My Friend Bill Ayers

[seemslikeadream]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122402888900234543.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Waving the bloody shirt" was the phrase once used to describe the standard demagogic tactic of the late 19th century, when memories of the Civil War were still vivid and loyalists of both parties could be moved to "vote as they shot." As the years passed and the memories faded, the shirt got gorier, the waving more frantic.


Corbis
Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.
In 1896 the Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan as their leader, a man who was born in 1860 and had thus missed the Civil War, but who seemed to threaten the consensus politics of the time. In response, Republican campaign masterminds organized a speaking tour of the Midwest by a handful of surviving Union generals. The veterans advanced through the battleground states in a special train adorned with patriotic bunting, pictures of their candidate, William McKinley, and a sign declaring, "We are Opposed to Anarchy and Repudiation."

The culture wars are the familiar demagogic tactic of our own time, building monstrous offenses out of the tiniest slights. The fading rancor that each grievance is meant to revive, of course, dates to the 1960s and the antiwar protests, urban riots and annoying youth culture that originally triggered our great turn to the right.

This year the Democrats chose Barack Obama as their leader, a man who was born in 1961 and who largely missed our cultural civil war. In response, Republican campaign masterminds have sought to plunge him back into it in the most desperate and grotesque manner yet.

For days on end, the Republican presidential campaign has put nearly all of its remaining political capital on emphasizing Mr. Obama's time on various foundation boards with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weathermen, which planted bombs and issued preposterous statements in the Vietnam era. Some on the right seem to believe Mr. Ayers is Mr. Obama's puppet-master, while others are content merely to insist that the association proves Mr. Obama to be soft on terrorism. Maybe he's soft on anarchy and repudiation, too.

I can personally attest to the idiocy of it all because I am a friend of Mr. Ayers. In fact, I met him in the same way Mr. Obama says he did: 10 years ago, Mr. Ayers was a guy in my neighborhood in Chicago who knew something about fundraising. I knew nothing about it, I needed to learn, and a friend referred me to Bill.

Bill's got lots of friends, and that's because he is today a dedicated servant of those less fortunate than himself; because he is unfailingly generous to people who ask for his help; and because he is kind and affable and even humble. Moral qualities which, by the way, were celebrated boisterously on day one of the GOP convention in September.

[blue sky at night]

1. Frankly.....

I don't give a damn what the repukes say about Bill...anyone who didn't fight the war and dick nixon back then was on the wrong side in my mind. We have been fighting the same mentality ever since, and I truly believe my life was forever changed by the events of the Sixties...in a way it ruined me, making me forever hate and distrust my own government. I grew up only six miles from Kent State, and when May 4th,1970 happened I was never the same. So thanks for defending Bill, I like him just fine...I like anyone that the Right Wing Noise Machine decides is today's boogie man. BTW, I think I get what this "Terrorist" Label is all about now...it is a modern, politically correct way of calling someone a nigger...think about it, just substitute that awful word for "terrorist" and you will begin to get exactly where these bastards are coming from.

Change, Hope, Obama.

[merci_me]

4. Right with you!

I wasn't as far left as Ayers, but I certainly leaned much closer that way and am proud of it. I too vividly recall Kent State, when the term was "brown shirts". I worked my ass off to try to defeat Jim Rhodes and worked the re-count, for Governor Jack Gilligan (father of Governor Kathleen Sebilius). I attended the swearing in of then Lt. Gov Celeste and marched in protest on the Capitol grounds during the swearing in of a probably drunken Rhodes.

Frankly, I don't specifically recall Ayers in the 60's, but I feel a real sense of pride, knowing he has survived those times and is making a difference.

NEVER GIVE UP!!

[tblue]

7. You're right. The "T" word is the new "N" word.

The Weather Underground's MO was very different from the Al Qaeda type of terrorism or even the Timothy McVeigh type of terrorism. And the Weatherman didn't kill anyone, at least not according to a documentary I watched a couple years ago.

I don't condone violence of any kind, but the young people who spoke truth to power about the Vietnam war, free speech, and civil rights are heroes in my eyes. They had more guts than a lot of us do, and certainly more than the cowardly rightwing goon squads who make up McKKKane's base, who seem to be quite content embracing their own KKKind of terrorism.

[tavalon]

8. I was born 2 years after Senator Obama

and I missed all but the nuance of the 60s. Until these last two weeks, I had never heard of Bill Ayers, and only tangentially about the group he was in, but I watched a documentary about the group last week and this boogie man was not the danger they have made him out to be and he is a good man. So, in this situation, your instincts are correct, but I caution you in your use of all good/all bad dichotomy. It could easily lead you to believe Noriega and Saddam Hussein and even Osama Bin Laden were good people because our government turned them into boogie men (but in each case, they were not good people but puppets of our country who outlived their usefulness in that capacity). I wish the world we're so damn black and white, it would make it so much easier to travel through this thing called life.

You are very right about the "Terrorist" label, though it isn't just about race, it's about scapegoated "other". In years gone by, the words were "Communist" and "Jew" and such.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. I think you are right.

BTW. I think I get what this "Terrorist" Label is all about now...it is a modern, politically correct way of calling someone a nigger...think about it, just substitute that awful word for "terrorist" and you will begin to get exactly where these bastards are coming from.

[Robbien]

2. It is a shame that anti-war advocates at that time had to go to such extremes

to get attention on what LBJ and Nixon were doing.

From what I've read about Ayers, he is not a bad guy.

[TahitiNut]

3. I think he'd make a good Secretary of Education

:shrug:

[blue sky at night]

6. you are right there..........

on a couple of different levels...it will be awesome to see the poor little conservatives shit themselves when Barack sets up his cabinet.

Change, Hope, Obama.

[newtothegame]

5. Good read n/t

[KharmaTrain]

9. Fighting The Last War...

A bunch of the Ayers game is for the right wingers to relive that hate they had back in the 60's with all Vietnam protestors and relate it to the opposition of today's wars. These are people who were convinced that the media lost Vietnam as it's doing the same in Iraq. They are firmly convinced that those of us in opposition are traitors no matter how we protest. The 60's is a fear tool for many who were too young to remember or weren't directly involved...it's another GOOP myth that they've used to hamstring Democrats for years.

I'm in Chicago and I had never heard of Ayers. I'd heard of the groups he worked with...and am familiar with his wife, Bernadine Doern...but he wasn't on the top list of local radicals. I'm old enough to remember the Police Riots (which is what they were) of 1968 and the Days of Rage a year later. Emotions were at a high boil in those days and many in the movement became disenchanted...others found ways of working in the system.

The greatest example of this is Congressman Bobby Seals...a former head of the Black Panthers and one of the most beloved politicians around. I'm surprised his name hasn't been thrown into the mix.

The Ayers game is not working for Gramps...too many people are seeing their life savings vanish, their healthcare vanish, their homes vanish and couldn't care less about 1969.

[Karenina]

10. What a l-o-n-g strange trip it's been...

;-)