Raucous protest greets William Ayers at Moraga speaking engagement
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11577357
By Paul Thissen
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 01/28/2009
The shouts of "Shame on you!" resounded across the small Saint Mary's
College campus Wednesday night, where under the glare of television
lights, a few hundred sign-carrying, flag-waving protesters gathered
around a megaphone to object to an appearance by 1960s anti-war
militant William Ayers.
Most of the protest and its speeches took place before Ayers spoke,
but even as he took the stage inside the college's Soda Center,
protesters outside crowded toward the doors and shouted, "Cop killer!"
Ayers has never been convicted of killing anyone.
Many who couldn't get inside the center hung around the entrance. At
least one man had to be escorted out of the auditorium by campus
public safety officials when he walked up to the podium where Ayers
was speaking, carrying a book that resembled a Bible, and began
shouting profanities.
Ayers was invited to Saint Mary's as part of the college's "Against
the Grain" speaker series. A former leader of the Weather
Underground, he is now a professor of education at University of
Illinois-Chicago.
"I am appalled how Bill Ayers is able to come to a Christian-based
campus to speak his rhetoric," said Jerry Converse, of Concord, who
carried an American flag. "It's a free country, but this is the wrong place."
The crowd roared and chanted, encouraged by speeches by an FBI
informant who had infiltrated the Weathermen and by a police officer
who had been on the scene of a bombing at a San Francisco police
station that killed a sergeant. The officer said the bomb was set by
Ayers' wife, Bernardine Dohrn, a fellow Weather Underground leader.
"He hides behind being an educator," said Larry Grathwohl, the FBI
informant who traveled from Ohio to attend the protest. "He claims he
never killed or injured anyone." At that, the crowd erupted in chats
of "Liar! Liar!" Grathwohl said Ayers had instructed him to make a
bomb using fence staples to kill police officers, which Ayers has denied.
"Free speech does not give him the right to lie," Grathwohl said.
The protesters' chants sometimes competed with students and Ayers'
supporters, who chanted "Saint Mary's College!" and "SMC!" And a few
debates between the two camps escalated to the point of yelling.
"If we don't speak up, who will?" said Nancy Messer, who came from
Half Moon Bay to protest the speech. "We don't want (the students) corrupted."
--
Reach Paul Thissen at 925-943-8163 or pthissen@bayareanewsgroup.com.
--------
'60s radical Ayers cheered, booed at St. Mary's
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/28/PL3T15IQ3I.DTL
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Bill Ayers, the 1960s radical who was the subject of GOP accusations
last year that Barack Obama was "palling around with terrorists,"
urged a student audience at St. Mary's College in Moraga Wednesday to
take up social activism, saying that in the recent election Americans
"did not elect a monarch or a king."
Ayers, co-founder of the '60s Weather Underground radical anti-war
group, drew an angry and vocal group of protesters who condemned his
appearance at St. Mary's Soda Center, where he drew cheers and boos
from the crowd of about 500.
The controversial author and education professor at the University of
Illinois was repeatedly characterized as an "unrepentant terrorist"
by GOP vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during the
presidential campaign.
"I was going to propose that Sarah Palin and I have a talk show
called 'Pallin' Around,' " Ayers said in his opening comments, which
got laughs. Then, looking around at the standing-room-only crowd, he
added: "Had it not been for the recent presidential campaign, there
would be 22 of you here."
While never mentioning his activism in the radical underground
movement, Ayers urged students to get involved in social change. He
said he was delighted to watch the election of President Obama, but
urged students not to be complacent.
"We shouldn't cast our attention only on the president," he said. "we
should cast our attention on ourselves. ... We shouldn't expect that
change comes from the top alone - because it does not."
Ayers delivered a wide-ranging address on social justice and
education, but his effort outraged some 150 protesters - most marched
outside, and others sat in the audience and occasionally disrupted
his speech with yelling before they were escorted away.
"I don't know what they're protesting actually, but if the last few
months are any indication, they're protesting a cartoon character
that shares my name and likeness, but it's not me," he told The
Chronicle before his speech, adding that the McCain-Palin campaign
had attempted to turn him into a "monster."
