[Scan of part of the dedication page; see the original report for the full-page scan and more details.]
Posted on 09/25/2010 5:59:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
Zombietime post about Ayers’ book Prairie Fire leads to his denial of Emeritus status
During Barack Obama’s 2008 run for the presidency, I dug up an extremely rare original edition of Prairie Fire, the forgotten communist manifesto co-written by Obama’s friend and colleague William Ayers, and I published excerpts of the book at zombietime.
As I wrote at the time, “This essay only exists to correct and unequivocally debunk claims routinely made by the mainstream media over the last few weeks … that William Ayers wasn’t such a bad guy after all, and that it is no shame to be associated with him.” Read the full essay to see the full extent of the devastating evidence against Ayers.
In my exposé, I highlighted what I thought were the most noteworthy aspects of Prairie Fire, including the part where Ayers brags about and then lists in detail the numerous terrorist bombings he carried out in the 1970s; where he describes himself as a communist, and cites his desire for a communist revolution to overthrow the United States; where he cites the many motivations driving the Weather Underground’s terror campaign, most of which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Vietnam War (as the media endlessly claims to this day); and so on. I also listed the many close links between Ayers and Obama.
Almost as an aside, I pointed out halfway through the report an absurd detail that I noticed by accident when scanning one of the book’s pages — that Ayers and his co-authors had dedicated Prairie Fire to (among dozens of lesser known criminals and radicals) Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin who killed Robert F. Kennedy.
If this had been an isolated fact, it would have been outrageous enough, but compared to the numerous other outrages in the book, it practically didn’t even seem worth mentioning — at least to my mind.
Boy, was I wrong.
As I had hoped, the report did ignite a massive amount of publicity and coverage. But most of that coverage barely mentioned most of the damning facts which I had highlighted; instead, to my astonishment, the blog posts and TV reports and newspaper articles focused almost entirely on the Sirhan Sirhan dedication, which somehow struck a nerve in the national consciousness.
Unfortunately, my Prairie Fire essay failed to derail Obama’s run for the White House, but now two years later it has had an unexpected side effect — a fitting and ironic postscript to the whole affair:
Bill Ayers denied emeritus status at UIC
Son of RFK — now U. of I. board chair — rips prof for dedicating book to his father’s assassin
When retiring University of Illinois at Chicago professor Bill Ayers co-wrote a book in 1973 [sic], it was dedicated in part to Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy.
That came back to haunt Ayers when the U. of I. board, now chaired by Kennedy’s son, considered his request for emeritus status Thursday. It was denied in a unanimous vote.
Before the vote, an emotional Chris Kennedy spoke out against granting the status to Ayers.
“I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy,” he said.
“There is nothing more antithetical to the hopes for a university that is lively and yet civil, or to the hopes of our founding fathers for their great experiment of a self-governing people, than to permanently seal off debate with one’s opponents by killing them.”
Take that, Bill Ayers!
[Scan of part of the dedication page; see the original report for the full-page scan and more details.]
See also Michelle Malkin: Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers denied emeritus status
Ha Ha
He should have never been a professor, why is he a professor?
I don’t get it.
Why isn’t he in jail?
Which goes to show you can condemn the U.S. all you want without fear to your career. But don’t dis a Kennedy.
Why isn’t he in jail?
Good question, and there is an answer.
A guest editorial that appeared in the NYT on Sept. 11, 2001........Ayers stated that he didn’t feel they had done enough.
Evidently the msm was just fine with this terrorists activities and gave him a pass. Even fat Teddy gave him a pass.
Nice to know at least one Kennedy has some sense of honor on behalf of his murdered father.
“I also listed the many close links between Ayers and Obama.”
Then please inform O’Reilly, who called Ayers “an acquaintance” of Obama in his intro last night. Why does O’Reilly cover for Obama?
Because the FBI used illegal wire taps and other unlawful means to gather evidence on Ayers and others. The Nixon Justice Department had no choice but to drop charges against a bunch of radicals back in 1973. Otherwise he would have rotted in jail for most of the last 40 years.
Sirhan probably shouldn’t waste any time or ink writing to the late senator’s neice’s husband looking for early release either. You know, the governor of California.
Not only was Ayers a “professor”, he received an award from that wonderful Mayor Daley Jr. as “First Citizen of Chicago” or some such garbage.
Never know—it could happen. At least someting on his porch to scare the chickenshit right out of his Marxist ass.
I would like to see that.
What’s perfectly illustrative of the liberal conscience is this: They don’t give damn that he also dedicated it to a bunch of other criminals as well who committed their crimes against other not-so-well-connected-politically victims, nor do they even care that Ayers himself is a criminal and participated in murder. But they’ll fight to the death over the assassin of Robert Kennedy. They care only about themselves.
“He should have never been a professor, why is he a professor?”
His PhD is in “education” which explains it all.
He is no more a “professor” than Obama is a lawyer.
The standards of most university lib arts departments no longer exist.
I really believe that we should have separate academic terms for those who have real educations (math, physics, chemistry, engineering) and those possessing a toy degree not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Why, when Obama went on national TV and admitted he sat in Wright's church all those years after he lied and said he didn't, did the people overwhelmingly elect this worthless trash knowing who he was???
It's like saying, "Alright I know you are a thief, but it's daytime so welcome into my home!"
Communism attracts serial killers like Castro, Che, Stalin and the dufuses described above, who want political permission to go on a killing rampage. Does that explain anything about its so called merits?
Who do you suppose would be the architect of such ideas?
As others may have noted, it's doubtful Kennedy would have had a problem with a dedication to Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, or any other leftist than the murderer of RFK.
That is THE question and goes to show that Obama is just a subset of something very wrong in this country.
Part of you would like to commend Kennedy for standing in Ayers way and yet, you know that if it had simply been a conservative judge or a police officer whose murderer was glorified, Kennedy would have found no problem whatsoever with granting this honored status to Ayers and would, most likely, have commended him for being a Great American.
Bill Ayers is shown in a Chicago Police mug shot in August 1968. He spent the 1970s as a Weather Underground fugitive.
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