40 years ago this year, four Kent State college students protesting the Vietnam War were gunned down by National Guard troops.

The “Kent State Massacre” had far reaching implications. Just ten days later, two student protesters were shot by police at Jackson State, a traditionally black school in Mississippi. It is no big secret that the Nixon Administration hoped to stamp out the anti-war movement with the threat of violence. It has also been speculated the COINTELPRO agents provocateur turned what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration into a violent spectacle in which campus buildings were set ablaze. When you consider all the other crimes committed by the Nixon Administration, these theories aren’t so hard to fathom.

Nixon’s strategy backfired, as many consider the Kent State Massacre to be what finally turned the mainstream citizen against the war in Vietnam. Universities around the nation held demonstrations in the wake of the killings, as the visual of impact of soldiers firing upon unarmed college students had a profoundly disturbing effect on even the most conservative American.

Presently, the Kent State campus is pockmarked with various memorials and reminders of that tragic day. However, according to the New York Times, present day students feel very little connection to what occurred there. Fourteen of 15 freshmen interviewed on the campus said they did not feel any connection with the lives of the students who were protesting the United States’ invasion of Cambodia at the time.

I'm 23 years old and in mind and body, I have a lot in common with those students interviewed. Critics of our generation would say that we are too worn down by perverse churches, theiving banks, and corrupt governance, and too satiated by fast food, video games and summer blockbusters, a combination that supposedly ensures that we succeed where Nixon failed in quelling the rebellion.

In moving to the East Bay only very recently from Michigan, I can't personally relate to stories of police brutality and possible uprising in Oakland. Having only heard the names of Oscar Grant and Johannes Mehserle in terms of the trial and not on a personal level, I feel I can only offer sympathy to those personally affected by the violence. However, as a student of history I can offer the opinion that Grant may not be alive any more, but if our generation heeds the call of history, we can ensure that his name can live on through many years, through many state and civil lines.