Posted on 03/20/2009 12:36:04 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul
No disruptions at Ayers' visit
By AD CRABLE, Staff Writer
There were no hecklers inside where Bill Ayers spoke. And the couple dozen students and people who supported or protested the former radical's appearance outside politely agreed to disagree.
With a massive police presence and tight security, feared confrontations, speech disruptions and even possible violence did not materialize, and Ayers' entire visit on Millersville University's campus Thursday took place in peace.
Not that people didn't feel strongly about a man who admitted to bombing government buildings during the Vietnam War being invited here.
"What he did was so wrong," said Nancy Leed, 56, of Washington Boro, taking a break from her job as a cashier on campus.
"I know he's not coming here to discuss his past and it will be about education, but still he left a mark — a bad mark — and I don't think this is the place that we need to hear it," said Leed.
"I know people say it was in his past, but hey, I'm from the Vietnam War era, and he went over the line," she said.
Students from both the Republican and Democrat campus chapters spoke out vociferously against bringing Ayers to campus.
"We are outraged that he is here," said Ryan Barrick, president of the college Democrats chapter. "This is an outrage to any student at Millersville University or resident of Lancaster County.
"His reputation as an unrepentant terrorist precedes him, and for him to come here to talk about urban education is flat-out wrong."
"MU Why?" read one of the signs group members held outside the Student Memorial Center, across from where Ayers spoke.
Another group held a sign that said, "MU Grads Against Terrorists."
But right next to them were the six members of the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, a group that Ayers split from in the 1960s to form the more radical Weather Underground.
"I don't approve of his tactics, but he is trying to make a better world," said Josh Redd, SDS chapter president.
Joanne Roda, 56, of Lancaster, attended Ayers' speech because she was interested in his views on education.
What about the speaker's past? she was asked.
"If there's a problem, then it's with the federal government because they chose not to prosecute him," she said. "He went on to lead a good life — at least a purposeful life."
Widespread media attention and concerns trouble might erupt in a charged atmosphere prompted Millersville University officials to arrange for a huge security presence.
Several dozen police officers included campus police, Pennsylvania State Police, Lancaster city police, Ephrata police, the Lancaster County Sheriff's Department, at least two police dogs and about 20 members of the South Central Pennsylvania Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force, a regional conglomorate of public agencies.
However, the task force asked to man the event as a training exercise.
Police cars and barricades blocked streets around the building where Ayers spoke and at a closed-circuit broadcast of the speech in the nearby Student Memorial Center.
MU spokeswoman Janet Kacskos today said she did not know precisely how many law-enforcement officers were on hand and how much it would cost to pay for them.
"Anybody who wants to be paid will submit invoices," she said. However, she emphasized that all costs for security will be paid with private funds, not by the taxpayers or students.
Asked if the university had any regrets about mobilizing such a large police presence on campus, Kacskos said no and noted that the university received "hostile" phone calls and e-mail messages through Thursday.
"We needed to be prepared to protect our students; that's our first priority," she said.
Ayers' most recent talks, though certainly controversial, have invoked mixed reactions from those actually attending the events.
Last October, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln uninvited Ayers to speak on campus after the university's threat-assessment group identified safety concerns.
His talk in January before 500 people at St. Mary's College in California drew a mixture of boos and cheers from the audience, some of whom disrupted his speech before being led away by police.
A March 5 talk at the University of Colorado drew a loud ovation and no disruptions. Only a few protesters waved signs outside the event.
At Ayers' most recent campus talk, at the University of Illinois last week, a man was arrested for repeatedly approaching Ayers on four successive nights. The county's state attorney later decided not to press charges.
Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.
The Russian revolution of 1917 was started by rich kids at universities ...not the workers ....interesting ....
Larry Grathwohl will talk about his work as a federal investigator assigned to penetrate Bill Ayers' and Bernardine Dohrn's Weathermen -- the bombings and the deaths -- and a new possibility for prosecution. Also discussed: the entire Marxist network in America, right up to Barack Obama.
We will be taking calls; let us know what's on your mind: 646-727-2652
Please spread the word...
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