Posted on 10/18/2008 11:36:19 AM PDT by XR7
Thousands of academics have signed an online petition in support of Bill Ayers, the 1960s-radical-turned-college professor whose ties to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama were a matter of hot dispute in Wednesday night's debate.
The petition, which has circulated through university faculties across the nation, says critics of Ayers, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are trying to "intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."
More than 3,200 have signed the petition.
The petition represents a rare attempt to defend Ayers, whose name has become a political epithet. Republicans have called him a "domestic terrorist," and presidential candidate John McCain said Wednesday night that Obama's dealings with him raise questions of character.
Obama, for his part, has downplayed his connections with Ayers and disavowed Ayers' violent acts. But Ayers, his supporters say, has dimensions that are being ignored amid the election-year tumult.
Ayers "built an extraordinary life," said Lawrence Grossberg, a University of North Carolina Chapel Hill communications studies professor who signed the petition. "He has become one of the leading scholars in the field of education. (People are) excoriating him for things he did 40 years ago and misrepresenting what he has done since, in order to make someone else suffer. That doesn't seem very American to me."
But George Leef, director of research for the John William Pope Foundation for Education Policy, a conservative Raleigh, N.C., think tank, said the petition's signers are conveniently ignoring key facts. Ayers was never charged with killing anyone, but people were killed by bombs linked to his organization.
A 1970 pipe bomb in San Francisco attributed to the group killed a police officer and hurt another, and an accidental 1970 explosion in a Greenwich Village basement killed three radicals. In 1981, two police officers and a security guard were killed in the robbery of an armored truck in New York that involved two Weather Underground members.
"There is a lot of selective indignation in America, and the academic world is as prone to that as anyone else," Leef said. "If Ayers at one point had expressed a favorable opinion of the Ku Klux Klan, I don't think he would have ever lived that down."
In the late 1960s, Ayers helped form the Weather Underground, a group that launched a series of bombings targeting U.S. landmarks. Ayers was charged in 1970 with inciting to riot and conspiracy to bomb public buildings, but the charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct. He has since redefined himself -- in some circles -- as an education scholar, the author or editor of about 15 books. He advocates for school reform and helped win nearly $50 million in grants for Chicago schools.
Ayers and Obama live near each other in Chicago and worked with a charity and foundation board together. In addition, Ayers once hosted a political meeting for Obama in the mid-1990s as Obama prepared to run for the state Senate in Illinois.
At Wednesday night's debate, McCain said the scope of Ayers' ties to Obama have not been fully explored. "We need to know the full extent of that relationship," he said.
Obama said that Ayers "engaged in despicable acts. ... I have roundly denounced those acts." He said Ayers has had no involvement in his campaign and would have no role in an Obama administration.
Duke law professor Michael Tigar has known the couple for many years and respects their academic work. Tigar, who also signed the petition, criticized attempts to link Obama with Ayers' past indiscretions.
The petition's origin isn't clear. It is signed only "Friends and supporters of Bill Ayers," and it doesn't address the most destructive acts committed by Ayers and his group, such as bombs set off at the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon.
It reads in part, "The current characterizations of Professor Ayers -- 'unrepentant terrorist,' 'lunatic leftist' -- are unrecognizable to those who know or work with him. It's true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans.
"His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution -- including publishing 16 books -- to the field of education. The current attacks appear as part of a pattern of 'exposes' and assaults designed to intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."
Out pouring? 3200 people? I would like to see a petition ran out against this guy and see how many would sign it. 3200 is nothing. What a bunch of jerks the media are.
Wiretap evidence was illegally obtained. He walked free and made sure he wasn’t caught again. Plus it is rumored he had a little inside help.
"His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution -- including publishing 16 books -- to the field of education. The current attacks appear as part of a pattern of 'exposes' and assaults designed to intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."
He IS an unrepentant terrorist! He explicitly said so in 2001! That is a simple fact. Liberals in this country are nothing but apologists for terrorism and political violence.
"It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans."
Call me picky, but shouldn't building and detonating bombs and killing people be described as something more than "participating passionately"?
And should the actions of hundreds of thousands of Americans be considered the equivalent of bombings?
That's intellectual dishonesty.
What's next?
'It's true Hitler participated passionately in World War II, but so did hundreds of thousands of American GIs."
"It's true that Jeffrey Dahmer was passionate about his diet, but so are thousands of Whole Foods Market shoppers."
"Participating passionately." Riiiiiiiight.
What I am willing to do is fight the militias that the Obamafuhrer will form from street gangs and creat his own version of the S.A. Only a coward would leave.
It is surprising that a terrorist could somehow become a college professor. Perhaps it is time to revamp our universities to get rid of useless, counter-productive curriculums in our institutions of higher learning. Many of the "social justice" kinds of departments and other questionable psychobabble areas can be replaced with things like citizenship in the community, citizenship in the nation, and citizenship in the world. This action would replace useless, anti-American junk that does nothing more than provide a safe harbor for hard core leftists, socialists, communists, and other America haters.
We have to stop letting our college campuses serve as breeding grounds for hate. Get back to reading, writing, and arithmetic, and related subjects like technology, computer science, economics, engineering, agriculture, transportation, forestry, manufacturing, management, and related.
List Names are...?
Out of anger, I went to the site to view the signatures. I cut-and-pasted the list into excel and searched for universities with which I have been directly affiliated (four). I was disappointed to find four (I verified that they were indeed faculty).
However, looking through the list it became apparent that not everyone who signed was even claiming association with an academic institution (e.g., reporters, lawyers, moveon.org members). Also, by checking other names with purported university affiliation it seems as if there are quite a number whose academic credentials aren't verifiable.
Further reflection on the signature process also makes it clear that just the appearance of a name is not actually evidence that they entered the information themselves.
I calmed down a little. The appearance of just four names from the thousands of faculty at the four universities I chose is a very small fraction. The article title "Outpouring of Academic Support..." seems like it is an exxageration.
It occurs to me that motivated Freepers could just check for names from schools familiar to them, and make a few waves.
That tells me that there are 3200 “professors and teachers” that shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer money.
They are treasonous.
Note to “professors”:
It isn’t just what Ayers did 40 years ago that is disgusting. It is also what he did after 9/11 when he was totally unrepentant about all of his life-long activities against the USA.
I know for a fact that one of those signatures was a friend of mine. A Mr. Heywood Jablome.
I noticed that Hubich Yakokov had also signed.
College professors?
Academics?
At major universities?
Not many, I would guess.
This We Will Defend!!!
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