Sometimes you can almost inhale memories of the past, regardless of how long ago they were. Imagine, 55 years has flown through the time tunnel of this baby boomer’s incarnation and it feels like yesterday. May 4th, 1970 was a very traumatic day for us anti war activists. It became the poisonous icing on the cake for the nationwide student strikes after news of Nixon’s bombing campaign against the civilians of Cambodia. When that information found its way through a very different media than we have today, millions of Americans took to the streets. Back home at Brooklyn College we took to the campus and closed it down! Going through the grounds of our beautiful commuter school many of us chased the military recruiters away, and handed out flyers to all our fellow students. The humor of this tale is when a few of us invaded the school president’s office, as he and his staff called it an early day. My fellow ‘ self appointed leader’ and myself sat behind the fancy desk smoking the man’s expensive cigars.

A day or two later we all heard of the four Kent State University students shot down by National Guardsmen… basically the same age as them. Neil Young captured this sad episode in his quickly written song:

 Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Here I was a twenty year old guy who only cared about two things: Playing on the school football team and chasing girls. Politically I was beginning to understand about our empire, the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about in his 1961 farewell address. The sad reality is that with my student deferment I had no fears of being shipped off to the Nam, as returning vets called it. Being self centered was a luxury that many of us had while our non college neighbors were being drafted. At college I would listen to one or two of my baseball team buddies rail on about Nixon and the right wing shit that his administration was shoveling. In ‘ 68 when the Viet Cong did their Tet Offensive, our freshman baseball team pitcher Larry S. opened my eyes a bit. Yet, still not enough to get me off my ass and into the protest mode.

A month after the school strike and the Kent State massacre my cousin Mick and I went to Virginia Beach, Virginia for the summer. We found part time jobs at night and spent our days at the beach. Plenty of southern girls to chase, and plenty of touch football in the sand. Now, Virginia Beach, next to Norfolk ( called by the sailors ‘ No Fuck’) had a bunch of Naval Bases. We made lots of contacts with the ‘ Squids’ as they were referred to by the locals.. Guys the same age as us who had signed up for the service for various reasons, primarily to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Many of those sailors  were naive as hell as to why there was this so called war in Vietnam. The more we spoke with them the more we realized how oblivious to things like empire and protest they had become. Being in the military was basically, according to them, to just shut up and do what you were told.

Returning home that late summer my primary focus was on the football camp I needed to attend. Once again, and saying this with remorse, I lost my animus towards the so called Vietnam War ( in reality it was a Civil War) for awhile. I should have done more and join in with the thousands of my fellow New Yorkers to oppose it. Having that deferment for the remainder of my college years fed into my terrible self interest. Yes, I vehemently debated anyone and everyone who stood there in front of me in support of Nixon and his war. Should have done more… as my dear late anti war activist buddy Walt put it: Nuff Said.

There was a scene in the fine film Inherit the Wind (1960) about the famous 1925 ‘ Scopes Monkey Trial’ that prefaced both the Vietnam War and today’s Trump agenda. Attorney Clarence Darrow, defending Scopes, quoted from the Bible, Proverbs 11:29 in regard to the mindset of fanatical Christians opposing the teaching of evolution ( another WOKE ideal?): ” He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind… and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart.”

PA Farruggio
May 4th, 2025