The Girl in the Kent State Photo
<i>&quot;Back in Kent, Ohio, local business owners ran an ad thanking the National Guard. Mail poured in to the mayor&#x27;s office, blaming &quot;dirty hippies,&quot; &quot;longhairs&quot; and &quot;outside
agitators&quot; for the violence. Some Kent residents raised four fingers when they passed each other in the street, a silent signal that meant, &quot;At least we got four of them.&quot;
Nixon issued a statement saying that the students&#x27; actions had invited the tragedy. Privately, he called them &quot;bums.&quot; And a Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans
blamed the students for their own deaths; only 11 percent blamed the National Guard.&quot;</i><p><i>&quot;Back in Opa-locka, Mary Ann couldn&#x27;t go to Royal Castle for a burger without reporters and hecklers following her. Death threats filled the Vecchio family mailbox. &quot;It&#x27;s
too bad it wasn&#x27;t you that was shot.&quot; &quot;What you need is a good beating until you bleed red.&quot; &quot;I hope you enjoyed sleeping with all those Negroes and dope fiends.&quot; &quot;The
deaths of the Kent State four lies on the conscience of yourself.&quot;</i><p>When I read things like this I wonder: what the fuck is wrong with people that they are so vicious and lacking the smallest shred of empathy for a mere child who did nothing to deserve any of this, nor for the victims of a mass murder by people who&#x27;s duty it was to protect them?