‘Why do you celebrate a tragedy?’; May 4 designated National Historic Landmark
The Kiva was packed to the doors on Friday afternoon as Kent State community members joined together to see the site of the May 4,1970 shootings dedicated as an official national historic landmark.
“To see it standing room only is only right for this auspicious occasion for Kent State University,” said Beverly Warren, the president of Kent State.
There are about 2,500 national historic landmarks in the United States and attempts to get historical landmark status for the site have been going on since 1977 when the university attempted to make changes to the MACC which students feared would affect the site.
“I am pleased today that we gather to honor this site as a recognized national landmark,” Warren said. “It’s due, in large part, to a community that has pledged to honor and remember those lives lost and those lives who were forever altered by the events of May 4th, 1970.”
Along with Warren, former Ohio governor Richard Celeste returned to Kent State to speak at the dedication. Celeste was given an honorary degree by the university and spoke at the 20th anniversary of the shooting in 1990.
“Why do you celebrate a tragedy?” Celeste encouraged attendees to ask themselves.
He recalled a book which he’d said had a great influence on him. Written by Max Cleland, a former U.S. senator and veteran of the Vietnam war, the book is called “Strong at the Broken Places.”
“Often, where we are broken and healed,” Celeste summarized, “Those become our strongest places.”
He recalled the division throughout the country at the time of the war that led to tensions at Kent State.
“We should ask ourselves; ‘Where have we become stronger?’” Celeste said. “It was a moment when we asked ‘how do we value the voice of someone who disagrees with us?’ ‘How do we value dissent?’”
Celeste went on to quote the father of one of the victims of the May 4 shootings, Allison Krause;
“After the tragic death of his daughter, (her father) said ‘dissent is not a crime’.”
Celeste asked attendees who had been present at Kent State in 1970 to stand as the room applauded them.
Warren also acknowledge the efforts of the authors of the application for national landmark status, Laura Davis and Mark Seeman, who both also spoke at the event.
Davis, a witness to the shootings in 1970, spearheaded the initiative to have the site given historic landmark status.
“The work has always been, I would say, to preserve this timeless moments,” Davis said. “So that others may see that pattern.”
With the dedication of the site as a national historic landmark, speakers at the event repeated the importance of the lessons learned from the tragedy and the duty to carry those lessons forward.
“Today, we officially acknowledge and honor Kent State University’s May 4 site as vital and vitally important national heritage,” Warren said. “And we are here today to pledge that we will pass along the important history and the lessons learned from the day in May that forever changed our university, our state and our country.”
“Kent State University has learned so much over the 48 years since the May 4th shootings.”
— Ella✨ (@ellasaurusrexx) May 4, 2018
Members of the audience who were at the university in 1970 are asked to stand as the rest of the attendees applaud them.
— Ella✨ (@ellasaurusrexx) May 4, 2018
Correction: President Beverly Warren
— Ella✨ (@ellasaurusrexx) May 5, 2018
