"When there is a ‘convenient’ moment to say an alleged ‘truth’ then the alleged truth is just a lie." -- Juan Enrique

Sounds very much like the summer of 2002 when there was a ‘convenient’ moment (post 9.11) to say an alleged ‘truth’ (Saddam Hussein has WMD's, ties to Al Qeada, plans to nuke America under mushroom clouds, etc., etc.) and the alleged truth turned out to be a 100% Bush administration manufactured lie.

Willam Ayers never killed anyone. I wish I could say the same for the morally bankrupt, born-again christian (sic), George W Bush and the ethically devoid Republican Party. Their murder spree is currently at over one million innocent people and counting.

Who's the terrorist again?????

Just a few weeks ago, I would have seriously considered a response to this article a sure way to come under increased government scrutiny and surveillance. I remember feeling exactly the same way in 1968 while attending anti war planning meetings in Los Angeles.

One thing William Ayers described in this interview is the absolute pain, desperation and terror many of us felt in 1968 as the war expanded and two of our nation’s most important voices were silenced by assassination. A lot of that pain and grief has faded over the years, but anytime it gets mentioned I remember the feeling of helplessness and rage mixed with a strong dose of, “hope I die before I get old”; a dangerous combination.

Although I refused to give voice to it, I know a lot of folks that were reliving some of that panic as this election cycle started to give legs to the dream of Barack Obama’s election.

Extreme pain, desperation, depression and moral outrage can cause people to justify a lot of things. 9/11 is one example where killing thousands of innocent people in a far away land finds justification in the warped and twisted minds of Islamic extremists. Another is the Weather Underground where citizens target institutions of their own government taking as much care as their morally challenged minds can muster to avoid injury to their fellow citizens as a protest against the mass killing of innocent people in a far away land. There is a difference.

Aside from whatever his personal regrets are, in my book, William Ayers has nothing to apologize for.

Thanks for calling my attention to a loose use of the term "radical". You are right. What I tried to convey was a somewhat one-dimensional scale of civil protest, from the poster in your car to the protest in the street to civil obedience that includes peaceful rule breaking (of conventions to that of laws) and on to more violent forms of protest. I wonder now if that is really possible, and if it were, if "radicalism" is the right term to be used. If there were one dimension, maybe "extreme" might the better term, although in a dimension you often have two poles, i.e. two extremes. And if you go to the roots - which is what "radical" really signifies - withholding taxes as you did might have been the "radical" thing to do. Or being a conscentious objector, as your husband was, might be another. It depends on what "root" you are aiming at.

As regards violence, that is another dimension that only partially covers of what I originally intended. I wonder if burning a draft card really was a violent act. Spitting at returning GIs that in some rare cases really might have happened is one but I do not remember it ever having been discussed - I left the U.S. in 1969 - and it certainly would have been rejected as a despicable act, then. Bombing property is indeed less "violent" than bombing people as the Baader-Meinhof gang did here in Germany. Bill Ayers never passed that treshold, and I still think that to be a significant fact. And yet, some people got from that type of violence to that fatal next step.

What I understood in hindsight is how tenuous the border between these different types of violence might become when people start the mental gymnastics of justifying their (mis-)deeds. And I still struggle with the notion of "civil disobedience" some forms of which like disregarding "whites only" signs are justified without any doubt while others are breaching seemingly legitimate rules. The problem is that you define for yourself what breach is or is not legitimate, and some people stop at draft evasion, others at withholding taxes, others find government behavior so atrocious that bombing government offices seems justified, others think that bombing exponents of "the system" is called for, and suicide bombers (and armies) think killing by-standers is justified as "collateral damage" or deem by-standers not as innocent because they just stand by instead of fight on their side.

If you never thought there was something atrocious going on in Viet Nam, or "right or wrong, my country", and being with your president, be it LBJ and Nixon or Dubya absolves you from own thinking you can afford to take the facile, moral superior position. I for one do not know what frightens me more, the rare instance of a self-righteous, rigorous Robespierre who talks the talk and walks the walk or the hypocrite who is spewing out easy condemnations in order to compensate for his own shortcomings.

Whatever, what I wanted to convey is to have a discussion where people listen to the story others have to tell and withhold judgement upto that moment where they have tried to take in the other's point of view. Then, and only then, you might offer a judgment, a judgment accompanied by a considerable dose of humility.

And I was wrong to put all of Ayers' critics in the same bag.

But sincere thanks to you for starting a meaningful discussion.