Ayers is in California on a tour to promote a new book on race
relations that he wrote with his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, a fellow
former leader in the underground movement who is now a Chicago lawyer
and law professor. Ayers said he plans to return to the Bay Area with
Dohrn later this month to speak before the Middle East Children's
Alliance in Berkeley.
His appearance at St. Mary's "Against the Grain" lecture series to
explore the topic of "Trudging Toward Freedom" drew sharp criticism
from conservative and religious groups.
College officials would not say how much Ayers was paid for the
appearance, but confirmed it was underwritten by several college
funds, including the Disney Forum, an endowment to St. Mary's by Roy
Disney, brother of the late Walt Disney.
Rosanne Maloney of Danville, like some other college alumni, said she
was outraged by Ayers' selection as a speaker.
"They're not getting my check again," said Maloney, the president of
the college's 1985 graduating class, as she stood outside with a
sign. "I'm for free speech, but I'm not for a terrorist. The college
is drifting from its values."
Move America Forward, a conservative group based in the Bay Area and
chaired by former talk show host Melanie Morgan, drew a crowd of
supporters after she had called for the Ayers speech to be canceled.
"It's immoral, it's indecent, and it's wrong," said Morgan, who
headed a band of protesters chanting, "Terrorist go home," and
carrying signs that read, "Ayers lied, innocents died."
The Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic organization,
also condemned the choice of Ayers by a pre-eminent Bay Area Catholic
institution.
"Bill Ayers' honored presence at a Catholic college should offend not
only Catholics, but all men and women of goodwill," said Patrick J.
Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, in a statement
released Wednesday. "It is an affront to basic human dignity and a
scandal that a Catholic college should provide a platform for a man
who reportedly takes pride in terrorist acts against the United States."
Officials at St. Mary's College acknowledged that Ayers' appearance
was highly controversial. "No single event has ever generated the
volume of e-mail that I have received in past days than the upcoming
appearance of Professor William (Bill) Ayers," said Provost Bethami
Dobkin in a public letter. She added, "We are an academic
institution, founded in the values and practices of the Christian
Brothers and grounded in the liberal arts ... (and) the appearance of
Mr. Ayers as a guest speaker is congruent with our mission and
educational purposes."
--
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com.
--------
Editorial:
Controversial speakers like Ayers are important part of academic life
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_11599434?nclick_check=1
MediaNews editorial
Posted: 01/31/2009
CONTROVERSIAL, UNPOPULAR and even notorious guest speakers have long
been a part of academic life. Often they draw crowds of protesters
and have angered alumni. So it was on Wednesday night, when 1960s
anti-war militant William Ayers spoke at Saint Mary's College in Moraga.
Ayers was a fugitive in the 1970s, when he was part of the Weather
Underground, an anti-Vietnam war group that protested U.S. policies
by bombing the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and other government buildings.
Nobody was hurt in those attacks.
Today, Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, also a former Weather
Underground fugitive, live in Hyde Park, Ill. Federal charges against
the two were dropped because of improper surveillance, so they avoided prison.
Ayers and Dohrn have built solid reputations as professors, Dohrn at
Northwestern's law school, Ayers as an education professor at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ayers was in the spotlight recently because of his association with
Barack Obama. They were involved with the Chicago Annenberg
Challenge, a not-for-profit group affiliated with a
school-improvement foundation created by late Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg.
Ayers' credentials and experience in education policy qualify him as
a legitimate guest speaker at any college or university, especially
at a lecture series titled "Against the Grain."
Those who disagree with Ayers or deplore his role in the Weather
Underground have every right to protest his views and history, which
many hundreds did at Saint Mary's on Wednesday night.
What upsets us is not that Ayers was a guest speaker or that large
numbers of people protested, but that so many people insisted that
Ayers not be allowed to speak, claiming it was wrong for a college to
invite such a person to corrupt impressionable students.
Let's give students some credit for intelligence. Listening to
controversial speakers does not corrupt minds, it opens them up to
other points of view, which students are free to debate, accept or reject.
