brainrow

Thirty-seven years is a long time.

It’s about half the average human lifespan.

By the time a typical American male turns 37, he may already be shopping for some impractical extravagance — like an expensive sports car — to tide him over the dreaded “mid-life crisis” that all the experts tell him to expect. He’s already older than half of his fellow Americans, and substantially more than half of the world’s population.

Thirty-seven years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen were ordered to break up a student anti-war rally on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio. They put on gas masks, fired tear gas, and advanced with fixed bayonets to clear the Commons where the protesters were gathered.

When they had cleared the Commons and were returning to their original positions, one group of Guardsmen suddenly stopped, turned, and fired into the crowd of students.

Thirteen seconds. Sixty-seven shots. Thirteen hit, all students. Four dead in Ohio.

One of those wounded, Alan Canfora, has listened to an audio recording of the shooting. Right before the first shots, he believes he hears “Right here. Get set. Point. Fire.” (You can listen to a short audio clip. The orders, if present, are faint.)

“There has been a 37-year cover-up at Kent State. The commanding officers have long denied there was a verbal command to fire. They put the blame on the triggermen,” Mr Canfora told the Guardian.

He said he wants the FBI to use new technology to analyse the recording. He also said he planned to post an audio clip of the recording on two websites.

Mr Canfora, who was 21 years old at the time of the shootings, was barely 60 metres away from the Guards when they opened fire. He was shot in the wrist.

“They stopped, turned, raised the weapons, began to shoot and continued to shoot for 13 seconds,” he said. “It was like a firing squad.”

The young National Guardsmen moved on. Got married. Got jobs. Had careers. By now, some may have retired. They have friends and families who love them. Children and grandchildren.

A lot of water under the bridge in 37 years.

Allison Krause would be 56 years old now. She would have celebrated her birthday on April 23, just a week ago this past Monday.

Jeffrey Glen Miller would be 57.

Sandra Scheuer would be 57.

William Schroeder would be 56.

No careers. No children. No grandchildren.

Yep, a lot of water under the bridge.

The United States was introduced to the seven Mercury astronauts on April 9, 1959.

They were living symbols of American youth, energy, courage, and boundless possibilities. So it’s hard to believe that now there are only two:

Wally Schirra, one of the original astronauts in the Mercury 7 project, died Thursday at age 84, NASA officials said.

Schirra died in California, the officials said. He was the fifth American in space and the third to orbit Earth.

He was the only astronaut who flew in three of the nation’s pioneering space programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

The only surviving Mercury astronauts are John Glenn and Scott Carpenter.

Update: Wally Schirra never flew again after Apollo 7. Time magazine tells why.

Okay, I think I know what’s happening here.

When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attacks, we drove out the Taliban and the dreaded religious police, who executed teachers, banned music and jailed men for trimming their beards.

Apparently some of the religious police settled in Millersville, Pennsylvania.

A woman denied a teaching degree on the eve of graduation because of a MySpace photo has sued the university.

Millersville University instead granted Stacy Snyder a degree in English last year after learning of her Web-published picture, which bore the caption “Drunken Pirate.”

“I dreamed about being a teacher for a long time,” said Snyder, 27, who now works as a nanny.

The photo, taken at a 2005 Halloween party, shows Snyder wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic “Mr. Goodbar” cup. It was posted on her own MySpace site.

Although Snyder apologized, she learned the day before graduation that she would not be awarded an education degree or teaching certificate.

They hate us for our freedom.