the poetry of dissent part 2

the poetry of  dissent part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard

Psychologist Doctor- surely Mr. Pritchard you can't blame yourself in any way for causing the Kent State shootings back in May 1970?

self- I drove to Richfield Ohio with a friend to pick up his Father during a teamster's trucking strike because the Ohio National guard had the roads of the trucking company blocked and secured the Friday night before the May 4th 1970 Kent State shootings and a armed soldier interrogated us at rifle point concerning our right to move freely about the roads of Ohio at night

Psychologist-I remember that too, the same national guard units that were at the trucking strike that Friday night three days later shoot and killed four students at Kent State University

self-yes, when I was interrogated by a soldier that Friday night I first suffered the cognitive discordance toward my country that plagues me to this day

psychologist-and

self-I felt inside all the ideals I had learn-ed as a boy about my country shatter, based on the soldiers truculent behavior towards two of our Countries citizens, me and my friend, who were on honest business, picking up his Father at work during a trucking strike and I had a sinister vague thought that the Ohio National guard was acting in a way not up to the American ideals

psychologist-what could you have done with your premonition about the Ohio soldiers that could have altered events at Kent State on a warm day in 1970 and kept two young women and two young men from being shot and killed? you were just a kid yourself

self-nothing, but I could have questioned earlier what I heard about Native Americans losing their land and right to exist, slavery in America, and bully bully thinking by the silent majority

psychologist-have you considered religion?