I was at Michigan State finishing my graduate work and the spring quarter (quarters back then) went to a pass/fail system so as not to cause even more angst whatever that meant. I was upset over KSU and our university's reaction to it because I wanted to take the exams for grade point reasons and going to "pass/fail" screwed up my GPA (before grade inflation trust me). I had just had my doctoral interview at Columbia (already beset by riots) and frankly felt the nation was sinking into some sort of abyss which indeed it was.
I was in the graduate stacks the Saturday after KSU..7th floor..carrel 721..how can I forget my home away from home...when MSU did its sympathy demonstration. The power and might of a big ten university is demonstrated when 25,000 students can appear on a saturday afternoon with another 15000 on Grand River Ave. held out by the Michigan National Guard...and may I add, all armed and all with live ammunition. The crowd went from huge and angry to huge and scared. I watched from the safety of the 7th floor as I had no stomach for any of this. 40 years later I still don't. It was an iconic waste of life. It was an iconic governmental overreach. Furthermore, whatever the provocation, it was murder of sorts and distasteful to the extreme to this day.
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