Much of the recent commentary on 1960s radical William Ayers has included a quote from a 1994 book."I'm a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist," Ayers said at the time.
It was quoted in a Wall Street Journal piece last month by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review and picked up by conservative bloggers as Republicans try to tie Ayers with Democrat Barack Obama. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
The quote about Ayers came from the book "Sixties Radicals" by Rock Hill writer Ron Chepesiuk, a former Fulbright Fellow and Winthrop University faculty member.
Chepesiuk devoted a chapter to the one-time member of the Weather Underground. Its title was "Radical Educator." It talked about how Ayers had gone on to be a prominent educational adviser. He's taken part in programs at the University of South Carolina College of Education.
Chepesiuk, who interviewed Ayers at his home near the University of Chicago, doesn't defend Ayers' violent past, but believes the comments in his book have been taken out of context.
“It sounds like he’s an unrepentant domestic terrorist, that he’s still living the philosophy and mode of action of the '60s," he told me. "He’s left that all behind. He’s still a social radical. But it’s not a question of trying to violently overthrow the system. He’s trying to change the system from within."
Obama and Ayers were both involved in a 1990s education project called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama has denied any close association. Critics say he should not have associated at all with the former radical whose group took credit for several bombings.
"We're not talking about him running around with a domestic terrorist," Chepesiuk says. "We're talking about a respectable educator.”
3 comments:
How about adding his other comments from 2000 to the NY Times 'The reporter quoted him as saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough", and, when asked if he would "do it all again" as saying "I don't want to discount the possibility."' and from 2005 to an independent reporter "Ayers was asked in a January 2004 interview, "How do you feel about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?" He replied: "I've thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it's impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful? ... I don't think so."
You will see quotes from him condemning terrorism; however, he doesn’t consider himself a terrorist by definition, because as he stated to the Chicago Tribune in 2001, "The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people.” Of course, they bombed the Pentagon, which didn’t injure anyone.
To call this guy a respectable educator is garbage. This guy is scum, and for Obama to actually suggest that he didn’t know this guy is/was a terrorist is more garbage.
Good job Jim on the terrorist propaganda.
This information took two seconds to locate on wikipedia.
Does this mean that Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan are terrorist sympathizers?
Walter Annenberg served as an Ambassador under Nixon. He was close friends with Ronald Reagan.
It was his education board that Bill Ayers and Barack Obama worked on. The same board that included the president of the University of Illinois, the president of Northwestern University, the 1987 Chicago Citizen of the year, and the 44th President of the United States.
When you work for the greater good, you should not be put down for it.
Who said Ayers and Obama were working for the greater good? How do you know what they were doing on the Annenberg thing? I think I have seen where money was given to Chicago for schools. Chicago has the worst schools in the US. Ayers education thing is radical, leftist. Where, also, did Ayers and Obama get their money? They both live in houses more expensive than most professors and young lawyers have. Nothing adds up.
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