Sate Univ* (for State University, etc.)

For those with ties to Kent State University, today is a day of remembrance. While there are varying interpretations for the events surrounding May 4, 1970, the fact is that forty-five years ago, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on our campus, killing four students and wounding nine. Rather than trying to elaborate here, I will simply point out a few resources for those interested in learning more. For contemporary accounts, Life just today posted How LIFE Magazine Covered the Kent State Shootings, and the original New York Times story is also readily available. For in-depth information, check out Kent State’s May 4 Visitors Center. In 2010, the May 4 site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kent State might be a dim memory for many Americans today, in part overshadowed by the subsequent shootings that have taken place at numerous elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities across the country. And those events are all indeed tragedies. However, for me at least, the Kent State shootings are more akin to another type of violence that occurs daily on our nation’s streets—the brutal treatment some citizens receive at the hands of our policemen and policewomen. For in both situations, the violence is perpetrated by those who can be, and often are, a source of great good in the community.

If this is more reflection than you wanted on a Monday, focus your efforts instead on today’s typo. A search for Sate Univ* brings up 50 entries in the OhioLINK database and 877 in WorldCat. Not all are for the exact phrase (although you will find stand-alone “sate” errors with this search), and not all are actually typos.

(Bullet hole in Don Drumm’s Solar Totem sculpture caused by a .30-06 round fired by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State on May 4, 1970, by M. Stewart, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak