Posted on 11/04/2010 8:13:36 AM PDT by re_tail20
William Ayers, 1960s radical and retired University of Illinois at Chicago professor, said Wednesday any suggestion he dedicated a book to the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy was fiction invented by right-wing bloggers.
"There's not a shred of truth in it," he said.
William Ayers said any suggestion he dedicated a book to the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy was fiction.
His words came as the UIC Senate sent a letter to the university's board of trustees asking it to reconsider a September vote denying Ayers emeritus status.
"We believe that the possibility that this vote will cast a chill on open discussion is a serious possibility, which can only damage the academic freedom that we cherish," the letter reads.
Board chairman Chris Kennedy, who was 4 when Sirhan Sirhan murdered his father, said at the September meeting he could not support the honor for "a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father." He also said board discussion on the issue was not a threat to academic freedom.
On Wednesday, Kennedy declined to address Ayers' comments. He said that of the hundreds of votes the board of trustees has taken since he was appointed chairman, none has been his alone.
"I continue to value the input, feedback and friendship from the faculty," he said.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Student Senate, an all-student group, passed a statement supporting the board's decision.
Tom Hardy, university spokesman, said feedback the university received on the issue "was overwhelmingly positive." But academics at universities around the country publicly expressed concern that the board was overstepping its authority.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Ayers didn’t seek emeritus status but said he thought the board made a mistake by not granting it.
He also said he has never dedicated any book, including Prairie Fire, the book in question, to assassins.
The book was “dedicated to some very weird people, starting with John Brown and Harriet Tubman,” he said. Sirhan Sirhan’s name is listed with dozens of others on a page in the book, which also reads “To All Who Continue to Fight” and “To All Political Prisoners in the U.S.”
Seems like this should be pretty easily settled - somewhere there must be a copy of the book with the inscription in question.
Check the bottom of parakeet cages across America.
Well did he make the dedication or not?
John Brown and Harriet Tubman are American heros.
Beck showed the dedication page on his show!
Ayers did, however, admit to writing “Dreams of My Father”.
No doubt, he wrote both of Obozo’s books.
He listed Sirhan's name above a dedication.
When is a dedication not a dedication?
When a leftist TELLS you it's not, that's when.
Must be saying fine print doesn’t count.
It’s just like the WH visitors list.
He was talking about a completely different Sirhan Sirhan. The one who ran a meat market in one of the Chicago industrial districts.
Ok I read it and any sick bastard who included the assasin on that list deserves only to be driven from society, should be no where near a school.
I am glad though, that this bomb throwing murdering anarchistic crazy now finds himself groveling around in a fight with academic buerocrats. May he rot in academic hell and eventually the real thing.
Ayers is splitting hairs by claiming that Sirhan Sirhan’s name doesn’t actually appear on the dedication page, as the committee appears to claim. So therefore it’s not dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan.
HE bombed the Pentagon and a Police station. THAT should have been enough to deny him Emeritus status.
And last I looked, attempted murder isn’t FREE SPEECH.
These people are disgusting.
Some dumb-a$$es somewhere MUST have actually purchased his POS book when it was first published. One or more of those dumb-a$$es MUST have kept the book, thereby assuring that at least ONE copy of the book is extant.
The dedictaion page of said extant copy of said POS book can be checked and the presence or absence of the offending text verified, can't it?.
Yes, Sirhan sirhan’s name was included in a long list. But in Ayers warped view of reality, Sirhan Sirhan is a “freedom fighter” not an assassin. According to Ayers, everybody in the list are people who are fighting for justice. Therefore, Srhan Sirhan was fighting for justice.
At least that’s the best I can figure.
I see no bird doodie on the pages? Apparently this particular book was never put to the only use appropriate for it.
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