I'm gonna get to meet Will Pitt at the Kent State May 4 commemoration!

[liberalhistorian]

I'm a graduate of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. During my student days, I was a member of the May 4 Task Force, the group responsible for planning and implementing the yearly commemoration of the May 4, 1970, shootings by the Ohio National Guard during a campus anti-war protest. We also held educational forums throughout the year, and served as a liasion between the wounded students, the families of the murdered students, and the university and the public.

Being involved with the Task Force was the highlight of my college years, and I'm still friends with some of the wounded students and with many fellow Task Force members. I'm also on the email list for the current Task Force so that I can keep up with what's happening.

I live less than an hour away from Kent, so I usually attend the commemorations and the programs and candlelight march and vigils held the evening of May 3 (at 11 p.m. on May 3, we silently march holding candles around the perimeter of the entire campus, then hold vigils throughout the night and into the next morning at the spots where each of the four students were murdered, it's an incredibly moving experience like nothing else).

Well, I found out via the email list that they'd invited our very own Will Pitt to be one of the speakers at the commemmoration as well as on the panel discussion the evening of May 3. The theme this year involves patriotism and dissent, and will include discussions of the Patriot Act, so Will should fit in perfectly! I haven't been able to check my email lately, but when I finally checked it today I happily discovered that it is, indeed, official, and Will will, indeed, be a part of this year's commemmoration!

So not only will I finally get to meet our esteemed Mr. Pitt, I may even be able to join the Task Force for their traditional May 3 pre-program dinner that will hopefully include Will (I don't know for sure yet if it will).

Will, thanks for formally accepting the invitation, you'll love the Task Force, and you're a perfect choice, considering this year's theme! And, of course, I do expect you to bring some copies of your book, as well. Since the fascist wingnuts at Conservative Underground consider you to be a "shameless self-promoting conspiracy theorist", I expect you to not let them down and to live up to that label! :evilgrin:

[NightTrain]

1. Pitt, you lucky motherfucker!!!

For months now, Lisa and I have been trying to figure out how to finally make our long-overdue first meeting a reality, and now you get to meet her before I do! Douche bag. :evilgrin:

[liberalhistorian]

3. Don't worry, Dean, I promise to restrain

myself and conduct myself with at least some decorum with him, unlike other groupies, although I DO happen to know a lot of hide-a-way places in Kent! :evilgrin: :bounce: (Just kidding, Dean!)

We WILL meet one of these days, Dean, I promise. Of course, it would help if we weren't several states away from each other, though. Since I'll be out of work as of this week, maybe I can get Will to hire me at Truthout!!!!

[NightTrain]

5. Yo, Lisa! How about if I call you tonight?

Right now, I'm listening to Laura Flanders on Air America Radio. When it goes off at 10:00, how's about if I ring you up?

[liberalhistorian]

8. Sure, but like I said in another

post, I've downed about two glasses of wine in a row and am working on my third, so I'm not sure just how coherent or awake I'll be, lol!

[NightTrain]

11. Oh no! Another fucking drunk in my life? Just what I need!

You know I'm just kidding, right?

[liberalhistorian]

14. LOL!

Yes, hon, I know you're kidding, at least I HOPE you are! I rarely indulge in the products of the vine, but given the week I've had and the week I'm gonna have, seeing that bitch take over my job like I've been afraid for three years would happen, I think I've earned it.

[NightTrain]

15. How about if I call you tomorrow night instead?

First thing tomorrow morning, I'm going to call back the place where I applied for work last week. So if I call you tomorrow night, I ought to have some news for you. And with any luck, the news will be good! Cross your fingers.

[liberalhistorian]

18. Sure, Dean, that'd

be great! Hopefully, you'll have some good news.

[NightTrain]

31. Well, I *would* call you...

...but ya gotta get the hell off the Internet so I don't get keep getting a fargin busy signal! :eyes:

[cmd]

2. Is it time for a NE Ohio gathering?

Keep us posted on times and places.

[liberalhistorian]

4. Indeed, I really think we're long overdue for

a NE Ohio gathering, I know there are more than enough DUers around here. Some of us tried to organize a gathering last fall, but didn't get too far with it. Maybe we should try again!

[liberalhistorian]

19. I'm going to try to start organizing one

although given how hard it was to pull everyone together last time, and the fact that it seemed to just fizzle out, I'm not sure how successful I'll be.

[cmd]

22. Thank you

We have a time and city, so that should not be a problem. I'm not familiar with Kent hangouts at all. I'll help out where I can.

[liberalhistorian]

23. I don't think we could do it

May 3 and/or 4, it's not enough notice and it's in the middle of the week. Besides, the evening of May 3 is totally booked with the program and candlelight march and vigil. It'll have to be on a weekend at another time.