Saint Mary's president, Brother Ronald Gallagher, said that inviting
Ayers to speak was not an endorsement of his ideas or support for his
past actions. He also said that a "podium is not a pulpit" and guest
speakers do not define the identity or direction of the college.
He's right. Colleges and universities should open their doors to a
wide range of views, which often means that many highly controversial
speakers will be invited. That is the essence of academic freedom.
Unfortunately, there are times when such speakers are shouted down or
even prevented from addressing anyone.
That has been true at some of the most distinguished universities in
the country, including UC Berkeley, where former Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not allowed to talk.
We would like to see a greater range of controversial speakers on
college and university campuses, especially from the conservative end
of the political spectrum, which often is underrepresented.
Intellectual freedom requires broad-mindedness by those who invite
guest speakers and civility from both listeners and protesters.
What should never occur at any college or university is an
unwillingness by school administrators to invite speakers with a wide
variety of views, controversial or otherwise, and efforts by those
who disagree with a guest to prevent him or her from speaking.
--------
Ex-Weathermen leaders William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn tell Ann Arbor
audience that bombings weren't terrorism
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/01/former_weathermen_leaders_tell.html
by Leah DuMouchel | The Ann Arbor News
Tuesday January 27, 2009
It's a question William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn must have come to expect.
And when their talk at the University of Michigan on Monday evening
was opened up to questions, the audience wasted no time in asking it.
Did the two former leaders of the Weathermen, a violent anti-war
group that bombed banks and government buildings in the 1960s and
'70s, reject their own acts of terrorism, a member of the packed
audience wanted to know.
"We don't think, individually or as a group, that we were
terrorists," Dohrn replied.
"We never did, and we don't think terrorism is a good idea. But the
Weather Underground broke through a lot of barriers - there were
2,000 people dying a week in Vietnam, and we had 500,000 soldiers
occupying a tiny country, involved in acts that would be considered
war crimes by today's framework. I don't defend it, but I do insist
on explaining it."
Ayers pointed to his 2001 book, "Fugitive Days: A Memoir," as "one
long explanation and reflection on how people like us could be put in
a place like that."
"It's not so easy to say, 'I am completely nonviolent,' because there
is violence being carried on this minute in the names of everyone of
us in this room. So to sit on your couch and think you're exempt from
violence because you're not doing anything ... well, that's too easy."
The couple, who married while fugitives in the 1970s, were in Ann
Arbor to promote their new book, "Race Course: Against White
Supremacy" (Third World Press). The book melds personal history,
explanatory narrative, history lessons, parenting tips and deep,
probing questions in a series of essays written by the two of them,
both together and separately.
The 64-year-old Ayers, who graduated from the University of Michigan
and lived in Ann Arbor during part of his Underground Weathermen
days, was in the news during last year's presidential campaign after
critics linked him to Barack Obama because they both served on a
anti-poverty board together and lived within blocks of each other in
a trendy Chicago neighborhood.
Ayers, a distinguished professor of education at the University of
Illinois-Chicago, and Dohrn, an associate law professor at
Northwestern University, said they have spent their 37-year
partnership fighting racism at each others' sides.
"Our hope is that the book is going to promote questions in which
that thread of white supremacy and racism is part of our learning
curve. We called it 'Race Course' because we think of this, our
lifelong journey, as a study, a course, an inquiry into the questions
of how it works," said Dorhn in an interview with The News before the talk.
Their talk in the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library drew several
hundred listeners who sat on the windowsills, plopped on the floor,
dragged armchairs over from reading nooks and filled every one of the
200 or so chairs that sponsor Shaman Drum Bookshop had set up.
The pair praised the immediate efforts of the Obama administration to
make changes through executive orders, but firmly insisted that the
responsiblity for progress does not rest solely - or even mostly - on
any official.
"Lyndon Johnson was not a civil rights leader," Ayers said. "FDR
wasn't involved in organized labor, and Lincoln wasn't in the
abolitionist movement. They were all skilled politicians who were
responding to movements on the ground. So every time you want to make
a press on the government, that's really a press on ourselves, to get
organized."
