KSU: Fugazi

Throughout my life I have had some very interesting friends. When I was a Kent I ended up being friends with all the activist people. I am sure that doesn't surprise any of you. If there was a protest, I probably knew the person leading it. Chris Stringer was a friend from high school. We had been in the youth group together, went to LCCC and hung out then we both landed at Kent. We were both Psychology majors so we planned a lot of our classes together. He was always doing something radical. He was the "president" of CARE. It was Kent's equivalent of PETA. He was good friends with the guy who stole the monkeys out of the Psychology testing lab. Now, tell me, what are you going to do with a couple of monkeys? The kid got expelled. Either way, Chris introduced me to a lot of people. They were all hippies in their own right. I was smack dab in the middle of it. I was involved in Amnesty International. It is a group that writes letters to the government concerning political prisoners etc... I have often thought about those letters I spent hours writing. I have no idea what cause I was supporting. I was just fighting for something. I was friends with the guy that was the head of AI. Nathan Solinsky. I think he is still at Kent, fighting the man. He was always protesting Carol Cartwright (KSU president). One time he called and wanted me and Tiffany to go with him to stand by her parking place and protest because he didn't think she deserved to park there. Chris, Nathan, Kim (another radical I hung out with every now and then) all decided to boycott the cafeteria because they served meat. They were all vegetarians. Chris is a vegan. Doesn't eat anything that comes from an animal. Including honey. It comes from a bee. Bee's have feelings you know. Kim and Nathan got arrested once at the Republican Convention in PA. It was in the paper. I think they also were the ones that protested The Gap in Hudson for selling leather and fur. I have no idea where most of these people are now. I did hang out with this very nice guy named Steve. He was in charge of the May 4th Task Force. During the Vietnam War some students were protesting. The National Guard fired shots and 4 students were killed. It happened on May 4th. Each year on May 4th they have a little memorial for them. It isn't a well attended event. I went every year and had fun being radical myself. I saw Crosby, Stills and Nash (although I think one of them wasn't there that day), and a whole bunch of other cool people perform or speak. One year they had a separate concert for the May 4th "celebration". Steve had arranged for Fugazi to be there. Fugazi is this old school punk band. Steve told me I could help set up for the band. I was so excited. My friend, Melanie, came to Kent and we went over to help set up for Fugazi. I don't really remember setting up but I remember the concert. There wasn't a lot of people there. Ian MacKaye (the lead singer) said he was thirsty. My other friend, Chad Coder, went and bought him a Raspberry ice-t. Chad was always so cool. After the show, Melanie and I helped tear down the set. We were a couple of "roadies" for the night. Chad was also there and Ryan Sartosky (who later went to federal prison for identity theft), Chris, Kim and Nathan...all the people who were out for a cause. The band was there and they were actually talking to us. I remember Ian actually called us by our first names. We were so excited. Isn't that funny. We were happy to work our butts off so some lead singer would notice us. The band didn't invite us to hang out or go to any wild parties. Just load things on their truck. Then they were out. We were used but we didn't care. We thought we were the coolest people on campus. Of course, we really were! Remember, "Power to the People!", "Apathy Kills" and "Animals have feelings too."