Copyright: 1970
On May 4,1970, at Ohio’s Kent State University, political and cultural turmoil over the Vietnam War, not dissimilar from today’s student and faculty hatred of Jews and the war in the Middle East, erupted into the deaths of 4 students and injuries of 9 others.
President Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia, causing students to envision the senseless killing of thousands of innocent lives. Protesters burned down the Military Science building on campus, 5/1/1970. The university prohibited protesting; a ruling ignored by protesters. The major called in the Ohio National Guard who fired 13 rounds into the crowd. Each round found a target.
The Kent State tragedy, like a bolt of lightning, burned its way into the hearts and souls of students, faculties, and college administrators across the world. My UVA Mental Health class, then in its 3rd year, met 2 days later. The enrollment, as I recall, was 75-100 students. It was exam week. I was authorized by the dean to use my own discretion regarding the exam, including the option to delay until next semester.
“Your final exam,” I seriously stated, “will be a party at my home in one hour. You will be graded on how well you give your party.” I wrote my address on the blackboard and walked out.
I went to the nearest phone and said to Dottie, my wife, “We are having a party, but you have to do nothing. “Brown,” she replied, “what have you done now?” She did not derisively call me “Brown Bear,” my name when she’s annoyed, so I knew all was okay.
I drove home with uncertain expectations, but I was amazed by my student’s spontaneity, inventiveness, and creativity in “partying.” As the old song says, “The music is over, but the melody lingers on.” The party more than 54 years ago was like “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
The students, I later learned, went to UVA Intramural Sports and borrowed, among many other things, a large caliber rope for a “Tug of War” contest. With bellies full of festival foods and drink, they focused on a competition between the Nursing School Students and the College of Arts and Sciences. When the nurses won the tug of war the others yelled “Unfair,” owing to the advantage of a slope of my property. When the nurses took the downside of the slope, they won again.
According to the Police, always a sign of a good party, the music was too loud, disturbing my neighbors. When the Police returned at 1:00 AM, my neighbors felt that no neighborhood party should last as long as mine.
I believe my neighbors would have given my UVA student party a failing grade. I judged the UVA student party to have earned the grade I assigned, an A.
It’s been 19 years since I taught Mental Health at UVA. A few students stay in contact with me, one even said I was his “role model.” I miss those days. I miss the happiness I found in students, happiness that has slowly evaporated, replaced by dread, even despair.
Today, there is a new type of tug of war we are caught up in: it features a large loop of invisible rope in the middle in which most of us are trapped. The opposite ends of the rope are pulled by the very most radical extremes of political and cultural liberals opposed by the very most radical extremes of political and cultural conservatives. The loop in the middle is squeezing the life and sense of reality out of us. Extremes of any sort are unhealthy, unreasonable, and damaging. Why and how have we allowed the extremists to reign so boldly over us?
Extremists can be expected to behave in extreme ways. Today, a Christian organization, working with county poll registration records at the request of county officials, found 16 registered voters living at the same address. Thinking the voters must reside in a large house, they visited the house. There was no house at the address, only a cow pasture.
“Delivery” today is commonly associated with things brought to our door at our request. Amazon has changed our shopping habits. We go to a website, choose from colorful images, provide our credit card, and the product is soon delivered to our door.
Jesus Christ is accepted by Christians as God incarnate, the biblically promised Messiah, and He is “fully human and fully divine.” Jesus spent much of his 3-year ministry in prayer. His apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray. The Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6, is Jesus’s answer to that request.
“Deliver us from evil” is a particularly important part of the Lord’s Prayer for our presidential election. Specifically, I pray that God will deliver us from extremists who stop at nothing to elect their candidate. I pray that God will inspire every qualified person to vote. I pray that God will give each qualified voter the gift of discernment to elect the candidate who loves our Heavenly Father, loves our nation, and loves the incorruptible truth. Earnestly, I pray others will join me in prayer for our presidential election.
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Robert S. Brown Sr. Bob Brown