--------
Ayers and Dohrn at Hatcher Library
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/01/27/ayers-and-dohrn-at-hatcher-library/
Event sponsored by Shaman Drum draws more than 300
By Dave Askins
January 27, 2009
On Monday evening at the University of Michigan's Hatcher Graduate
Library, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn addressed the 300-400 people
who had packed into the space, answered written questions and signed
copies of their new book, "Race Course: Against White Supremacy."
Ayers had gained renewed notoriety during the presidential campaign,
through the speculation about a connection between Ayers and then
presidential hopeful Barack Obama. When Republican candidate for
vice-president Sarah Palin spoke of Obama "palling around with
terrorists," Ayers was the guy she meant Ayers was a member of the
radical 1960s group the Weather Underground. (Ayers rejected the
label "terrorist" on Monday.)
Although it was Ayers and Dohrn who headlined the event, the story
that The Chronicle found was in the people who attended, many of whom
were linked in somewhat unpredictable ways.
Take Jim Manganello, whose real interest is in directing theater, but
who's completing a teaching certificate at UM, having already earned
his undergrad degree. Part of the reason he went to hear Ayers and
Dohrn speak is that he's taking a course in the history of American
radicalism, and his professor mentioned the event in class.
Manganello rents the place he lives from another attendee, Roger
Manela, who now is a social worker and also the guy who recruited
Carl Oglesby to Students for a Democratic Society. That recruitment
is described in detail in Chapters 2 and 3 of Oglesby's "Ravens in
the Storm." Oglesby served as the president of SDS from 1965-66.
The first president of SDS (elected in 1960) was also on hand Monday
evening in the form of Alan Haber. Haber remains active in the Ann
Arbor community, currently focusing on the Megiddo Peace Project.
Haber's high school teacher at University High was Scott Westerman.
Westerman was superintendent of Ann Arbor schools when Ayers ran for
school board. Westerman was also there for Ayers' talk and stopped by
the book-signing table afterwards to chat with Ayers and Dohrn.
And even if Ayers hasn't been palling around with Barack Obama, it
might be fair to say that he's palled around with Karl Pohrt, owner
of the independent bookstore Shaman Drum. On Sept. 11, 2001, Ayers
had been scheduled to give a reading for "Fugitive Days" at the store
when the events of that day canceled the reading. And Pohrt was at
Hatcher on Monday not really as an attendee, but as part host.
Monday's event was sponsored by Shaman Drum, and it was Pohrt who had
pitched the idea to Paul Courant, University Librarian and UM Dean of
Libraries, that UM could provide an appropriately-sized venue. Pohrt
made introductory remarks on Monday.
That brings us back around to Jim Manganello, whose connection to
Karl Pohrt is that he just finished a 3-week temporary stint working
the textbook floor at Pohrt's Shaman Drum.
Not everyone who attended could be linked up in similar fashion.
Oscar Whitehouse was there because he had no choice he looked to be
only a couple months old and was there with his mom, Melissa Stewart.
Stewart said she and her husband were there because they wanted to
hear Ayers speak first-hand. She didn't think that the hype
surrounding Ayers was fair, and after the talk concluded that their
notion of Ayers was correct: "He's really not crazy."
Geoffrey Williams, a UM undergrad toting a giant chemistry textbook,
said he would not be heeding Bill Ayer's advice to go to Shaman Drum
and buy a book (not necessarily his own) and read it. He was,
however, planning to go to Shaman Drum afterward to by a ticket to
Homegrown: Poetry from the Ann Arbor Underground, which will be
performed this Wednesday, Jan. 28, at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater in
the Michigan League.
Julie Herrada, curator of the Labadie Collection at the UM library,
was in attendance Monday. Courant mentioned her in his introductory
remarks because her exhibit, "The Whole World Was Watching: Protest
and Revolution in 1968, Selections from theLabadie Collection," was
connected in topic and space to Monday's talk. It had been on display
in the same Room 100 at Hatcher Graduate Library through Dec. 19, 2008.
Ken Magee, new director of UM's Department of Public Safety, was
there partly by virtue of his position. It was his responsibility, he
said, to make sure it was a safe environment. But before his long
career as a federal agent, he had grown up in Ann Arbor. He
remembered riding his bicycle through the Diag. And he had a
recollection of the events of the late '60s in Ann Arbor, even if he
had no recollection of Bill Ayers as a person.
