“What if you saw her dead on the ground, how can you run when you know?” These words came back to me when I thought about the tragic death of George Floyd and the protests surrounding his death.

These words are from the song “Ohio” written by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young four short months after the killing of four student protesters by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State in 1970. It is arguably the most important anti-war song during the Vietnam era. The intro, I believe, is the most haunting of any song in the rock ‘n roll canon.

So on a spring day in 1970, I watched as Colby students marched down Mayflower Hill carrying four coffins. I was a naive 18-year-old graduating senior at Waterville High School, watching the somber procession pass by. That day changed me. It made me question just how important this protest was and what was I going to think and do about it. How can you run when you know?

I am not trying to compare the Vietnam War era protests with the struggle for racial justice. That struggle was with us long before Vietnam and sadly is still with us today. What I’m saying is that there are times when tragedies occur that cause people to stop and think. This is one of those times.

The protests today are about people now refusing to run from the truth. I believe the truth is that many white people persistently deny the scale and severity of racial injustice that people of color endure. How can you run away from the fact that far too many people refuse to accept one of the founding principles of this nation’s Declaration of Independence? How can you run when you know that the very values that made America what it is today are being threatened?

“What if you saw her dead on the ground, how can you run when you know?” We have seen George Floyd and too many other black Americans dead on the ground to believe that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We can no longer run from the truth. The time has come to stand up and be counted.

This is not meant to be a political statement or to start a liberal vs. conservative debate. It is meant to challenge you to ask yourself if you believe what was written so long ago — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

If you believe these words, then it is time to make a stand. If you don’t, then what do you stand for?

“This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio.”

Michael J. Roy is Waterville’s city manager.