"Dinner Table Battles."
"Kent State Truth Tribunal - Remembering Arthur Krause, My Dad by Laurel Krause On this day, the 19th of October 2014, I am writing about and remembering my father Arthur S. Krause who crossed over 26 years ago on October 19, 1988. Arthur Krause was born January 11, 1924 and lived for 64 years. He was raised in Pennsylvania and Ohio, fought in WWII and married my mother Doris Krause in his early twenties as he returned from war. They settled in Chicago where he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and went to work at Westinghouse Electric Corporation for his entire work life. My parents had two children, Allison and me, Laurel. Just before Allison's birth in 1951 our family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. When I came along in 1955, we were making our home in Cleveland Heights and leading a traditional, middle-class, Jewish family life. On Sundays our family took drives in the country surrounding Cleveland with Dad driving. We'd often end up for dinner at the Robin Hood Restaurant in Kent, Ohio. As far back as I can remember Allison had decided to go to college at Kent State University. She thought the campus was beautiful, especially the lilacs in Spring and my folks were pleased with her choice in a state school, also close to home with lower tuition costs. The Krause family moved to Pittsburgh in 1962 when Dad transferred to Westinghouse headquarters. In 1963 I remember President John F. Kennedy's assassination and how that event traumatized everyone. Everywhere it felt like we lost a member of our family when President Kennedy was killed. It was the beginning of the change. Westinghouse needed my Dad's help at a plant near Baltimore so our family moved to Wheaton, Maryland. Mom and Dad chose our home in a newly-built development in the suburbs with great schools. Allison and I entered progressive, 'experimental' public schools with more freedom and innovations in teaching. There were classes with different grades mixed in, dress codes were relaxed and the arts were central to education in these public schools. It was in Maryland when Allison began to question the US government's role in the Vietnam War. Allison and I were against the war but Dad and Mom supported President Johnson and his war in Vietnam. Then Nixon made it to the White House and my parents despised him, at that time mostly because he was a republican. We had no idea how much President Nixon's decisions would affect our family. Allison attended John F. Kennedy high school and blossomed. She made art, read voraciously and she volunteered at St. Elizabeth's an institution for challenged and disabled youth ... Allison wanted to contribute and make a difference. In America, there was a social and political crisis brewing. It was the deep chasm between the older generations and the younger generation. It was the generation gap. A touchy battle ensued against the young, brought to a head by the US conscription system aka the draft lottery ... where young American men were forced to fight in the Vietnam War that they did not support. And with the voting age at 21, a war they weren't even permitted to vote on. Allison was against the Vietnam War and Dad for all-systems-go for war, mostly because his generation had been taught to never question authority especially the activities of the US government. Like many Americans, he fought the war to end all wars ... believing war saved the American way of life. Our generation watched and witnessed as the US government and military told lies to mislead us to support more war in Vietnam. We saw air pollution raising havoc as the nuclear crisis lingered over our desks. We weren't fooled but we saw how the older generation (those in power) bought it all and enforced the status quo. At the Krause family dinner table there were battles over Vietnam, about how my sister and I were dressing, about our opposition to nuclear weapons, especially as it related to my Dad's work at Westinghouse, about saving the environment and the widening gap between the social and political values of the Generation Gap. Dinner table battle..."
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"Dad and Allison had a troubled relationship which was never resolved." ~ Laurel Krause
https://www.facebook.com/KentStateTruthTribunal/photos/a.106938182673045/850413544992168/?type=3
"Kent State Massacre 1979 Civil Settlement Statement"| Mendo Coast Current
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