Kent Letters

In two more years, the Kent State killings will have happened half a century ago. So to some, a book like this might seem a minor historical curiosity at best, without any contemporary relevance. But they'd be terribly wrong. The issues that were raised half a century ago, the divisions that were opened, are still with us today. If anything, they've become even more virulent now. An administration that lies, incites violence, and stirs the frightened public to rage & hatred … it happened then, and it's happening now.Barbara Agte's slim collection of letters from her students of 1970 cover the gamut of reactions to those horrific 13 seconds of death. Many saw the killings as the end of the country they had known from childhood. And who's to say that they were wrong? For those who were of age then, the anguished words reacting to images still fresh in young minds will bring back powerful memories … and those memories will likely be mirrored by current events. I write this review with the images of current horrors still fresh in my mind and I wonder how it is that we seem to have learned so little in the past half century.So in a way this is my own letter to the author, who was wise to share those she received with the rest of us at last. I'm grateful that she did so, that she saved them for so many years, because the cries of shock & the yearning for peace & understanding are still with us now. Both as a moving historical document & as a cri de Coeur that resonates in these dark times as well, most highly recommended!

Barbara Sgte has done us all a great service by allowing us to read these emotional and confused letters, written by her students in the immediate aftermath of the 1970 Kent State shootings. These letters don't add any great insight into what happened on May 4, 1970 but then you wouldn't expect that from these students at that vulnerable time. What the letters do show is how confused the students felt and how damaging those days were to the sense of safety and stability those students had previously enjoyed. The book also shows us the compassion of Barbara Sgte because, although she is an invisible presence in the book, the faith and trust her students felt in dealing with her is clear from what they felt able to express in these letters. The letters also give a very good sense of the range of attitudes among students in those days and put the lie to anyone tempted to claim that all students at that time thought and acted as one.

Lovely compilation of thoughts and feelings of the youth of the 70's. Thank you so much for sharing these with us.

The shock and horror of the Kent State killings of 1970 comes to life in this compilation of students' letters written to Barbara Agte after members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire. Agte was teaching English at Kent State University in 1970 when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters killing four and wounding others. The campus was immediately shut down. All students and faculty were sent home. The remainder of the quarter was canceled. Agte wrote to all of her students and told them a reply of any kind from them about the killings would be enough to complete the interrupted quarter and earn them an "A". Kent Letters is the collected replies of those students. The replies are as varied as any cross section of American opinion would be. This collection of thoughts and opinions of under graduates caught up in the turmoil of the protests against the Vietnam War provides a unique look at what it was like to be young in 1970 in the middle of America. Students' opinions vary, but whether they supported the war or not and whether they condoned the civil disobedience or not, they were all shocked and horrified by the killing of four classmates by Ohio National Guardsman. The killings at Kent State have never been adequately explained. The pathetic official investigation that followed the massacre remains the last official word. No one knows who ordered the Guard to open fire. No one has ever stepped forward. No one knows why members of the Guard were carrying weapons loaded with live ammunition (a type of ammunition internationally banned by the Geneva Accord) . May 4, 2012, will be the 42nd anniversary of the Kent State killings. Armed forces killing their own people is perhaps more common today than it was in 1970. Public relations specialists in Syria, Mexico, Pakistan. Afghanistan and other places offer rationales for their current holocausts that are as lacking in conviction and sincerity as the Governor of Ohio's was in 1970. Kent Letters is a small book. It will not change the world. It doesn't even try. It doesn't bother trying to answer the "money questions" Who did this? Why did this happen? Who is responsible? Instead, Kent Letters gathers the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of the friends and fellow students of the dead and offers them to the rest of us to be arranged and appreciated or dumped like picked flowers...Timothy McAndrews

Whoa! This is one powerful book --- raw with horror, grief, and frustration, yet remarkable in its insight and sensitivity. Students, young and innocent, caught up in the craziness of the Vietnam War, write of the impact of the murders of fellow students by the National Guard in letters sent to their perceptive, compassionate teacher. Out of profound respect for her students and with a need to advocate for peace, Ms. Agte has published these letters (and her remembrance of spirited Allison). She's given us all another chance to remember, regret, and recommit ourselves to a better future for all our children.

KENT LETTERS STUDENTS' RESPONSES TO MAY 1970 MASSACRE BY BARBARA BECKER AGTE IS BRILLIANTLY CRAFTED USING LETTERS STUDENTS IN HER ENGLISH CLASS WROTE ABOUT THE HORROR THEY AND THEIR FRIENDS EXPERIENCED WHEN THE OHIO NATIONAL GUARD KILLED AND INJURED SOME OF THEIR CLASSMATES. FOR 42 YEARS MS. AGTE HAS CARRIED THESE LETTERS WITH HER AND NOW THEY ARE THE SOUL OF THIS BOOK. MANY OF THE LETTERS ARE PHOTOGRAPHED IN PART, SHOWING THE HANDWRITTEN PAGES. THERE IS WISDOM IN THE RESPONSES AND WITH THE TURMOIL WORLD WIDE AND IN OUR OWN COUNTRY TODAY, KENT LETTERS IS A MUST READ.