Rich Tolman, a professor at UM's School of Social Work, was hanging
around after most of the room had emptied, waiting for the long line
at the book signing table to slowly shrink. Tolman is a former
colleague of Ayers at the University of Illinois at Chicago their
offices were on the same hallway. Tolman had exchanged some emails
with Ayers before his arrival, and depending on the lateness of the
hour when the signing was done, the two were perhaps heading out for a drink.
When The Chronicle left Hatcher Library and Tolman, he was sussing
the problem of what downtown establishment would still be open past
11 p.m. Otherwise put, where do you take Bill Ayers for a drink in
downtown Ann Arbor?
--------
Ayers to speak at Northwestern on Feb. 4
http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2009/01/20530/ayers-to-speak-at-northwestern-on-feb-4/
By Nadya Ivanova
Jan. 30, 2009
Former members of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers and Bernardine
Dohrn, and Muslim social activist Rami Nashashibi will speak at
Northwestern University on Feb. 4, 2009, at an event organized by the
Muslim-cultural Students Association, McSA Co-President Dana Shabeeb said.
Ayers, Dohrn and Nashashibi will present "Peaceful Progress: A
Discourse on Affecting Change" at Cahn Auditorium on Wednesday, Feb.
4, at 7:30 p.m. as McSA's postponed Fall Speaker event. The speakers
will discuss "social activism within the context of peace and modern
society," according to a press release on Friday, Jan. 30.
Ayers, a Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, came into the limelight last year amidst a controversy in
Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Ayers and Dohrn, Ayers' wife
and law professor at Northwestern, were involved in the radical left
organization Weather Underground in the 1970s, "but since then have
become prominent educators and social activists in Chicago," the
press release says.
"The McSA encourages dialogue in the Northwestern community and
understands that Bill Ayers is considered by some people to be a
controversial figure, but we are bringing him because we know that he
has a unique narrative to present," Shabeeb said in the press
release. "We hope that this will propel students to engage in the
change that is fundamental to bringing about peace in this new era of
American politics."
Nashashibi, the Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action
Network (IMAN), has given lectures across the United States on topics
related to American Muslim identity, community activism and social
justice issues.
"McSA hopes that this open forum will further stimulate dialogue on
campus regarding issues of social change, as well as create an
environment where social activism is fostered and encouraged," the
press release says.
Read the press release below.
Ayers, Dohrn, and Nashashibi to discuss Peaceful Progress
Evanston, Ill. Former members of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers
and Bernardine Dohrn, and Muslim social activist Rami Nashashibi will
be speaking this Wednesday, Feb. 4 as McSA's postponed Fall Speaker event.
Ayers, Dohrn and Nashashibi will deliver "Peaceful Progress: A
Discourse on Affecting Change" at 7:30 p.m. in Cahn Auditorium, 600
Emerson Street, on Northwestern's Evanston campus. The
Muslim-cultural Students Association has invited the three speakers
to speak about social activism as its annual political awareness event.
Ayers, a distinguished professor of education and Senior University
Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was a surprising
locus of controversy for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Ayers
and Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers' wife and law professor at Northwestern
University, will focus their discussion on social activism. Ayers and
Dohrn were involved in the radical left organization Weather
Underground in the 1970s, but since then have become prominent
educators and social activists in Chicago. Ayers helped shape
Chicago's school reform program and in 1997 was awarded Citizen of
the Year by the city for his work.
Nashashibi, the Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action
Network (IMAN), is the author of "Ghetto Cosmopolitanism: Making
theory at the Margins" in a book entitled Deciphering the Global: Its
Scales, Spaces, and Subjects. Nashashibi has lectured across the
country on a range of topics related to the American Muslim identity,
community activism and social justice issues. He was also a recent
recipient of the LISC Community Hero Award and the National Housing
Service Community Leaders Award.
The three speakers, each presenting a unique perspective, will delve
into various facets of social activism within the context of peace
and modern society. McSA hopes that this open forum will further
stimulate dialogue on campus regarding issues of social change, as
well as create an environment where social activism is fostered and encouraged.
