out and fight. The Klan did come out and fight the Communists. Both sides were shooting. Several Communists were killed, and others wounded. No Klansman got a scratch. The leftists went to court to demand the Klansmen be punished for their violence against poor, innocent, armed Commies.
Even with the special rights the left has, this didn't fly. The Klansmen were acquitted.
Back to Kent State. The average age of the Guardsmen was almost certainly lower than the average age of the students. The Guardsmen were largely a bunch of teenagers facing a screaming mob throwing what could have been dangerous missiles at them..
Liberals make good mobs, because cowards run in packs. If you have ever been on the receiving end of a howling mob, as most active rightists have, you will realize that it takes a lot of maturity and experience to face it calmly.