News reports of protesting students seizing administration buildings on college campuses do bring back memories, and I know I’m not alone.
While there had been earlier seizures of campus facilities in the late ‘60s at schools like Berkeley, Columbia, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, the killing of four protesters at Kent State on May 4, 1970, and two more at Jackson State on May 14 triggered student strikes across the country.
The causes ran deeper than just the ongoing warfare in Vietnam and surrounding countries, do note. My novel, Daffodil Uprising, reflects my experiences in Indiana.
While I’m not about to engage in comparisons of today and back then, I am fascinated in the focus on university funding in the current protests. My novel saw that as a crucial factor back then, too – it wasn’t just Dow Chemical, either.
Of special concern, now and back then, is the depth of frustration that finally erupts as rage and revolt. We can assume there are elements in the current actions that go back well before the current Gaza crisis, and not just in the Middle East. They need to be addressed.
I believe that many of the problems in contemporary America can be traced back to unresolved issues from the late ‘60s For now, I’ll leave it at that.
For any of you interested, my book is available at the Apple Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Scribd, Smashwords, Sony’s Kobo, and other fine ebook retailers, and at Amazon in both Kindle and paperback.
Jnana's Red Barn 