It is the height of irony that after Barack Obama repeatedly dissed baby boomers and threw the anti war youth of the 1960s under the bus, his association with one of us has come back to bite him.
Like they say, one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Often, the only difference is who gets to write the history. If William Ayers was a terrorist then clearly Thomas Jefferson was an advocate of terrorism.
It seems like the rightwing gets to write all the history. Always they've hated the 1960s. Republicans are, after all, the party that subscribes to the view that violent atrocities are good as long as they are committed by the U.S. Government.
My violent government, right or wrong, as the saying should go.
The way the rightwing writes the history, the anti war youth of the 1960s were terrorists and the only thing wrong about the Vietnam War was that the U.S. Government didn't kill more people and "win" it. And now Republicans want to "win" the immoral Iraq War. Never mind the millions of brown men, women, and children who were killed and tortured in Vietnam with skin-melting blood-curdling napalm. Never mind the 60,000 Americans who died, many of whom went to war against their will under a law that mandated their participation in immoral war or their imprisonment.
William Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, also known as the Weathermen; the group was founded by members of Students for a Democratic Society. Other than the accidental death of 3 of its own members, the Weathermen killed no one. The group did bomb government buildings. And yes, the Weathermen advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government, but given the nature of the most heinous and violent crimes committed by the U.S. Government -- including the barbarous slaughter and torture of a peasant country, the routine outrageous racism at home which included sterilizing Black women against their will, etc. -- the Weathermen were freedom fighters, not terrorists!
It was the 1960s for gawd's sake. Like it or not, there was a revolution going on and the nationwide uprising of outraged youth hastened the end of the bloody war!
Sun Times:
Ayers, 63, spent 10 years as a fugitive in the 1970s when he was part of the
Weather Underground," an anti-Vietnam War group that protested U.S. policies by bombing the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and a string of other government buildings. Nobody was hurt in the attacks by the defunct organization, which the FBI labeled a "domestic terrorist group."
A book Ayers penned about those years, Fugitive Days, landed him in hot water on Sept. 11, 2001. That morning, the New York Times ran a story about the book in which Ayers said, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Ayers' statement was made before the World Trade Center attacks, but its timing led some to believe it was in response. "My book is in fact a condemnation of terrorism in all its forms -- individual, group and official," Ayers later said in a letter to the Chicago Tribune.
So now Barack Obama -- the man who threw baby boomers under the bus -- is a terrorist because he knows Bill Ayers? Give me a freaking break. Sexist, yes. Terrorist, no! [via]
Bill Ayers -- freedom fighter -- website
Photo via Politico: Bernardine Dohrn and her companion (now husband) William Ayers leave court in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1981. Dohrn received a $1,500 fine and three years probation for her role in the 'Days of Rage' disturbance in Chicago in 1969.Photo: AP
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants"
Weathermen Politics 1960s News Vietnam Anti War William Ayers Freedom Fighter Racism Barack Obama Baby Boomers Culture War
