Wendy Semon
May 4, 1997
For Sandy Scheuer

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I recently visited the Alpha Xi Delta sorority house where Sandy Scheuer was a member of. I had the unique opportunity to look through a scrapbook of Sandy Scheuer's letters. I then decided I could not give a speech in honor of Sandy like her friends in those letters could have. I then decided that I would write a letter to Sandy. I would like to read that for you today

Dear Sandy:
We have come together once again to remember you and your friends Allison, Jeffry and William. It gets harder every year for students today to make the connection to your generation. I guess we can't understand watching the Vietnam War on our television. We don't have nightmares of napalmed babies and we don't have to deal with the fact that our brothers, boyfriends or our closest friends could be sent off to a war any day.

I know that I wasn't even born in 1970 but I have put myself in a position where I constantly need to defend your generation. Many students on this campus today feel we need to stop remembering the May 4th events every year. I know that it is my responsibility as a Kent State student to remember this tragedy so it will never happen again.

I think the students of today see you as someone like their parents. But what they need to remember is that you never had the chance to age. You would be in your forties now with possibly children.

But the National Guard stripped that all away from you. Your youth, your spirit and your warmth still lives on. I feel it when I stand in your vigil spot, when I argue with people about the myths surrounding May 4th. But especially when I educate others on what happened. I know that this is what you would've wanted us to do, was to educate. The students of today need to remember that you had dreams too.

I once read in a book [that] you said, "I just can't buy these people who beat their chests and then do nothing. Why aren't they in ghettos or doing inner city work? Maybe I'm not going to set the world on fire through Speech Therapy, but if I can help a few people, that's good enough."

Sandy, twenty-seven years later you are still helping. Since I started Kent three years ago I have changed because of May 4th, 1970. I was a naïve college freshman and the last thing on my mind was politics. I would've never dreamt that in America where we have the right to voice our opinions and the right to dissent, that the government would fire live ammunition in a crowd of unarmed students.

Thanks to the May 4th Task Force I have found my voice. Through my voice I speak for you and your generation on a campus that just wants to forget. I read once that your father said, "Our beloved Sandy is gone but we cannot believe she has no kindred souls in the halls of justice." I promise Mr. Scheuer, I will be Sandy's advocate and I hope others will join me in this fight.

Thank you.

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