[NewHampster]

6. I met Pitt in Cambridge and well,

He Drinks well, is very personable, drinks well, says he can throw darts and seemed real to me. I liked the guy and look forward to having a chance to chat with him more some day. He's not at all the pretentious poster we see on DU.

[liberalhistorian]

7. In all honesty, when I first came on here,

I thought he was pretentious as hell. Then I got to know him through his posts and Truthout, and changed my opinion on that.

I've heard he's very down-to-earth, unpretentious, and easy to talk to in person from DUers who've met him, and I believe that. So Will, ya better not prove me wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:evilgrin:

[NewHampster]

9. He is everything you say

and I'm not just saying that 'cause I want to be in his administration someday. wait, yes I am.

[liberalhistorian]

10. LOL!

Brown-noser!

If Will ever makes it to the WH someday, you know he'll be swamped by about fifty thousand DUers hoping for something for themselves or a family member!

[NewHampster]

12. One night in the Lincoln Bedroom

unless Theresa completely redecorates it.

[liberalhistorian]

13. LOL!

Well, hopefully Will will be true to his principles and not charge you TOO much for the privilege. Of course, I'll be his press secretary then so maybe I'll put in a good word for ya!:evilgrin:

[sniffa]

20. yeah, nice guy

he smeLLs Like hot dogs though. other that, great guy. :P

[liberalhistorian]

21. Well, I suppose there are

a lot worse things he could smell like besides hot dogs!

If he likes to drink, there are about forty million bars in Kent, so that shouldn't be a problem! :evilgrin:

[VelmaD]

16. Lucky Girl!

Will is a lot of fun in person. :) He's a doll-baby. :evilgrin:

Plus he's a hell of a public speaker and I'd imagine he'll really sink his teeth into the topic on this one. The last time I heard him speak in person about the PATRIOT Act he was ON FIRE.

[liberalhistorian]

17. I think that was how he came

to the attention of one of the Task Force members, the sister of one of the wounded students (and she was there that day, as well). She heard an audio tape of one of his Patriot Act speeches, and told the Task Force they simply HAD to have him as a speaker.

[bobbieinok]

24. I will never forget how badly Kent State freaked me out

[liberalhistorian]

29. You really get the full measure of it

when you get to know the families and see just how painful it was and is for them and how they've suffered, and how they continue to suffer from the ignorance and hateful cruelty of so many idiots who still think those kids "got just what they deserved."

Especially the parents of Sandy Scheur, who was on her way to a speech pathology class (she was a speech therapy major). And the wounded students have some very painful wounds and memories as well that have never totally diminished after 34 years. I remember my first May 4 commemoration in 1986 (I transferred there), walking next to Mrs. Scheur during the candlelight march, then watching her face twisted in pain, the tears falling, when we arrived at the roped-off spot where her daughter fell, shot in the neck from THREE HUNDRED FEET AWAY FROM THE GUARD, as she walked to her speech class. A friend had asked her by phone the night before about all the turmoil on campus, and she told him "you'd know more about that than I would." She had the chance to go to Columbus with a friend that week, but she said she couldn't skip her classes.

And we're all really worried and nervous that it could very well happen again, since this administration is even worse than Nixon's. There is more than enough evidence that it was meant to happen, that Nixon, his henchmen, and James Rhodes (Ohio governor at the time, who visited the campus on May 3 and stirred up the Guard against the students, calling them "worse than the fascists and the brownshirts, they're the worst type of people we harbor in America", while Allison Krause (see my sig line) and her boyfriend were putting flowers in a National Guardsmen's gun barrel) planned it and congratulated themselves afterwards. Why do you think Nixon stonewalled the formation of an investigative committee and did everything possible to thwart and frustrate the work of the Scranton Commission (the name of the eventual investigative committee)? Sounds eerily familiar, doesn't it?

[dolo amber]

25. Who's Will Pitt?

:shrug:

:P

[NightTrain]

26. I think he's Brad's cousin.

Either that, or he's the action hero from Clive Cussler's novels.

[liberalhistorian]

27. HA!

Very funny! But it won't be when I get my picture taken with him and YOU WON'T GET TO, na na na na na na!!!!!!:evilgrin: :bounce: :P

[Pale Blue Dot]

28. Been there, done that

I was surprised by the cross-dressing at first, but after a while you stop thinking of him as a guy in a dress, and you just think you him as a man.

:evilgrin:

p.s. Ask him to tell you the snake story!

[liberalhistorian]

32. Snake story?

Hoo boy, I'm not even sure I want to know what that is all about, especially since it involves SNAKES and I HATE SNAKES!!!!!!! Of course, if he did something kinky with a snake, then that's a different story, I want to hear EVERYTHING!:evilgrin:

[talkingrain]

30. Give him my Best!

Love TruthOut!
<Bow Down>