No matter what the context is, when I hear the name "Ohio," my first thought is Kent State.
I have a friend who went to Kent State many years after May 4, 1970 and part of me can't figure out why. Maybe by the 1980s the impact was different, but to me Kent State will always be, well, Kent State.
It was the defining "where were you" moment of my generation.
So, the name of a state with two perfectly respectable baseball teams, the hometown of Corporal Klinger from M.A.S.H., the setting of Glee and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is never just "Ohio." It's always "four dead in Ohio."
It was the moment the war, which was never far away, came home.
