Mr.
Ayers claimed that he was not with any of those groups when they were actually
killing people. He only wanted to blow up things - like the pentagon- as
part of his antiwar effort.
He
is a very skilled user of words and avoider of any responsibility for anything.
His guys "killed" people (American civilians). Whereas the
American government "murdered people" and engaged in
"genocide".
The
reason that I bring this up here is because I was quite disappointed that Fox did
not ask him about the following disparity:
What
is the basis of your authority to decide to take the actions you took vis-a-vis
the authority of the US Government to take the actions that it took?
The
government had that authority vested in it by 200,000,000 people and from
200-1000 years of history.
Ayers
group was apparently recently self anointed.
The
fact is that what Ayers advocated and advocates is anarchy. If you oppose something - blow it up? If
you disagree with the government - blow it up? Because he was really-really
against the war and his philosophy is apparently: If it feels good - do
it.
But
by that time history had presented a well established and clearly moral way to
oppose the government in a democracy. According to Wikipedia the earliest germ
is in Sophocles' Antigone, you can follow it in Shelley and Thoreau, and see it
blossom in Gandhi and King. It is the
idea of civil disobedience. You get in the street. You put yourself
at risk to persuade people to seriously consider your point of view. That was what eventually happened and ended the Battle of
Vietnam.
But that
would have put himself in the line of fire and that is not what you do when you
have a really-really special gift for knowing what the world should do.
I caught the interview and you have to admire his calm demeanor under pressure, his brashness in holding forth a position that is clearly not defendable, the Teflon coating that prevents any personal responsibility from sticking to him, and his ability to use the English language in his favor.
ReplyDeleteMy honest feeling about William Ayers – Why is he loose and still in my country?
An open question – Mr. Ayers retired from the University of Illinois in 2010 and was denied emeritus status by that University. How do you allow some to teach at your University for a career, retire from your University, and then express your disgust with the individual by denying an honorary title?