Join us in Kent May 1-4, 2010. 40th Annual Commemoration. Sponsored by students of the May 4 Task Force (M4TF) http://m4tf.org/ Tentative schedule of events:

Saturday, May 1, & Sunday, May 2: National Student Activism Conference sponsored by KSU student organizations including Anti-Racist Action (ARA), Kent State Anti-War Committee (KSAWC), May 4 Task Force (M4TF) and others. May 1 focus: anti-racism action; May 2 focus: modern student activism. NOTE: Mark Rudd & other local/national ex-SDS members & leaders will participate as decided by modern students at the conference. Former SNCC activists & Black Panthers are also welcome*

Saturday, May 1: off campus Kent State SDS (1968-69) Reunion, featuring many Kent SDS veterans & national SDS leaders including Mark Rudd & others. Also, Kent State activism history documentary film premier: "Thunder in the Heartland", by Danny Miller. Film shown on KSU campus.

A new Hollywood film, mostly based upon the soon-available Alan Canfora memoir book, is currently assembling a cast & will be filmed imminently. See recent online news:

http://www.hollywood.com/movie/Kent_State/5384665/

http://www.starmagazine.com/news/15176?comment_page=3

http://media.www.kentnewsnet.com/media/storage/paper867/news/2009/02/09/News/May-4.To.Hit.The.Big.Screen-3618966.shtml

DAILY KENT STATER NEWSPAPER:

MAY 4 to hit the big screen -- Film based on Canfora memoir

by Melissa Dilley, DAILY KENT STATER, Issue date: 2/9/09

A major motion picture could be filming on Kent State's campus as early as this spring.

A film based from May 4, 1970 survivor Alan Canfora's memoir "Ohio" is being adapted into a screenplay.

The movie, like the memoir, will chronicle the life of Canfora and his childhood friend Bill Caldwell. When Caldwell is killed in Vietnam, the book focuses on Canfora's activist efforts against the war which ultimately end in the May 4 shootings.

May 4, 1970 -- prelude to tragedy -- my brief description:

My frightened girlfriend stayed in my apartment after I prepared two black protest flags. I purposefully chose black material to match my dark mood of despair and anger following the recent death of my friend Bill Caldwell in Vietnam. Four hundred Ohio national guardsmen (ONG) were in the city of Kent and 800 were on the campus. Leaving my apartment, I walked past many of these soldiers, went several blocks east to the Kent State campus, and joined my friends on the KSU Commons at noon. About 1,000 students had joined the protest rally, but classes were being held on campus as usual.

We assumed we still could exercise our Constitutional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom to dissent. Immediately as our peaceful anti-war rally began, approximately 75 members of the Ohio National Guard attacked our peaceful gathering. As these guardsmen wearing helmets and gas masks marched and fired tear gas, we ran away from the KSU Commons up over "Blanket Hill" and down into the Prentice Hall dormitory's parking lot.

Alan Canfora extends his condolences to the family of Charles Fassinger who died November 22, 2008, at his home in Tennessee. Mr. Fassinger was being treated for leukemia but died in his sleep unexpectedly at home, according to his daughter Susan Crawford.

On May 4, 1970, Lt.-Col. Charles Fassinger was the highest-ranking uniformed officer on Blanket Hill at Kent State University when a different officer shouted the verbal command ordering Troop G shooters to fire 67 gunshots into a crowd of unarmed student anti-war protesters.

In recent years, Mr. Fassinger was the most visible spokesperson representing the guardsmen. Fassinger visited the campus & spoke casually with KSU students, professors and May 4 Task Force students.

Fassinger extended his hand to Alan Canfora on the KSU campus in April of 2007. On May 15, 2008, Canfora & Fassinger appreared together onstage at an educational forum in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored by the Ohio Historical Society. Again, we had the opportunity to meet privately and speak cordially.

