He’s lived in Ohio his entire life and of course, drew that sign himself. As he was telling me about how seeing news of the National Guard being deployed in LA, I could see him strain to hold back his emotions. He said it still hurts to see this 55 years later, but that he was heartened to see so many people standing here in community and solidarity. He also said that given his pain and trauma he almost didn’t come. When I asked why he showed up when it so obviously causes him pain he said simply, “Because I have to.”

....The first draft lottery in '69. If you didn't go through those times it's hard to understand what was going through people's heads, because--actually, only a couple years ago I finally put my draft card away. I carried it from the time I was eighteen until just a couple years ago, just because it was such an important thing at that time. It was not supposed to be--it's like your social security card--it wasn't supposed to be for identification, but you couldn't go anywhere at that time if you were a male who was obviously over eighteen without--that was your ID. You showed them your draft card. It was December 1st, '69. It's one of those dates I'll never forget. And I had a high number--mine was 263 or something like that. And the day after, on campus, the first few guys that you would run into, you'd say, "What was your number last night?" And somebody would say, "Oh, mine was 300-something." And somebody else would go, "3." And you knew he was drafted. So there was this dynamic going on all day long, it got by lunch time when two men would meet each other on campus, you wouldn't say hello, you wouldn't ask what the number was, you greeted each other by saying, "263," and the other guy would say, "48," and then you would start your conversation from there. That was all that was being discussed that day. These are the kinds of things that were leading up into that spring.....

I remember turning and looking in there and saying, "Well, that's strange, I don't see a single person in here either." So I walked across the hall, went out the other door. I'm walking down along the side of the Administration Building to the front of it, and I see this group of people. And I realized that--excuse me a second. [drinks water] You know, I work by myself all day long. I don't talk this long ever.....

And there was a guy sitting up on top of it, and the way they're built there's a big round hatch kind of in the center of this thing. There's no turret, it's not a tank, but there was a big round hatch. He was sitting up there, had an M-1, and he looked at another one of the Guardsmen, and the look on the guy's face who was sitting up on top, he had just had it, and I think he was probably one of the guys that came from the Teamster strike. But he was cussing and swearing and saying something about, "Goddamn these people! I feel like I'm a monkey in a zoo. When are these people gonna leave us alone?" And he had the gun, and I remember he slammed it down on top of the armored personnel carrier. I saw him slide down into that hatch, and the hand come back up, get the gun and went down inside. I just didn't like the feel of that. You just got too many angry people around. But still, I didn't think anything big would happen. Somebody might get punched. Somebody might get hit with the butt of a gun. Somebody might get arrested for no reason. I thought that might be where this would go.....

....[on indiscriminate shooting of tear gas that almost got into dorm building windows] If they saw somebody that looked like a student--I don't know what threat a student sitting in his dorm room posed to the National Guard at that moment.....

....And I tried to call home, and this is before the days of cell phones and everything, where everybody calls everybody immediately, and the phones were all dead already in the Stater office. I found a pay phone up in the hallway upstairs in Taylor Hall. Somebody was just getting off. I said, "Good, a phone that works." Dropped my dime in and made the call. I said, "Hey, it's me. I'm sure you've heard the news. I'm fine, everything is going okay." And in the middle of the sentence, that phone died. So I thought, Well, at least she heard from me. I don't like the way the conversation ended, but at least she heard from me.....

....So I went in [to the newspaper] the next day, and basically I didn't do any work for the next couple days, because my work was being the witness. I was being interviewed over and over and over again, by reporters and editors: "What did you see here? What did you see there?" So it may be one of the reasons why I've memorized so much of this; I had to do it for a couple of days. I recall it was just getting to me. On Wednesday--because I had gone through the shootings on Monday, had been at work Monday evening, had gone through all this on Tuesday, had gone through all of it again on Wednesday, and I just remember walking into somebody and saying, "Would you mind if I leave like an hour early? I need to get away from this for a little bit." And they said, "No, it's okay." I drove up to Virginia Kendall Park. I thought I just wanted to be away from everybody and everything for a while. And I pulled into the parking lot--and that's a big park, even the parking lot is pretty big--I saw one car. And I thought, This is great, because the chances of seeing this other person are pretty slim. And it was just a pretty day and I just started walking the trails back in the woods. I remember--I'm just one of these people who, my son and I are the same way, especially if there's some water around, if there's a rock you pick it up, you toss it at a tree in the woods or you toss it in the water. I've just always been like that. And I'm walking along and I'm stepping on all these rocks and I got just this strange feeling and I thought, These are just like the ones I saw thrown. And it was a weird sensation, because I never thought that I would think that, but I wouldn't touch the rocks, I hated walking on them, they just felt bad. But I kept going and I kept going for a while, and there was something about the day, there was some ravines off to the side and obviously some water down in there, and there was some fog, some mist coming off. And I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and I remember saying to myself, My God, why are they shooting tear gas here? I thought, This is stupid. This is mist, this is fog, these are rocks that have been in this park. And I walked on a little bit farther, and a tree limb cracked behind me, and it sounded exactly like that bolt-action on that rifle. And I jumped, I probably yelled, and I hot-footed it.....

....It's always difficult. It's always difficult. And I never am able to stop talking about it.....