Late August I’d picked up the pace dramatically to make it cross-country on schedule. The previous night I’d caught about 4hrs of sleep by stopping on the North Coast Inland Trail in Ohio. The weather was bad later the next day, so I decided to just bike until PA, even if it meant an all-nighter. By 2 am or so, I rode up to a Sheetz convenience store/gas station and obtained permission to top off using the outlet outside. It was a very windy night, and I stood watching the Ohio and US flags rippling at the nearby flagpole. Looking at my phone, I saw I was in Kent, OH.
I went inside the store and asked if I’d be able to find the site of the 1970 Kent State shootings. I realized I was only a few miles away and could not resist the detour. One of the reasons I tour is for these unplanned stops at historical sites, wherever and whenever. I’ve long been interested in the KSU student shootings of the Vietnam protest era, particularly that three of the four deceased students were Jewish at a school that did not have a large Jewish student body.
I watched a YouTube before leaving to familiarize myself with that area of campus and knew that I wanted to find the site of the iconic photo in which a young runaway screams over the body of a lifeless and bleeding Jeffrey Miller
ז״ל
I set my gps to the general area of the recent memorial. It was not easy to find but I saw the lights surrounding the sites of the students shot in the parking lot and nearby I saw what I was looking for. I was happy that all the sites had rocks on the lampposts to memorialize the students, but I was puzzled because I felt that the orientation of Miller’s site was wrong. Later I realized that it was probably intentional to allow traffic to pass, but I was still a bit disappointed.
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Peace and happiness to those who celebrate and a Merry Christmas to the EBR community. And it’s not too long before
@David Berry posts his 2020 thread, I imagine.
