Someone on their social media made a reference to "calling out the National Guard": https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2023/09/02/uc... /

Their excuse sounds pretty lame to me. Does anyone remember the "famous" Shannon Sharpe call from 1996? I sure as hell don't. It's not something that shows up in the media. And why would they choose a Shannon Sharpe incident? He didn't go to UCF. He went to Savannah St. Pretty weak.

A classic case of a lack of cultural literacy. How quickly we forget in this instant gratification era.

When is it no longer too soon to go there? When everyone from that era is dead? Just wondering.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?

I'll cut the writer some slack--that was 50+ years ago. A little bad taste. It's basically ancient history to any kid in college right now. I'm happy they know enough of the details of the event to make the joke.

We hired an intern from KSU several years ago who not only didn't know much, if anything about the May 4 shootings, but had zero knowledge/awareness of the Vietnam War.

I have no problem believing that the 23 year old social media intern running the twitter account that night has essentially no idea why referencing the National Guard in the same sentence as Kent State might rub some people the wrong way.

Call it...~30 years before the intern was born? Yeah, that tracks.

Since when did abhorrent acts come with a statute of limitations. A little bad taste? Ancient history? Tell that to the former Athens County Commissioner who's been a wheel chair bound attendee at numerous Bobcat events.

There is a "statute of limitations" on these things, as the Mrs. Lincoln joke above indicates. If you said that to the generation in the North that experienced these things, it wouldn't be just a bad joke, it would be callous and you might be shunned from polite society for uttering such a thing. Now, however, it comes off as a somewhat crude joke, but one you kind of laugh at just a little, at least internally.

The National Guard joke in relation to Kent State has not reached that "statute of limitation yet," as Alan has described we still have living folks who where wounded in that confrontation. We also have parents and siblings still alive of people who were killed. Give it another 50 years, and folks would find that crude joke at least just a little funny.

You may not like it, but that's human nature.

For an anecdote of the Kent State shooting from a 30-something former non-native Ohioan (I grew up near Philadelphia, moved back there a couple of years ago):

I think I may have had one social studies teacher in middle school reference the Kent State/National Guard incident as part of a broader point describing the general state of civil affairs in America during the 60's and 70's. She also went to Akron during this time, so it was very raw and real to her. Fast-forward to college, and I honestly had completely forgotten about it until maybe 3/4 through my fall quarter freshman year, where a friend mentions it and I had to ask what he was talking about. This was in 2009.

I am in no way trying to disrespect the tragedy and what it means to the area. It obviously stays in our minds because many of us grew up in Ohio and are old enough to remember hearing about it when it happened (or experience it first hand...) or for us younger folks, had parents/relatives that were alive when the news broke.

Which does bring up an interesting discussion as to what that is? this tragedy just does not seem to pierce the general knowledge of the people in this nation born after 1970 or and/or live outside of Ohio.

Good answer. That was the point of the question. If I would've been the intern's boss I would've cracked up and then probably told him he crossed the line a bit. I'm probably a little more callous than most. Hopefully that kid ends being the next Mel Brooks and pushing entertainment back to the edge again. Nobody has done an inquisition musical scene in a while.

And it "stays on our minds" every time it plays on the radio or Spotify or however folks listen to music these days. Often called the greatest protest record, it was actually banned by some AM stations when it came out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_... )

Yes, it's a haunting song, and I get a cold shiver up my spine every time I hear it. Takes me back to a very sad time in our shared history.