At Kent State

 Frank Ryan, one of the professors in the wonderful philosophy department at Kent State, showed me and Treena on a pilgrimage to the site of the Kent State Massacre. He was just starting out himself at the University of Colorado at Boulder at the time. Frank's telling of the story was plangent and detailed and loving and suffused with passion and anger and grief. 

I'll try to say more about it here when I can. I am still absorbing the first shock of it. One of the biggest reasons to visit Kent State was to make this pilgrimage. 

But for now I'll say that bringing this event to consciousness and making it a part of the university's life, creating the visitor center with its incredible exhibit and video (and audio) footage, the research library devoted to studying it, is nothing but good. Relating to grief is nothing but good. It doesn't feel that way, sometimes, but it's true. 

For a very long time Kent State tried to ignore what had happened. But this only resulted in further pain.