DEAR EDITOR:

Around here, the memory of the Kent State tragedy is etched in our collective memories. Every spring, our local news outlets mark the date, May 4, 1970, with somber remembrances: the voices return, the photos resurface, and the terrible story is told again. We are reminded of an American tragedy that happened right here in Northeast Ohio, practically on our doorstep. That day, four young people were gunned down on the campus of Kent State University by Ohio National Guard troops. Nine others were wounded, some permanently.

Now, almost 56 years later, we are watching a similar tragedy unfold in Minneapolis, and it demands us to witness with clarity.

On Jan. 11, Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, mother and protestor, was shot multiple times in the face, and killed by a federal agent. Video footage and witness accounts indicate she was attempting to leave the scene when she was killed.

Then, just days ago, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital and lawful gun owner, was shot and killed during a protest. He was not brandishing his weapon; he was protesting. Video shows him being pepper-sprayed, tackled, and then shot nine times by federal agents. His weapon remained holstered the entire time.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were not violent criminals. They were citizens protesting the actions of their government, exactly the kind of civic engagement that’s supposed to be protected in a democracy. But unlike Kent State, the story being told by the Trump administration keeps shifting and changing to fit their narrative.

Their justifications flatly contradict what the public can plainly see.

We are being told by Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino and other officials not to believe our own eyes, but to believe the lies they are telling us. We are watching violence against civilians get laundered through official statements that blame the victims and perverts the truth. The same people who loudly assert the right of citizens to be armed are now calling protesters domestic terrorists.

This is how democracies die, and it begins with the quiet normalization of state violence against its own citizens.

I am reminded of George Orwell’s warning from the book “Nineteen Eighty-Four:”

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

We are living in the shadow of these words in this moment. And, we have a duty to speak up right now.

To speak loudly, and defend truth. The future is counting on us.

JOHN SHARTLE

Canfield