Thursday; May 16

I had to make a quick trip to Ohio last week and drove close to Kent State University. For some of you, Kent State may not mean much, but for those of us who grew up in the last half of the 20th Century, the phase “Kent State” probably congers up some mixed opinions and a lot of sadness. On May 4, 1970 dozens of students were shot and four of them died during protests. What makes this incident so disturbing is that the shots were fired by Ohio National Guardsmen. In a sense, the event at Kent State captured a glimpse of what was going on in parts of our nation at that time. For most of my life, the phrase Kent State and the song “Ohio” have caused emotional pain.

You may be wondering why this comes bubbling to the surface – and the answer is that I am getting a strange sense of déjà vu. In light of the recent protests and disagreements on international affairs, I hope and pray that wisdom and common sense will prevail. We must make sure to agree that the enemy on these issues in not internal and we must put protecting our neighbors ahead of partisan opinions.

Let’s pray for our nation – and care about our citizens. When we don’t, bad things of historic proportion can happen.

Think About It!

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