7 October 1969 – Bombing of Haymarket Police Statue in Chicago, apparently as a “kickoff” for the “Days of Rage” riots in the city October 8–11, 1969. The Weathermen later claim credit for the bombing in their book, “Prairie Fire.”

8 October-11, 1969 – The “Days of Rage” riots occur in Chicago in which 287 Weatherman members from throughout the country were arrested and a large amount of property damage was done.

6 December 1969 – Bombing of several Chicago Police cars parked in a precinct parking lot at 3600 North Halsted Street, Chicago. The WUO stated in their book “Prairie Fire” that they had did the explosion.

27 December-31, 1969 – Weathermen hold a “War Council” meeting in Flint, MI, where they finalize their plans to submerge into an underground status from which they plan to commit strategic acts of sabotage against the government. Thereafter they are called the “Weather Underground Organization” (WUO).

13 February 1970 – Bombing of several police vehicles of the Berkeley, California, Police Department .

16 February 1970 – Bombing of Golden Gate Park branch of the San Francisco Police Department, killing one officer and injuring a number of other policemen.

6 March 1970 – Bombing in the 13th Police District of the Detroit, Michigan. 34 sticks of dynamite are discovered. During February and early March, 1970, members of the WUO, led by Bill Ayers, are reported to be in Detroit, during that period, for the purpose of bombing a police facility.

6 March 1970 – “bomb factory” located in New York’s Greenwich Village accidentally explodes. WUO members Theodore die in t. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer’s dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails TO INFILICT MAXIMUM CASUALTIES UPON DETONATION.

30 March 1970 – Chicago Police discover a WUO “bomb factory” on Chicago’s north side. A subsequent discovery of a WUO “weapons cache” in a south side Chicago apartment several days later ends WUO activity in the city.

10 May 1970 – Bombing of The National Guard Association building in Washington, D.C..

21 May 1970 – The WUO under Bernardine Dohrn’s name releases its “Declaration of a State of War” communique.

6 June 1970 – The WUO sends a letter claiming credit for bombing of the San Francisco Hall of Justice; however, no explosion actually took place. Months later, workmen in this building located an unexploded device which had apparently been dormant for some time.

9 June 1970 – Bombing of The New York City Police Headquarters .

27 July 1970 – Bombing of The Presidio army base in San Francisco. [NYT, 7/27/70]

12 September 1970 – The WUO helps Dr. Timothy Leary, break out and escape from the California Men’s Colony prison.

8 October 1970 – Bombing of Marin County courthouse. [NYT, 8/10/70]

10 October 1970 – Bombing of Queens traffic-court building . [NYT, 10/10/70, p. 12]

14 October 1970 – Bombing of The Harvard Center for International Affairs [NYT, 10/14/70, p. 30]

1 March 1971 – Bombing of The United States Capitol . ” [NYT, 3/2/71]

April, 1971 – abandoned WUO “bomb factory” discovered in San Francisco, California.

29 August, 1971 – Bombing of the Office of California Prisons . [LAT, 8/29/71]

17 September 1971 – Bombing of The New York Department of Corrections in Albany, NY [NYT, 9/18/71]

15 October 1971 – Bombing of William Bundy’s office in the MIT research center. [NYT, 10/16/71]

19 May 1972 – Bombing of The Pentagon . [NYT, 5/19/72]

18 May 1973 – Bombing of the 103rd Police Precinct in New York

28 September 1973 – Bombing of ITT headquarters in New York and Rome, Italy . [NYT, 9/28/73]

6 March 1974 – Bombing of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare offices in San Francisco

31 May 1974 – Bombing of The Office of the California Attorney General.

17 June 1974 – Bombing of Gulf Oil’s Pittsburgh headquarters .

11 September 1974 – Bombing of Anaconda Corporation (part of the Rockefeller Corporation).

29 January 1975 – Bombing of the State Department in (AP. “State Department Rattled by Blast,” The Daily Times-News, January 29 1975, p.1)

16 June 1975 – Bombing of Banco de Ponce (a Puerto Rican bank) in New York .

September, 1975 – Bombing of the Kennecott Corporation .

October 20, 1981 – Brinks robbery in which several members of the Weather Underground stole over $1 million from a Brinks armored car near Nyack, New York. The robbers murdered 2 police officers and 1 Brinks guard. Several others were wounded.

1981 “Guilty as hel*. Free as a bird. America is a great country,” Ayers said when interviewed by David Horowitz.

September 11, 2001 “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Ayers quoted in NYT article

http://cdobs.com/archive/blogs/bill-ayers-resume%2C1011/