Where have all the protest songs gone?

“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio.” – Neil Young. Not sure why, but the lyrics have been running through my mind today. It leaves me wondering where have all the great protest songs gone? Maybe there are powerful songs today, and I’ve just missed them.

I suspect there may be people in my group of Facebook friends who don’t even know about the incident to which the lyrics from “Ohio” refer. Very quickly, the 1960s and early 1970s were a time of change in North America, particularly in the U.S. The war in Vietnam was raging and, in 1969, the U.S. invaded Cambodia. People were divided on the issue. Some backed the U.S. government, no matter what. Others questioned why young Americans were dying in a war half a world away, and then why the invasion of Cambodia was launched.

Sound familiar? When the U.S. started a war with Iraq after the 9/11 attacks, the nation was divided, though I suspect more were for the government action than against it. Don’t forget, UN weapons inspectors had already proven there were no weapons of mass destruction, but then-President Bush used that scare tactic to justify a war. If you disagreed with invading another country and starting a war, you were often considered un-American.

But it was different on May 4, 1970. Students at Kent State University in Ohio had been protesting the Vietnam War and invasion of Cambodia. They marched in protest in November 1969. And they were protesting on campus in the spring of 1970 and in the town of Kent, Ohio. Protests got out of hand when bars closed at night and bonfires were lit in the streets while some businesses had windows shattered. On the ground of KSU, the ROTC building, which was scheduled for demolition, was torched. Enter the National Guard.

Today we can look at countries like China and deride their stance on human rights. We can express shock when Buddhist monks are gunned down by Chinese military. The few pictures we see are horrifying. Yet, the U.S. is not innocent of such actions. On May 4, 1970, the National Guard, faced with student protest action, opened fire on young American citizens killing four and injuring nine in about 13 seconds of shooting. Two of those killed were among the protesters. Two others were simply students walking from one building to the next between classes. Guardmen claimed they felt threatened. The average distance between those killed and the armed National Guard was 345 feet (105 metres).

Neil Young wrote the song "Ohio", recorded it with friends David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, and release one of the most haunting protest songs of all time. For me, it ranks right up there with “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Powerful songs about key moments in our history.

So, what are you’re favourite protest songs? Songs with a message. Songs that matter.

Photos: The photos were taken by two Kent State students. John Filo was taking a break from work in the campus photo lab when he captured the top news photo of 1970: a girl screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller who was killed by the national guard. The girl was Mary Vecchio, a 15-year-old runaway from Florida. The photo won a Pulitzer prize. Howard Ruffner, a KSU student photographer, captured some of the best photos of the tragedy.