A) a new 2008-2009 Hollywood feature film linking Vietnam & Kent State, partly based upon the soon-published memoir by Alan Canfora, is now on the horizon;

B) a new 2008-2009 international TV program will prove Alan Canfora was correct in 2007 when he revealed audio-recorded proof of the May 4, 1970, verbal ORDER TO FIRE at Kent State University. The militaristic, shouting voice on the recording will be analyzed for positive identification;

C) new investigations of additional hidden Kent State 1970 evidence are coming in Washington and Ohio. We also seek a government-recognized Truth Commission.

D) the cover-up of intentional murder at Kent State is now destroyed and will be more fully revealed in days, weeks and months ahead.

Stay tuned here at alancanfora.com and at the educational web site of KENT MAY 4 CENTER: http://may4.org/

Click here for Alan's earlier site with PHOTOS

*Text of May 4, 2009, speech delivered on The Commons of Kent State University by Alan Canfora, Director of the Kent May 4 Center since 1989. Canfora was shot through his right wrist by an M1 bullet fired by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970 during an anti-war demonstration.*

“TASKS OF THE MAY 4 MOVEMENT”

On this solemn May 4 day of commemoration in 2009, as we have for each of the past 39 years, with respect & determination we pause to pay tribute to our fallen sisters and brothers: Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer, William Schroeder & Jeffrey Miller.

Allison Krause, the brilliant young artist in the KSU Honors College, killed 343-feet away because she, along with her lover Barry Levine, dared to cry out against war and the National Guard invasion of our campus on May 4, 1970, only one day after she declared to a National Guard officer: “…flowers are better than bullets”.

“RIGHT HERE, GET SET, POINT, FIRE!” – exact words of the recently-discovered Ohio National Guard verbal command to shoot unarmed Kent State students on May 4, 1970. Seconds before the massacre, which ONG officer shouted this order? General Robert Canterbury? Lieutenant Colonel Charles Fassinger? Major Harry Jones? COVER-UP ENDED May 1, 2007!

Click here for EXCLUSIVE April 30, 2007, Alan Canfora preview announcement of proof of 1970 ORDER TO FIRE by KBOO radio in Portland, Oregon -- audio file (Windows Media)

* MEDIA INQUIRIES: phone Alan Canfora at 330-745-1097 *

AOL NEWS audio, video and poll results 52% support new 2007 investigation

Yahoo ABC-TV news video Alan Canfora, May 1, 2007

ROBBY STAMPS MEMORIAL TRIBUTE:

Join us at Kent State University, Saturday, October 4, 3:30pm, in the Governance Chamber on the 2nd floor of the Student Center.

Sponsored by the KSU students of the May 4 Task Force and the Kent May 4 Center, we welcome your attendance. This event is free and open to the public. Video and photo images of Robby will be presented and public tribute comments will follow.

The event will conclude with a walk outdoors to the May 4 site where Robby was shot in 1970.

Robby Stamps died in June of 2008 after suffering the deadly effects of Lyme Disease. One of the nine KSU students shot and wounded by bullets at KSU on May 4, 1970, Robby was a longstanding outspoken advocate seeking truth and justice at Kent State.

Robby is the second of our 1970 injured casualties to pass away. Jim Russell died of a heart attack in Oregon in June of 2007. Russell's family will join us again on Saturday in Kent.

Submitted by Alan Canfora on Sat, 2008-04-05 21:19.

May 4, 2009: JOIN US at noon -- Kent State University -- 39th ANNUAL COMMEMORATION of 1970 Kent State tragedy.

Join us at Kent State University, May 4, 2009, for the 39th annual commemoration of the May 4, 1970 tragedy. At noon, outdoors on the KSU Commons, join the modern KSU students of the May 4 Task Force and their invited guest participants/speakers, including:

May 4 eyewitness Mary Ann Vecchio; Pulitzer-prize winner photographer John Filo; 1969 Ann Arbor White Panther leader Pun Plamundon; Laurel Krause, sister of Allison Krause; May 4 casualty Alan Canfora; 1970 eyewitness Steve Drucker; May 4 eyewitness Chic Canfora; & other speakers & musicians.

