From former Chicago school principal Jay Mulberry

Friends--

I know Bill Ayers. He lives about the same distance from me as he does from Barack Obama. He was my son's little league coach; he was on the Local School Council of one of our schools; he and his wife Bernadine have parties at each of my college reunions (Bernadine was in my class) and everyone comes to them from community organizers to neocons. They make it comfortable for us all.

I know Bill and Bernadine's lovely children. One played ball with my son. Another is a foster child who came to them with many problems but who grew up to become a Rhodes Scholar. It took a lot of good parenting to go from there to here.

I know Bill as a serious educational leader. He is a professor of education at the University of Illinois and he writes almost as much (and as fast) as I read. It's no secret that he wants change in our schools; who doesn't. When I was a school principal I went to him for advice many times and got a lot from his suggestions. If you want to know where Bill stands on education, read Teaching Toward Freedom, A Kind and Just Parent or To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher.

Hundreds of people in my neighborhood know Bill the way I do. We have talked with him on the street, in the gym, at PTA meetings, on committees, at parties and in the grocery store. We know what he was 35 years ago -- half a life away. Today he is a good neighbor, a good parent and a friend.

John McCain makes Bill Ayers out to be a demon and those who associate with him hardly any better. I'll tell you that in our neighborhood -- my neighborhood, Barack's neighborhood and Bill Ayer's neighborhood -- that would demonize an awful lot of people. Many are very fine people and at least one would make a great president!

Best wishes,

Jay Mulberry