50 years ago what were regarded as state sanctioned killings of four students at Kent State University rattled the USA right up to the White House. The students were protesting Nixon’s surreptitious expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos and there had been damage to property by fringe activists in the days before. The Republican governor described the protestors as ‘brownshirts’ or communists and called in the National Guard, who for reasons that were never explained opened fire on unarmed students who had no idea the guns were loaded.
Nixon did reverse out of Cambodia six weeks later, Congress later curbed a president’s right to make war without oversight, and the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. So there were a few positives born out of a national shock and shame. It brought to an end a decade that started in hope with JFK, aspired to improve civil rights and ban unjust wars, and ended in a conservative backlash. The Republican governor was re-elected for another two terms.
It happened on 4 May 1970 at 12.24pm, Kent, Ohio when there was a Sun Saturn conjunction in Taurus and a passionate and excitable Venus Mars in Gemini trine Uranus. The chart itself isn’t too interesting though the previous Solar Eclipse located to Kent is. It had the Psices New Moon exactly on the Midheaven, making it a critical location; with an emotionally intense Venus opposition Pluto; and an equally excitable and unstable Jupiter opposition Saturn Mars in Taurus – Saturn Mars being associated traditionally with the military and assassinations. The previous Lunar Eclipse had Mars in Aries conjunct the IC (and square the USA 1776 Pluto opposition Mercury). Planets on the axis in eclipse charts indicates these are crisis regions.
The USA 1776 chart at the time significantly had its Solar Arc Sun opposition the USA Mercury tugging on that fanatical, power-hungry Mercury opposition Pluto which is being sparked up at the moment and for the next three years by tr Pluto in square. The Solar Arc Uranus was exactly opposition the USA Mars for an inflammatory, tinderbox mood.
All countries have their horror moments but the USA does appear to have more than most for what is supposedly a democracy.
Additional thought – the Inauguration chart for January 2021 assuming it isn’t delayed – has a hair-raising Uranus Mars in Taurus square Saturn Jupiter – which might well point to violent protests met with retaliating violence.
“Additional thought – the Inauguration chart for January 2021 assuming it isn’t delayed – has a hair-raising Uranus Mars in Taurus square Saturn Jupiter – which might well point to violent protests met with retaliating violence.”
I’m looking at Uranus/Mars of the Inauguration Chart as more of a covert threat, since it falls to 12th house of hidden enemies. Probably something on larger scale than Oklahoma Bombing, that definitely showed on Bill Clinton’s 1st term chart with Mars in 2nd house conjunct US Natal Sun (!) square Jupiter in 6th and opposing Uranus in 9th. I’m afraid of a visible assassination attempt on POTUS, and yes, this could happen with Trump too, some people are going to come out deranged from ordeals in the next couple of months.
My husband was attending Ohio State at that time, and drifted into the student protests that were happening there the 2 weeks before Kent State. It was one of THE most impactful events in his life – he still shares the story often.
His takeaway is “how fast it can turn into a police state”. The students were told to go to their dorms, but then the police tear gassed the dorms, so now the students were outside. He vividly remembers a “phalanx of police/guards in full riot gear with plastic shields” marching towards them. And was also aware that some of those guards were people he likely new from school.
He says, “Governments are afraid of new ideas. That’s the power of the young, the students and what terrifies those in power.”
Two weeks later the students were killed at Kent State. He.. and many other American men I know (all now in Canada), quit university. Most of them actually moved into the trade professions. I know one Berkeley astrophysicist who became a plumber!! My husband, a welder. I find this curious and interesting.
I read Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale decades ago, and was horrified. I happened to be in San Francisco on 9/11 and for the weeks following. Within days, gun stores were emptied, and new laws were created for “security”. That first week was terrifying… the roar of patriotism that instantly came forward shook me deeply.
anyways… all to say, it is a fine, fine line we are walking now, re: revisiting Democracy!
obviously, this, too, is up for a reset.
As seen in so many of your posts, Marjorie.
FYI: The December 2020 eclipse falls on the 14th, the day the electoral college meets and installs the next president.
Fifty years ago, I was a senior in college in Connecticut when Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia led widespread student strikes on college and university campuses across the US. One result was some colleges never holding graduation services, not unlike today. My 50th reunion, which would have been this month, is postponed a year.
I remember one weekend, when large demonstrations were planned in New Haven, CT, where Yale is located, rather a hot bed of activism. Many of my friends were going to the demonstrations, but I was busy with other plans. But I do remember a strong sense of foreboding — certain that sooner or later these would lead to violence and death. New Haven seemed a likely place. Kind of a shock that it did happen that weekend — at a quiet state university in middle-America.
What dismays me is that here we are 50 years later, still struggling for the same issues so dominant then: civil rights and racial justice, climate and environmental justice (the first Earth Day was 50 years ago too), voting and economic justice, and, of course, ongoing wars we were lied into entering.
Am not liking the transits on 21st January 2021. Let’s pray the elections are delayed, though probably unlikely. Another 4 years of The Donald!
You obviously mean 50 years ago.