May 3 evening events:
7pm: Kiva, Student Center, POETRY readings.
11pm: CANDLIGHT MARCH departs KSU Commons.
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL all night long: sign up with M4TF students to reserve your 30-minute vigil spot.

For more information, contact the May 4 Task Force students: http://dept.kent.edu/may4/

See also, regarding the 2009 May 4 Symposium sponsored by the KSU administration: http://www.kent.edu/About/History/May4/Democracy/index2.cfm

Finally, KSU is planning a new May 4 Site Visitor's Center in Taylor Hall:
http://www.kent.edu/may4/

JOIN US. All events are free & open to the public. *In case of rain, May 4 Commemoration will be held in the KSU Student Center Ballroom.

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May 3-4, 2008: JOIN US in Kent
38th annual Commemoration -- all events free and open to public -- sponsored by May 4 Task Force students at KSU: http://dept.kent.edu/may4/

May 3: 7pm, Kiva Auditorium of the KSU Student Center, RON KOVIC will introduce his film, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. Kovic will also answer audience questions after the film. A brief poetry reading session will occur to start the program.

May 3: 11pm-midnight: Annual candlelight march across the KSU campus. March culminates at Prentice Hall Parking Lot where our martyrs died in 1970. All-night vigil from midnight to noon. Contact May 4 Task Force students to sign-up for your 30-minute vigil reservation: http://dept.kent.edu/may4/

May 4: 11am-noon: pre-Commemoration music by Tropidelic Band.
May 4: Noon-2pm: 38th annual commemoration event sponsored by the dedicated KSU students of the May 4 Task Force.
Speakers include: Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector, expert on Iraq/Iran crisis; Ron Kovic, anti-war activist Vietnam Veteran and author; the family of revolutionary hero & attorney William Kunstler; 1970 KSU wounded students Dean Kahler and Joe Lewis, Jr.; other speakers to be announced. LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF KENT AND JACKSON STATE!

NOTE: the annual anti-Iraq War march from KSU to downtown Kent will follow the commemoration.

May 4: 6pm: The Kent Stage, East Main Street, downtown Kent: music event with several live bands and more.

_____________________________

MAY 4 TASK FORCE
"Truth: The First Casualty of War"

May 2 - 4, 2007
Kent State University

NOTE: Mary Ann Vecchio will be the guest of the Kent May 4 Center in Kent, Ohio, during May 1-5, 2007. She will offer a comment on May 4 at the noon commemoration.

May 2: 3:45-5 p.m. Guided Campus Tours with Thomas Hensley and May 4th State Historical Marker Commemoration, Kiva, KSU Student Center.

INVITATION: Our dear friend, my blood-brother, Dr. Tom Grace, our esteemed comrade and historian, will deliver an oration upon the dedication of the Ohio state historical marker at the Kent State University campus on the afternoon of May 2, 2007. You are invited! Join us.

Beware of California tourist-guide author William A. Gordon.

Beware of his misleading books about Kent State 1970: FOUR DEAD IN OHIO and also THE FOURTH OF MAY. Both are the same bogus 1981 book sold with two titles in 1990 and 1995.

Beware of his repeated attacks against Alan Canfora, Kent May 4 Center (KM4C), May 4 Task Force (M4TF) students, KSU professors and many others.

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William A. Gordon's Kent State vendetta: 1984-2009

During 37 years of our ongoing May 4 Movement for truth and justice at Kent State in Kent, Ohio, one peculiar individual has maintained a perpetual vendetta against Alan Canfora, Kent May 4 Center, May 4 Task Force, Kent State University, KSU Professor Jerry M. Lewis, the late KSU Professor Glenn Frank and others too numerous to mention here.

William A. Gordon, aka Bill Gordon, was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, and attended Akron University as a freshman when the students were killed at Kent State in 1970. Bill Gordon transferred to KSU, curried favor with KSU student government leaders and, for a brief time, played a small role in the early KSU movement seeking truth and justice until he graduated KSU in 1973.