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William Ayers in his own words

In anticipation of tonight’s presidential debate, and given that whether or not Bill Ayers is “unrepentant” seems to remain a slippery concept to our nation’s press, given that the Obama campaign calls Ayers “reformed”, I thought I’d give you (as briefly as possible) some words direct from Mr. Ayers so you can make up your own mind.

I’ve noticed that Mr. Ayers (is he a professor? — I guess it’s Dr. Ayers..”I didn’t spend 6 years in evil weatherman bomber school to be called Mister, thank you very much [see item #2 at the link]). I’ve noticed that Dr. Ayers often posts quizzes on his blog, so here’s one: In the following two quotations, who is Doctor Evil and who is Mini-Me? What two people said the following things:

1. “I think there ought to be a draft into public service, no exceptions—maybe every 10 years from the age of 18 onward we should each give a year to what we determine in a democratic process to be the common good. In a democracy we should take on certain tasks as a whole people, a collective citizenry, a public: Education, Public Safety, Access to clean air, water, and food, Transportation, Health care, Defense, and more.”

2. “..establish a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students, with a priority placed on underserved schools; a Health Corps to improve public health outreach; a Clean Energy Corps to conduct weatherization and renewable energy projects; a Veterans Corps to assist veterans at hospitals, nursing homes and homeless shelters; and a Homeland Security Corps to help communities plan, prepare for and respond to emergencies.

The answer to who said the first quote is here at this link. The answer to the second is here at this link.

So now perhaps we know where Senator Obama got his idea for the mysterious “Civilian National Security Force” that people have been puzzling over since he declared it July 2, 2008.

With the quiz out of the way, let’s find out, once and for all whether or not Bill (sorry, I mean Doctor) Ayers is repentant, unrepentant, regretful, reformed, or simply still reveling in his past as a violent bomber of public buildings.

And let’s not go all the way back to that ill-timed interview published on September 11, 2001 in which Dr. Ayers told the New York Times “I don’t regret setting bombs…I feel we didn’t do enough”. That’s old, ancient dusty news from when Barack Obama was only 40 years old. We can do much better than that, and have Dr. Ayers tell us in his own word, unsolicited, all about his much more recent feelings about his Weatherman days.

Here’s Dr. Ayer’s personal blog post from April 20, 2006, when the United States Senator was only 45 years old. Or at least, here are some excerpts. The post is quite long. Ayers is a prolific writer and quite frankly is very good with the written word. I’m sure many of his readers agree with him on many things. There are dozens of things upon which I’d enjoy commenting, and perhaps sometime I will, but for this post I’ll try to keep the excerpts in the specific context of if he is “unrepentant” (if this post has begun to lose your attention, the answer is “Yes.” Or if you want to save time you can scroll down to the very last sentence of this post.)

[speaking of the past] Some created what they thought would become “vanguard” revolutionary political parties and went into the factories to organize the industrial working class, while others joined the Democratic Party with the hope of building a powerful peace wing within it.[snip] We in the Weather Underground blasted away at the rulers, and tried at the same time to build up a capacity to undermine and survive what we were certain was an incipient and impending American fascism.[snip] We issued our first communiqué—a word we borrowed from Latin American guerrillas—called a “Declaration of War” and signed by “Bernardine Dohrn”, in May 1970. It was filled with defiance and hyperbole. We threatened to bomb “a major symbol of American injustice,” and when, a little more than two weeks later the promised explosion rocked the New York City Police Headquarters on Centre Street, the Weathermyth was fully launched.[snip]

This was a time when I, along with most of my closest friends, were referred to again and again as ‘home-grown American terrorists.’ That’s what Time magazine called us in 1970, and the New York Times, too, and that was the word hurled in my direction from the halls of Congress. Terrorist[snip] I had no intention of answering in federal court—I’d seen by then too many activists entangled in lengthy trials and, no matter what the verdict, neutralized and effectively kept off the streets—and so I took off and lived on the run for the next decade.[snip] I thought of myself immodestly as a freedom fighter, but I knew that “terrorist” was tattooed over every inch of me[snip] I picked up where I’d left off, took up open political work, returned to graduate school and to teaching, and the label—terrorist—faded into the gauzy haze of memory. But not, it turns out, forever. I’ve partly myself to blame. Moved to remember and to rethink it all, I wrote a memoir called Fugitive Days.”

Fast forward to speaking in the present (that is, April, 2006):

I knew, of course, that there were several deeply disturbing aspects to our history, foremost the question of violence, for in 1970 the Weather Underground was literally born from the flames of that Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, a bombing in which my lover and two close friends blew themselves to kingdom come. We who survived went on to carry out a few highly visible anti-government bombings—acts that raise questions each generation will ask and answer differently.

And finally we come to the answer to the question of repentance or unrepentance:

It’s impossible to reach the age of sixty—if your eyes are open even a crack—and not feel some regret for something. I regret much—once again I resonate with the generative genius of Bob Dylan singing of “so many things we never will undo; I know you’re sorry, well I’m sorry too.” But, he goes on, “stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow, things are going to get interesting right about now.” Still I’m disinclined to apologize because I hear the demand for a general apology as a howling mob with an impossibly broad demand, and on top of that I’m not sure what exactly I’d apologize for. The ’68 Convention? The Days of Rage? Bombing the Pentagon? Every one of these can be unpacked and found to be a complicated mix of good and bad choices, noble and low motives.

In some part, apologizing is rejecting, letting go or giving up—conversion. There’s something deeply human at stake, something in both the heart and the head, an intellectual severance, an emotional break. And a broad, general apology may be just too much—I am not now nor have I ever been… Even when true, the words are mortifying. They are the end not only of a dream, but of a life. The apology in general is uttered, and suddenly you die.

Alright, Dr. What about a specific apology if not a general one?:

In my case, my actions are all well-known, I’ve resolved the legal charges, and I’ve faced the consequences. Yet a central moral question remains—the question of individual responsibility and of the nature of judgment. But I still refuse to grow up if the price is to falsely confess a sin I don’t take to be a sin.

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Posted by ArrMatey on October 15, 2008 5:16 pm

» Filed Under Communism, Democrats, Domestic Enemies, Elections, Fascism, History, Marxism, Moral Relativism, News, Obama/Biden, Psychology, Socialism, Treason, terrorism

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