Ohio

Today, May 4, is the 54th anniversary of the Kent State massacre, when National Guard soldiers opened fire on a group of peaceful student demonstrators, injuring 9 and killing 4. 

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s song, Ohio, has been echoing in my head for weeks now as I’ve watched the NYPD twice conduct mass arrests of students demanding Columbia University’s divestment from Israel. I’m proud that the protests have set off a domino effect of similar actions at other universities, and deeply ashamed as I’ve seen not only the University administration’s crackdown, but the deafening silence from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), my grad school. 

Earlier this week, I received an email telling me, as a SIPA alumna, about measures taken to restore “safety and order on our campus” - including expelling or suspending students and not allowing seniors to graduate. Far from being safe and orderly, this, and the 100+ arrests, feel like a direct attack on freedom of expression, leaving brave students exposed, their futures on the line. 

These are kids. Kids that are supposed to be learning, stretching, growing in safety. Kids that now have to be protected from the very people who should be protecting and guiding them. Kids who are risking everything to be our moral compass, bearing the ire of elected officials and the once and future president. How utterly we have failed them. 

As one of the Kent State survivors put it, "If not a college campus, where else in our society, in this democracy, can we count on large groups of people to do exactly what these college students are doing: paying attention to the world, looking at what is being done in the world ... and coming up with strategies for opposing it if they don't agree with it? That's healthy. That shouldn't be something that is feared."

But this is what happens when you systematically erode freedom of the press, call truth into question, and police dissent.

Nixon, Reagan and Ohio Governor James Rhodes’ rhetoric calling Kent State protestors “the worst type of people in America” and stating that every force of law should be used to deal with them ring eerily similar to Mike Johnson’s insistence that the National Guard be used to clear Columbia, and Trump calling the NYPD’s clearing of the encampment, “a beautiful thing to watch.” This from the convicted criminal who is all but certain to regain the presidency in a few months time. 

I was never naive enough to believe these institutions were infallible, but there was a time that I thought they were good or at least fair. I was never a flag waving patriot, but there was a time I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’m American. Now, I just don’t know. 

I was in Mozambique recently, chatting with someone about their elections later this year, which the ruling party is expected to win. “You are mature in your democracy,” he said, “we are still young. We have a lot to learn from you.” I grimaced and told him he was, sadly mistaken. It’s been many years since I saw us as any kind of beacon of democracy, but these days the slide towards authoritarianism just seems to accelerate by the hour.

As CSNY would say, “How can you run when you know?”

I leave it in the words of some of the students themselves - read this statement by the Columbia College Student Council: listen to our voices - not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media.