Kent State

It takes most of two days to drive between Western Mass and Champaign-Urbana. We generally just drive until we're ready to stop and then stop someplace at random for the night. This year, we were near Kent, Ohio and stopped at a Comfort Inn just off the expressway. During the night, I took a few minutes to read up on the Kent State shootings and, in the morning, we drove over to visit the memorial before setting off for the day.

It was a clear, summer morning with the sun just rising as we pulled into the parking lot by Prentice Hall at Kent State University. There are four small regions demarcated by short light posts that indicate where students were killed. Lucy was shocked to remember that so many had died. The spot where Jeffrey Miller was killed -- the student featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from the shootings -- was closet to the knoll in the background from where the troops had fired.

We were all very moved by the memorials and walked silently among them then up to a sign with information about the shootings and about the memorial. We walked up to the metal sculpture to see the bullet-hole. We didn't stay long -- maybe 20 minutes -- before getting back into the car and heading back to the highway.