Dear editor,

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students at Kent State University rallying to oppose the expansion of the Vietnam War.

Twenty-nine National Guard troops fired 67 rounds, which killed four students and wounded another nine. The National Guard were mostly 19- and 20-year-olds. They were firing on 19- and 20-year-old students.

On Jan. 7, 2026, Renee Good was shot to death by ICE agents after she had stopped to support her neighbor in Minneapolis. Her partner is quoted as saying, “We had whistles, they had guns.”

A report was prepared by the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest. Dated Sept. 26, 1970, it said in part, “.... to respond to peaceful protest with repression and brutal tactics is dangerously unwise. It makes extremists of moderates, deepens the divisions in the nation, and increases the chances that future protests will be violent. We believe it urgent that Americans of all convictions draw back from the brink. We must recognize even our bitter opponents as fellow Americans with rights upon which we cannot morally or legally encroach and as fellow human beings whom we must not club, stone, shoot or bomb.” (page 14)

The similarities between these two incidents are too painfully obvious. What was said in 1970 could just as well have been said today. We do not need more repeats of such abhorrence. A functioning democracy cannot be captive to the whims of an authoritarian strongman who benefits from civic disengagement and seems to relish it. Listening to him hurts; it does not help.

It is up to each person to find the cost of freedom. Stephen Stills put music to those words first penned during the Civil War era. More of the song, “Hear the past a callin’, from Armageddon’s side. When everyone’s talkin’ and no one is listenin’. How can we decide? .... Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground, Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down.”

- Rev. Ronald D. Larson, Mt. Morris