University should get Neil Young to play May 4

Dear Editor:

This year is the 35th anniversary of the May 4 shootings. This is an important milestone. A fitting tribute is deserved for those who died in this event. What would a fitting tribute be? What would unite the students, the city and even the nation on this day to remember those who fell for the spirit of freedom? This isn’t a time for partisan bickering about war or who was right or wrong. It’s a time to pay tribute to those who fell and to remember them. That’s why it’s called “Remembrance Day,” after all.

I believe something that could accomplish the goals listed above lies not within the university itself, but lies within the hearts of us all — music. We are all aware of (CSN and) Neil Young’s “Ohio.” I believe a fitting tribute to the students would be to have Neil Young perform at Kent State on Remembrance Day. Kent State has attracted big acts in the recent past — most notably Bob Dylan. Kent State can easily attract Neil Young. This would be something that most Kent State students would enjoy — have you ever walked through a dorm hall on May 4? If you have, you have surely heard “Ohio” blasting loudly through the students’ speakers. Kent State students have even made a remix of the song. Students, I ask you to write the Undergraduate Student Senate senators and express your feelings on the matter.

Attracting Neil Young to Kent would attract national attention to Kent State — not in the form of budget cuts, murders or other meaningless or detrimental publicity, but in the spirit of history and art uniting to bring the past and the present a little closer and to pay tribute to those who fell, by a person who took it upon himself to eternalize this day in history through music, so no one would ever forget the events that we hold so close to our hearts.

I’m afraid the university hasn’t “thought big enough” for their plans for the 35th anniversary of this event. Attracting Neil Young would unite the students through music and help us to remember our own student brothers and sisters who died for freedom. Let’s stop protesting this year and sit back and listen. Only when we all listen — together — can we really grow as a student body, as a city and as a nation.

Greg Cieslik

Junior computer information systems major