🔥 We’ve Been Here Before: Kent State Was the Warning.
Don’t let it happen again in Los Angeles. Or anywhere else.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
—George Santayana
The United States government has deployed troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles. Not for a disaster. Not for a war. But for protest.
It’s being framed as “order.” As “necessary.”
But we’ve seen what happens when military force is used against unarmed civilians on American soil. It’s not a hypothetical. It’s not a threat. It’s history.
And it’s called Kent State.
🩸 What Really Happened at Kent State
On May 4, 1970, students at Kent State University in Ohio gathered to protest President Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia.
They were young, many of them barely 20. They were angry. But they were unarmed.
The Ohio National Guard was called in to “restore order.” By noon, hundreds of Guardsmen with rifles, bayonets, and tear gas lined the campus.
Tensions escalated. Tear gas was fired. Students threw rocks.
And then at 12:24 p.m., without an official order to fire, 28 Guardsmen turned and opened fire.
In just 13 seconds, they fired 67 rounds into a crowd of college students.
4 students were killed.
9 more were wounded.
Some were shot in the back…fleeing.
None of them were armed.
Two of them weren’t even protesting. They were walking to class.
🕯️ And Then America Had to Look at Itself
Photos of the aftermath flooded newspapers.
One image of 14-year-old Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over Jeffrey Miller’s bloody body became iconic.
(Photo Credit: John Filo/Getty Images)
The U.S. was forced to ask:
“What are we willing to do to our own citizens in the name of control?”
The public response was massive. Over 4 million students went on strike.
Campuses across the country shut down.
Even conservative Americans who had supported the war, asked how things had gone this far.
🏛️ Why We Must Remember Kent State Now
Because what’s happening in Los Angeles echoes that same pattern.
Troops. Tear gas. Protestors labeled “insurrectionists.”
A government saying it’s for “safety” as it places Marines among civilians.
Don’t say it can’t happen again.
It already did.
Los Angeles is full of young people. Immigrants. Mothers. Families.
People afraid but still showing up to speak out.
That was Kent State. That is LA.
🛡️ What Gavin Newsom Is Doing Isn’t Radical, It’s Responsible.
Is he perfect? No.
But refusing to surrender your state to federal overreach is not treason.
It’s governance, balance, the exact kind of tension the Constitution was built to hold.
He’s doing what any governor should when their people are threatened:
Standing between the people and the crown.
✋ You Don’t Have to Agree With the Protest to Defend the Protestor
This isn’t about your politics.
It’s about your principles.
Because once the military is used to suppress dissent, it doesn’t matter who the president is or what party they belong to.
What matters is that the precedent is set.
And once it’s set, it can be used on you.
📢 We Don’t Need Another Martyr to Wake Up
We shouldn’t need blood on concrete to pay attention.
We shouldn’t need another photo of a young person dying at the hands of their own government.
We need to remember what happened the last time we ignored the warning signs.
And we need to say:
Not again.
Not here.
Not ever.
💬 If You’re Still Reading—Please Share This.
We don’t need to argue.
We don’t need to agree on everything.
But we do need to agree that this—this—is not how democracy survives.