Yes, the children are always suprised when the adults have tired of the tantrum and punish them.

In 1970, just as today, we had an unpopular president carrying out an unpopular war for questionable reasons.

Unpopular? Nixon absolutely trounced George McGovern in 1972 (49 states to Mass. & D.C. for McGovern). Nixon got 60% of the popular vote as opposed to McGovern's 37.5%. Unpopular?

It was a great way to spill the wind from the sails of the antiwar movement in 1970. It definitely deterred me from going to demonstrations. I decided to pick up chicks elsewere.

an otherwise rotten decade.

Hey, Major League Baseball was one of the few bright spots in the 1970's (the Swingin' A's, The Big Red Machine, Yankees-Red Sox, Yankees-Dodgers, Reggie, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter, The "We are Family" Pirates, et al). College and NFL football also rank up there. I'd say some rock music was pretty good (Elvis Costello, the Clash, Little Feat and Led Zepplin). Politics were dreadful and television even worse (except for the Rockford files and kid's Saturday morning television shows). Although there were some fine movies in the 1970's (The Godfathers come to mind) most movies in the 1970's were horrid.

The Clash were great precisely because they were reactionary.

Let's see. First set fire to a government building, then throw rocks at a line of men with rifles while advancing on them, then act surprised when a few of you get plinked. Yeah, that's a plan.

Kent State helped, but the real end on the "anti-war" movement was the draft lottery. Without simple cowardice as a motivater, the "anti-war' movement collapsed fike a pricked ballooon.

Of course this is why they can't get off square one now.

You guys are lucky you don't live here in Not'east Ohio over dere (as we Youngstowners say). Every year, this time, the inevitable, insufferable Kent State Anniversary media hand-wringing frenzy. Every aging hippie within a hundred miles of Kent gets interviewed, and we get solemn op-eds and feature stories on The Meaning Of That Tragic Day In 1970. (Soundtrack for the TV version is always CSNY, "Ohio"--you start wishing for Queen, "Another One Bites The Dust," tasteless as it would be, just to break the monotony.) It's like being strapped into a chair and forced to listen to a dramatic reading of a thousand Ellen Goodman columns.

Kent State has almost no relevance today. In the '60s demonstrations and protests were increasingly linked to violence and riots. While many protestors were simply exerting their right of assembly and speech, there were militant and anti-American groups glad to use them as a screen. There was real lawlessness in the country. That necessitated the presence of more police and National Guard units to keep order.

Rhetoric lead to more confrontation. Many of these kids simply did not understand they were playing with fire. A tragedy such as Kent State was almost inevitable.

In many countries, such an event would have lead to either a revolution or a hard crackdown. Instead, saner heads prevailed and said, "Is this really worth it?" and the answer was no. Lawlessness decreased. That's the real lesson of Kent State even if Boomer mythology tells it differently.

I was four when that happened, and as I reflect on that day, I deeply regret that the National Guard didn't shoot more of them.

Mr. Morley - "It's like being strapped into a chair and forced to listen to a dramatic reading of a thousand Ellen Goodman columns."

Now, sir, that is torture.

My uncle (mothers brother) was one of the Guardsman who shot into the crowd. He has no regrets about it all.

The lesson of Kent State is summarized by (Larry) Niven's Laws:

#1. Never throw sh!t at a man with a gun.

#2: Never stand next to someone who is throwing sh!t at a man with a gun.

Add to the Kent State incident the elimination of the draft lottery and the Weather Underground yutes leaving a big hole in the ground on West 11th Street in New York, and you have three of the main reasons why the protest movement ran out of steam in the early 1970s (though if you threw a good enough rock concert for some cause, you could still get the kids to come out over the next 6-7 years ostensibly to support Kampuchia or the elimination of nuclear power).