Being Triggered
Why I’m feeling like it’s 1970 all over again.
Image by Gemini AI
1970.
The Vietnam War.
Protests and the shootings at Kent State.
Being drafted and feeling the inexorable pull of a wartime struggle dragging you under.
President Nixon resigning in 1974.
But it’s not 1970, it’s 2026. There is no war.
There are no statistics scrolling across the bottom of the screen on the nightly news telling us all how many American soldiers died or were wounded that day.
And yet Americans are dying today and still, for all the wrong reasons.
I try not to imagine what it felt like in 1970. The bad dreams. The thoughts of leaving the country because I didn’t want to fight in a war that nobody wanted and no one knew how to end.
Back then, the pressures built. The dreams got worse. The chatter on street corners was not all about how to avoid the draft but about hearing what returning vets had to say about what they saw and did.
It wasn’t pretty. They seemed confused, in pain. They would walk home early and eventually stayed away altogether.
Today, I look at the news, at the podcasts, and the phone videos of an American being shot for no reason, and I’m back in 1970. Feeling that cold fear rising. The rage, the anger, the tears. And I wonder, what do I do next?
I didn’t get drafted.
The war ended before my number was called. The bad dreams subsided, and life went on like before. But the memories remain intact.
Kent State and the soldiers and politicians who were involved were never held accountable. Though some years later, they collectively issued a statement saying they regretted that it ever happened.
It’s not 1970. It’s 2026, but it still feels all wrong. How come it didn’t end back then? Why didn’t we learn?
It’s time we stopped making the same mistakes and changed. We have to.