I was a student at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 when the National Guard murdered four students (including two of my friends) and wounding nine. This was the worst memory of my life and I experienced a visceral reaction this month as I watched Trump call in the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of the mayor of the city as well as the governor of California.

Despite the intervening 55 years, my memory of that period in 1970 continues to traumatize me. On Friday, May 1, 1970, Richard Nixon, then president, abandoned a campaign commitment and ordered the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. A large portion of the student population nationwide, including at Kent State, opposed the war and we were enraged by this new invasion. Demonstrations were planned. Over the next few days we let our outrage known during actions that were boisterous and mostly peaceful.

On Saturday night, May 2, I was in the dorm with friends and we heard and saw the National Guard’s large armed vehicles rolling toward the campus carrying soldiers to “quell the violence” on the Kent campus.

We came to understand that the campus was being put under “martial law” meaning in part that they had total authority over what did or did not happen there.

It was terrifying. We understood, based on the multiple and large-scale anti-war demonstrations that this was serious and threatening. Armed soldiers would now take over the campus and attempt to silence us.

Silence us they did, some of us permanently, others temporarily.

In a similar way in LA, the National Guard was deployed, not to protect life and property, but to silence those who are standing up for justice, speaking truth to power.

I relate to the terror that many Angelenos must be feeling.

My message to those in LA who are protesting or considering protesting: You can make a difference.

Both before and after the Kent murders many mass protests against the Vietnamese War took place all over the country including at major universities. Those actions were powerful and helped sway public opinion, thereby influencing the government to finally end the war. We collectively had a profound effect.

We were moved to act then because we recognized that Nixon and Henry Kissinger were lying about their dirty war against the people of Southeast Asia, thereby sacrificing 58,000 soldiers and millions of Vietnamese people.

It was a movement then.

Similarly, thousands in LA and around the country are taking to the streets. We are doing so now, as we did then, because the stakes are so high. In addition to so many other injustices under this president, valued members of the community are being deported using cruel and inhumane methods.

So, a movement continues to grow now. The movement against injustice will continue to influence others, sow seeds of hope and thereby have an impact. It must. The alternative is completely unacceptable.

We all need to continue to work toward stopping the authoritarianism that has so dominated the federal government.

We won’t allow any president continue to abuse power, sowing seeds of chaos at home and abroad without taking a stand.

We won’t back down.

Jean Ida Hoffman lives in West Hatfield.