"The McSA encourages dialogue in the Northwestern community and
understands that Bill Ayers is considered by some people to be a
controversial figure, but we are bringing him because we know that he
has a unique narrative to present," said McSA co-President, Dana
Shabeeb, a junior majoring in Political Science. "We hope that this
will propel students to engage in the change that is fundamental to
bringing about peace in this new era of American politics."
The event is being co-endorsed by several groups at Northwestern:
Alianza, Asian Pacific American Coalition, South Asian Student
Alliance and FMO.
This event is free, although tickets are required for entrance. They
are available at the Norris Box Office.
In the past, the Muslim-cultural Students Association has hosted
Michael Scheuer to speak on the War on Terror, Neal Katyal on the
Guantanamo Bay terror tribunals, and John Esposito to speak on the
Danish cartoon controversy.
-------
Controversial figure visits EMU
http://www.ypsilanticourier.com/stories/012909/loc_20090129001.shtml
By Christine Laughren, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 29, 2009
William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn stopped by Eastern
Michigan University's campus Monday afternoon to have an open
discussion with students about activism, global politics and more.
The couple were in town promoting their new book "Race Course:
Against White Supremacy."
After a quick lunch at Beezy's CafÈ in Downtown Ypsilanti, the pair
swung over to EMU to discuss their book, which focuses on racism and
the role white people play in perpetuating the structure of racism in
the United States today.
Ayers and Dohrn were leaders of The Weatherman, a faction of the
Students for a Democratic Society, in the 1960s. The group of
anti-war activists, which later became The Weather Underground,
organized a number of bombings and riots in addition to protests and
sit-ins against the Vietnam War.
Ayers made headlines during the recent presidential election when
Republican candidates attempted to link his name, synonymous with The
Weather Underground, to Barack Obama.
Speaking to a group of about 40 students, Dohrn said "Race Course"
has some personal and analytical reflections on racism in America.
"In 'Race Course' we wrote some chapters on why you can't understand
anything about justice in the United States without looking at racism
and structures of white supremacy," Dohrn said. "The same goes for education."
Dohrn, an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University, said
the book was intended to be released this time a year ago. However,
she at that time, the U.S. presidential campaigns were just beginning
to heat up.
"It became clear that we were going to be part of a firestorm attack
on candidate Barack Obama, which then focused almost entirely by the
spring on Bill," Dohrn said. "We decided to delay the release of the
book because we felt in that kind of a caldron of demonizing and
throwing up of caricatures and pandering of fear you can't really be heard."
Ayers and Dorn were able to write additional material regarding the
election and the role race played in the campaigns due to the delay
of publishing.
Knowing the couple was on a book tour, EMU student Andrew Stefan
invited Ayers and Dohrn to the University to speak. Stefan said he is
part of a left-leaning book club on campus and the group was looking
for a way to meet Ayers and Dohrn.
"Rather than going to Ann Arbor, they decided to come here and
present to EMU," Stefan said.
Although the couple was signing books in Ann Arbor most of the day,
Ayers, a professor of education and a Senior University Scholar at
the University of Illinois, said EMU's Kiva Room in the Student
Center lent itself well to a conversation.
The small room was packed for the discussion. Some students had to
sit on the floor as regular seats became hard to come by.
The couple stayed for about an hour and took approximately seven
questions from the audience.
Questions touched on the connection between militarism and racism,
activism in today's political climate, education and racism and the
couple's past history with The Weather Underground.
The University did not have any announcement of Ayers and Dohrn's
planned trip to campus.
Ward Mullens, associate director of communications for the
University, said he didn't find out the pair were visiting campus
until about an hour before they arrived. He said there was simply a
break-down in communication between those who organized the event and
University Communications.
Dohrn and Ayers traveled back to Ann Arbor later in the day for a
book signing University of Michigan's Hatcher Graduate Library.
