Support builds for Ayers

Today’s Sun-Times headline: “Outpouring of academic support for Bill Ayers — 3,200-plus sign petition for 1960s terrorist linked to Barack Obama”

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I’m growing weary of writing about my friend and colleague Bill Ayers. Yet, here I am. I can hold out as long as McCain can, I guess. He and his campaign are spending millions of their dwindling campaign funds while I’m only spending way too much time. Reading the polls after each Ayers attack, I would suggest that the RNC simply send all that money directly to the Obama campaign and save themselves and folks like me, all the trouble. I mean, do they really think their new 4-page pamphlet, their robocalls and the Barack Book (to which my name has just been added) will actually help McCain win the election? I guess they do.

The RNC is out right now, gathering names by combing online websites like Facebook, seeing who’s friends with Bill, or friends with their friends or friends with friends of their friends, in order to make the Obama link. The whole process actually puts me in some rather interesting company, ie. Joe Biden, Penny Pritzker, Valerie Jarrett, Rashid Khalidi—even Mayor Daley. Yes, we’ve all been “paling around with terrorists” together according to the RNC's Barack Book. Who’d have thunk it? It kind of makes me proud in a way. I think of the late great actor Paul Newman saying that one of the proudest moments in his life was when he made it on to Nixon’s “Enemies List.”

Actually there’s some pretty good stuff in the Barack Book if you can manage to wade through the sewage to find it. There’s a link, for example to Tribune writer Eric Zorn’s “Change of Subject” blog, which carries a Tribune Magazine piece from 2001 by his colleague Don Terry, “The Calm After the Storm.” It has some pretty good insights about the issue of repentance. What if Ayers had openly disavowed his past Weatherman politics? Would that have changed anything? I’m also quoted in Terry’s piece from 7 years ago:

Ayers and an old comrade from SDS, Mike Klonsky, run the Small Schools Workshop to mentor and provide guidance and technical support to educators seeking to start small schools. So far, the workshop has helped 150 such schools open their doors. "We've learned how to work within the system," says Klonsky. "The fight to save and improve public education embodies all the issues we were fighting for back then." The two men "are like family" today, Klonsky says. But back then, "I led the fight against the Weatherman," he says. "I wasn't big on blowing up toilets and statues. They wrote a big piece denouncing me. Bill was one of the co-signers. Now we're on the same train. We still disagree about things, but . . ."

The best part of this guilt-by-association campaign, is that so many people are refusing to be cowed and intimidated by it. Joe McCarthy's witch hunts of the ’50 had the country trembling in fear for a time. Similarly, when the anti-Obama “terrorist” hunt started, lots of good people who knew better, remained silent, hoping not to make Ayers THE issue in the campaign. But when it was clear that Ayers was McCain’s ONLY issue, thousands of people stood up, signed statements of support, and spoke out—and are still speaking out. Rather than sinking Obama, the witch hunt seems to have backfired on McCain and Palin.

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Today’s Tribune endorsed Obama. It’s the first time since its founding, that the Trib has endorsed a Democratic candidate for president. The Washington Post also endorsed Obama today.

See this week’s Time Magazine story by Steven Gray, “Chicago Says There Is Too Much Ado About Bill Ayers.”

Letter in the Salt Lake Tribune:

A few years ago I heard William Ayers speak at a conference of educators. It was an excellent, well-received speech. No surprise, since he is a leading theorist and writer on educational reform and a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago. Was I listening to a terrorist?... Read the rest here.

Also read this letter (“Ayers is an Inspiration to UIC Students, Alumni”) in today’s Chicago Sun-Times from Patrick O'Reilly, vice president; Therese Quinn, Ph. D., member of UIC College of Education Alumni Board.