The ghosts of Kent State are still haunting us today | Opinion

Maine Writer Reflects on Kent State Tragedy and Recent ICE Killings

Gray, Maine – Retired English professor Marilyn Weymouth Seguin, who taught at Kent State University’s writing program until 2013, has spent the past year revisiting the events of May 4, 1970, and connecting them to a series of recent shootings by U.S. federal immigration agents. Seguin, who divides her time between Gray, Maine, and Akron, Ohio, wrote a column that has appeared in the Press Herald’s “Columns” section, urging readers to remember the victims and to consider the broader consequences of government violence against civilians.

A campus that remembers

Seguin’s former faculty office at Kent State was only a short walk from the parking lot where the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a group of students. On that day, four young people—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Schroeder—were killed, and nine others were wounded. All of the victims and the wounded were unarmed. The shooting followed a protest against the Vietnam War; while two of the dead were actively participating in the demonstration, the other two had been walking to class and were caught in the crossfire. The tragedy fractured the town of Kent, Ohio, sparking a debate that continues to this day over the justification of the National Guard’s actions.

Seguin has described the memorial site on campus as “a pretty spot” in a suburban setting of mature trees and brick academic buildings. A stone at the threshold of the memorial bears the words “Inquire, Learn, Reflect,” a message Seguin says encourages visitors to contemplate the cost of political division and the dangers of protest confrontations. She added a fourth word—“Remember”—to the trio, emphasizing the importance of not forgetting the names of those who were killed.

A Maine student’s shockwave

In 1970, Seguin was a sophomore at the University of Maine’s Orono campus, roughly 900 miles from Kent. The news of the shootings spread rapidly across the country, leading to campus shutdowns, strikes, and temporary closures. “My campus shut down, and I was sent home for the summer, classes unfinished,” she recalled. The nationwide reaction to the Kent State killings, she says, showed how a single event in a quiet Midwestern town could reverberate across the nation.

Connecting past to present

Seguin’s column does not stop with the Kent State tragedy. She draws parallels with a series of recent deaths caused by federal immigration enforcement (ICE) agents. She lists four individuals who were killed in 2023 and 2024:

• Renee Good – killed while monitoring ICE activity.
• Alex Pretti – fatally shot during a protest confrontation.
• Rubin Ray Martinez – shot after allegedly running over an ICE agent.
• Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero – a Biddeford resident whose shooting in the summer remains under investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

Seguin argues that, whether in Kent or in Maine, civilians can find themselves in lethal encounters with armed government agents in politically charged situations. She urges readers to “inquire, learn, reflect” and, more importantly, to remember the individuals who lost their lives.

A call for remembrance

While the column is personal, it serves as a reminder of the enduring impact of the Kent State shootings. By placing the names of the four Kent State victims alongside those of recent ICE shooting victims, Seguin underscores a pattern of state violence that has touched communities across the country. Her message is clear: to prevent such tragedies in the future, society must confront the historical and contemporary causes of these violent encounters and keep the memories of those who have died alive in public consciousness.