May 4 commemoration at Kent State 'more relevant than ever' as protests spread in U.S.

As college protests around the country continue amid the Israel-Hamas war, some attendees at the May 4 commemoration on the Kent State University campus Saturday saw the annual event as "more relevant than ever."

Speakers and observers at the May 4 event drew comparisons between today's protests and those in 1970 over the U.S.'s involvement in the Vietnam War.

The intensity of the current protests that have led to more than 2,000 arrests is similar to May 4, 1970, when four students were shot and killed by Ohio National Guardsmen on Kent State's campus, said Canton residents Jim and Lori Sewell.

Jim Sewell was in seventh grade when it happened, and he later became a Kent State student.

Jim Sewell said the vitriol leveled against protesters today reminds him of the Vietnam War era, when they were criticized by then-President Richard Nixon's administration and many fellow citizens.

"The rhetoric is the same," he said. "It's really important to be [here] this year."

After the shootings, one of his teachers had students stand up and say what they thought about the tragedy.

Kent State, he said, was a quiet, conservative university in the Midwest.

"No one expected it to happen here," he said.

Speakers for the commemoration acknowledged the assembled Israel-Hamas protesters, who waited for the event to end before beginning chants and speeches.

Sophia Swengel, president of the May 4 Task Force, said no one should be afraid to voice their opinion and condemned the May 4, 1970, slayings.

"The government has no authority to turn us into martyrs," she said.

Juliana Buonaiuto, president of the undergraduate student body, drew parallels between the students of 1970 and those of today.

"We are living in a time when the events of May 4 are more relevant than ever," she said.

Todd Diacon, president of Kent State, said protesters and those who disagree share a right to express their opinions.

"Our shared history means we embrace and abhor violence," he said.

Support for an end to violence, killing

Protestors were instructed to let media liaisons interact with reporters, but bystanders said they empathized with the desire to bring violence and killing to a stop in Israel and Palestine.

Kent resident Ian King said the protesters' call for a cease-fire made sense to him.

"I'm more on their side," he said. "I do think it is a genocide going on there."

'I don't support the intifada'

Alex Casparis of Kent led a small counter-protest at a distance from the larger pro-Palestinian group.

He said four Americans are still being held by Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamic organization operating in opposition to Israel. More than 250 hostages, including 10 Americans, were taken in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the current conflict.

"I would like the war to end, but I don't agree with how they're going about it," he said. "I don't support the intifada, the revolution."

Remembering May 4, 1970

Kent resident Doug Fuller was a Kent State student at the time of the shootings. On May 4, he was positioned behind the Guardsmen who fired the fatal shots.

"I heard what was the shooting," he said. "In my mind, I thought: 'What idiot would have set off firecrackers?'"

More than half a century later, he still wonders why the shooting took place.

"What was happening [May 4, 1970] was no different than what was going on for two years," he said.

Like so many Americans, the event is something he will never forget, he said.

"There's never been a day in my life that I was more angry," he said.

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj or Facebook at www.facebook.com/alan.newsman.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Israel-Hamas war protesters join May 4 event at Kent State University