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Bill Ayers has written an op-ed for the New York Times this weekend where he addresses his decision to stay silent throughout a presidential campaign in which he "felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the “Two Minutes Hate” scene from George Orwell’s 1984." Ayers admits regrets for some of his actions with the 1970s anti-war group the Weather Underground and takes "responsibility for the risks we posed to others," but overall defends them as "attacks on property, never on people, (that) were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war." And as for all of his alleged "paling around" with now President-elect Obama, Ayers says, "I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better."
Bill Ayers Op-Ed: "Politics of Fear Did Not Triumph"
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Clinton St and Atlantic Ave 11201 for xmas trees. woops
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"Certainly, the death of the three, my girlfriend and two other close, close friends, was a disaster." In other words, he regrets that his friends accidentally died while building a bomb, not that they were building a bomb in the first place.
Equivocating, morally bankrupt piece of human garbage. Disgusting. The New York Times knows no bottom.
Though I usually laugh at all political barbs thrown, including most from the party that most identifies with my leanings (GOP), the Bill Ayers-Obama controversy had/has legs.
As a Libertarian, I've been called an anarchist, but I would never use violence to prove my point. Passive resistance and ideas are what sane people use to create "change and hope."
Of course the Ayers-Obama controversy had legs--shaved and shapely in pantyhose. And that is why Obama lost the election.
Vietnam era was tragic one in American history. An undeclared war where people under threat of imprisonment were FORCED to kill or be killed thousands of miles away fighting an enemy that didn't threaten us. The Underground was an example of the desperation that many were driven to fight a government that consistently lied to it's people. The big money media has to defend the Vietnam legend.
Elitists such as Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohm usually don't admit their mistakes. To them the end justifies the means
Isn't that the policy of US state sponsored violence? Ends justifies the means? Pre-emptive war? Collateral damage. Nixon bombing Cambodia?
Of course Bill Ayers did the things he's talking about in the article, and the things he has been well-documented to have done. He did them, they were illegal, and we could spend the rest of eternity arguing whether he was justified in his actions, or whether he is an "immoral piece of righteous garbage."
What I can't stand, and what he also speaks out against in the article, is the way Obama--as are so many politicians today--was made to look guilty by association. They served on a board together when they were both U of Chicago professors; a board that was headed by a conservative who should have also been open to the same attacks, going by the GOP's logic. Saying that Obama was "buddies" or "pals" with Ayers and trying to make this into a reason not to elect him is just absurd. Any two people from the same close-knit neighborhood have probably been at one or two parties together, seen each other in one or two diners, bookstores, grocery stores, etc., and said hi. Any two university professors have probably had at least some casual or professional interaction in an academic atmosphere. The probability of their sharing views completely, or of the beliefs of one somehow contaminating the beliefs of the other, is practically nil.
So, Ayers was right or he was wrong. Obama is the right person to lead our country or the wrong person. How about we debate these two questions separately, since they have absolutely nothing to do with each other (as do these two people)?
But those of us who oppose the murderous violence of the state and its patriots have to do better, not imitate them.
I agree "starrygordon" but I was trying to put it all in perspective, the conditions at the time were that people had tried ALL available means of peaceful protest and they and their friends were STILL being shipped off to fight. Imagine having to make the choice to go into hiding in Canada to escape the draft?
A thug who wanted to set up re-education camps in the south west for political opponents and exterminate up to 25 million more Americans that the Weather Underground decided could not be "re-educated" is talking about fear?
Thankfully, in this country someone like Ayers is still considered a crackpot; in places like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, North Korea, Cambodia etc., people like Ayers have actually made it to power. Thanks to Obama, we're a little bit closer to those nightmare scenarios.
#5 said it all. Ayres is "an elitist" that's why he's bad. The demonization of Ayres didn't work the way it was meant to because political literacy in the U.S. is so dumbed down that very few people could draw a connection between the type of new left revolutionary Maoism Ayres represented and Obama's post-ideological liberalism.
Giulia is correct.
The question of whether Ayers is a douche is one question, and the how/why of the attempt to tar Obama with his tangential association is another.
That attempt was understandable in the context of the GOP 'base' mindset. It was a campaign right out of the Nixon '72 playbook - and hey, it worked before. The fact it was gaining so little traction didn't seem to faze them - I guess they were all out of ideas.
As for Ayers - a scumbag. When he writes of an "accidental explosion" at the Greenwich Village townhouse, one would think it was some kind of meteorological happening.
It seems more likely he avoided killing people more out of incompetence than any lack of stated desire.
If anyone hasn't seen Goddard's "La Chinoise" - they should. I think it's a concise take on where Ayers was coming from.
Oh.... satire.
Fuck you Ayres. Keep lying to yourself. Someday you just might believe your own bullshit.
I love when New Yorkers throw around the word "elitist." To most of America, the fact that you are a New Yorker makes you an elitist. I don't give a crap what neighborhood you live in or what you do for a living, relatively speaking you ARE one. And relatively speaking, much of the world would look at EVERYONE in the US and think that they are elitists as well. Elitist is a word with lost meaning and is just thrown around like an empty can. I'm sick of people using it and not knowing what it really means.
Ooops, I guess that makes me elitist too.
Ayers is from a very privileged background and continues to live in Hyde Park. In short, the guy does not practice what he preaches. I'm sure he'd be pretty pissed off if someone attacked his property. He is full of shit. Plain and simple.
Also, people were, in fact, killed. His friends, while they were making a nail bomb. Or do they not count as casualties?
Ayers should wipe that I got away with it rich - boy shit eating grin off his face and go back underground where we will never have to hear his masturbatory, pontificating anecdotes ever again.
Maybe my definition of elitist is different than others. An elitist is one whose intellect allows him leeway with society in general. In 1981 a man named Jack Henry Abbott wrote a book while in prison
called "In The Belly Of The Beast". Norman Mailer (an elitist) used his influence to get him released from prison. Six weeks later Abbott stabbed to death a waiter in an East Village restaurant because of a perceived insult. Mailer still defended him because he thought that all should be forgiven. Mailer was emphatic. "Abbott's talents were of such importance, he assured, that it would be a crime to ignore it. Culture is worth a little risk," Mailer later told reporters.
Abbott killed himself in prison in 2002, the waiters family has been grieving for 27 years.