--
Contact Staff Writer Christine Laughren at 697-8255 or at
claughren@heritage.com
-------
Bill Ayers: 'Gutter-crawling rat'
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87458
Posted: January 30, 2009
by Melanie Morgan
I know the eyes of terrorists. I first glimpsed into the soulless
eyes of terrorists when I visited the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
where the mastermind of 9/11 is caged. On Wednesday, as nearly 1,000
patriots stood in bitterly cold weather to protest against Bill
Ayers, who was a guest of St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., I
once again recognized that darkness.
In both instances, I looked through glass at the terrorists. And both
times, I felt the same shiver that electrifies the spine when you
recognize evil.
My nonprofit organization, Move America Forward, worked with other
pro-America groups to show St. Mary's and Ayers that they will no
longer get a pass in society. For too long, Ayers whose group, the
Weather Underground, caused the death of people with crude bombs
has been received by academia and other nitwits who pooh-pooh his
radical actions during the 1960s and '70s.
Even President Barack Obama was Ayers' buddy, a fact that didn't faze
Americans blinded by Obama's socialistic "change" mantra.
MAF brought a special guest to speak outside, as the left-wing media
swarmed Ayers inside a warm, cushy room. Larry Grathwohl knows Billy
Ayers and the crimes he committed against the United States and individuals.
Grathwohl was a student when Ayers et al. built bombs that were meant
to kill people. He infiltrated the Weather Underground for the FBI,
and later testified on several occasions about the bombs that he
built with Ayers, and the terrorists' intent: to kill and maim.
One of those bombs killed San Francisco police Sgt. Brian McDonnell
and seriously injuring nine other officers. Retired Officer James
Pera, who was on-duty the night McDonnell died, also went to St.
Mary's on Wednesday night to face Ayers. McDonnell brought a
newspaper describing the carnage left behind by the Weather
Underground and a piece of shrapnel he picked up at the scene.
Anybody who saw that piece of the bomb would know that, like the
Muslim terrorists who war with America now, Ayers and his clan meant
to kill people.
Pera explained that the bomb that killed McDonnell was so powerful
that investigators found shrapnel two blocks away.
I was changed by the gathering of protesters, and the words of
Grathwohl and Pera, who called Ayers a "gutter-crawling rat." The
eyes of Ayers echoed those of the terrorists in Gitmo.
We have a terrorist, an unrepentant evil one, walking among us. Not
only us he walking among us, he is indoctrinating our college
students. I actually saw about five students carrying signs welcoming
Ayers to St. Mary's. One was at least intelligent enough to link
Ayers and Obama: He waved around an Obama-Biden campaign sign.
The gathering chanted that Ayers should be in Gitmo. Frankly, Gitmo
is too good for the monster. I agree he should be locked away. He is
only free because of a legal technicality. He has said he is proud of
his radicalism and that of his bat-crazy wife, Bernardine Dohrn, a
fellow traveler and terrorist. There is no statute-of-limitations on
murder, so there is still time to put Ayers in the hoosegow, a
project I could embrace.
Grathwohl was clear about his dismay that Ayers lives in freedom
after his group targeted the same spots as the terrorists of 9/11:
the U.S. Capitol (which the jihadists didn't get) and the Pentagon.
"He hides behind being an educator," Grathwohl told the crowd. "He
claims he never killed or injured anyone."
The crowd responded in chants of "Liar! Liar!"
At the height of his terrorism, Ayers told Grathwohl to make a bomb
using fence staples to kill police officers, which Ayers has denied.
"Free speech does not give him the right to lie," Grathwohl said.
To those who believe Ayers has the right to speak at college
campuses, making thousands of dollars as his victims lay buried in
cemeteries, I ask you to read the Constitution. Where does it say
that freedom of expression guarantees an audience? It doesn't. So I
don't want to hear that people are trying to steal his First Amendment rights.
He had a stage Wednesday night, a shameful decision by a Catholic
university. When others tried to express themselves, security hauled
them away. One man tried to present Ayers with a Bible, but the
guards pulled the man away. What about his freedom of expression?
Where they afraid that touching the Bible might melt Ayers like the
wicked witch of the west when she met water?
Ayers does have constitutional rights, which should be protected. The
best place for him is a dark prison cell where he can yammer his
anti-American poppycock to himself. He can express himself day and
night then he can tell it to Mephistopheles when he burns in hell.
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