The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Palin's New Pals

9.2.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 8 of 8)

The images in the minds of those who were not yet born before 1960-1962 are often those of hippies dancing in Central Park, Hendrix playing at Woodstock and The Beatles singing "All You Need Is Love" on worldwide television. But life in 1970 was more than kids wearing "lovebeads" and holding up peace signs to Big Bad Tricky Dick. Those were violent, anger and fearful days. Race riots in the major cities were not threats they were vicious realities. College "disturbances" were often little more than rampant lawbreaking. Following the new military bombing campaign into Cambodia that spring, the anger those for and those against the war had for each other was at a fevered pitch. The sense that "something" wicked was about to happen was thick in the air. The fact that so many wanted that undefined "something" to happen was in retrospect nothing to be proud of.

The Kent State shootings, at the very moment, provided a shock to the enter nation. Yes, Neil Young sang in anger at "tin soldiers and Nixon coming;" but it was a sudden bath in cold water for almost everyone else. Both sides took a few steps back. After 1970, the peace movement began to fall apart. The resolve to win the war began to crumble as well. We will have to let the historians sort out what part Kent State played in those developments.

Until then, my fellow letter writers, pour yourself a nice drink. Take a cold shower.
-- Mike Dooley

The "protesters" at Kent State were a violent mob before the National Guard showed up. It may have been a mistake to use the untrained National Guard to respond to this threat but it was also understandable and maybe the only real option possible. Arson had already taken place and the police force was overwhelmed and had been assaulted. The prospect of additional violence and property damage was almost guaranteed. I don't hold the same affection for this kind of political action as Mr. Campbell and I believe our founders (maybe not Jefferson) recognized the dangers of mobs. We are Americans after all and not French. We shouldn't celebrate our mobs and in fact should be somewhat embarrassed by them. Human nature does not prosper in large groups of angry people. A mob of brown shirts trying to bully their neighbors with violence needs to be dealt with force and prison sentences and not glorified as having anything to do with freedom. They are antithetical to freedom. They are not trying to convince but trying to intimidate. When you throw a bottle at a fellow citizen's head you should go to jail and lose some of your freedom.

A better trained police force that acted at the first signs of violence might have prevented the loss of life, although being in the vicinity of a violent mob is always a dangerous activity. Kent's Mayor requested Ohio's Governor to call in the National Guard and I am convinced they did it because of the certainty of the mobs future violence and not to silence a protest. Mr. Campbell's argument falls apart if you accept this. Instead of federal officials trying to silence political protesters we have local authorities trying to defend local property from a criminal mob. Certainly chaos and a tragedy ensued but to call Kent's Mayor, Leroy Satrom a tyrant is a little over the top. Under difficult and unprecedented circumstances he had to act and I am more inclined to blame those who threw bottles and started the fires. If Mr. Campbell is searching for tyrants they were the nameless cowards out in that mob. Today they are probably sponsoring speech codes and fairness doctrines. Since Kent State, local police forces and National Guard units have become more adept at dealing with this kind of violence and this event looks more like an isolated tragedy than a pattern of behavior. If there is a fault today and then it is that "protesters" that assault their neighbors and destroy property many times are not made to pay for their crimes or the messes they make. This is an injustice as well and invites over-reaction.
-- Clifton Briner

LOST IT AT THE MOVIES
Re: James Bowman's "Tropic Thunder":

Once again, Bowman proves there isn't a movie ever made that lives up to his standards. So when are you going to take the advice of the majority of your readers and get a film critic who actually likes films? John Podhoretz might be able to fit you into his busy schedule.
-- Stuart Koehl
Falls Church, Virginia

ALL TALK
Re: Andrew Cline's The Lucky One?:

I can't help wondering -- if Obama is elected, how long will it take for him to self-destruct? Luck can only go so far. In the Senate you can sit back and do little or nothing and get by, but not in the White House. As president he'll be under a microscope 24x7. Talk is cheap now, but then, he'll have to deliver and I don't see any evidence that he knows how to make good on all the talk.
-- Roy W. Hogue
Newbury Park, California

LAST LAUGH
Re: J. Peter Freire's Barack Oboring:

We need to keep in mind that Socialism isn't meant to be humorous.
-- Melvin Leppla
Jacksonville, North Carolina

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Education, John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, Television, Economics, Business, Sports, Abortion, Movies, Constitution, Law, Founding Fathers, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, NATO, Socialism, Energy, Alaska, Oil, Unions