My boyfriend at the time was an undercover FBI agent chasing Bernadine. He and the other agents I knew (all men at that time) had a special fantasy: the agent is undercover, staying in a commune. Bernadine arrives and he takes her to bed (as Ayers said, this was the sexual revolution). Immediately after f***ing her, the agent cuffs her and places her under arrest.

Ayers wasn't even on these agents' radar screen, except as a lead to Bernadine. Ah, Bernadine, the lovely, smart, elusive Bernadine--she was the prize they sought.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Ayers reappear in history the past year, to play another strange side role.

A small point for the overall discussion; a matter of huge appreciation for me:

Not only am I grateful that Salon and Walter Shapiro have given Bill Ayers this opportunity to speak and be heard, but for personal reasons having to do with me and Chicago, "race", politics, arguments and hope [whew; I said a mou'ful?! ;-)] I'm especially grateful for the section discussing the nature of the Hyde Park/University of Chicago "neighborhood".

I don't post here at Salon.com very often any more. I'm ?"the wrong generation"?. Too old. That doesn't mean that I care any less than I always have about the many issues being -- here as every where -- sometimes discussed and sometimes being used as soap boxes for rants. It just means that I have to ?"conserve"? my personal energies (as well as doing what I can to participate with all of us in the conservation of ?"natural resources"?; not to mention unnatural dwindling resources such as nickels and dimes). [What was I saying about soap boxes? ;-)]

As someone who declined going to the University of Chicago when, at age 15 I would have been eligible, because on visiting Chicago I felt I would be overwhelmed by the city and university "bigness", noise &etc, my first -- second-hand -- introduction to the Hyde Park U. of Chicago neighborhood was via some special and greatly beloved friends with whom I'd lived (in the greater Boston area) as part renter part "au pair girl" during subsequent student days who were as left-wing kooky and ?!"communist"!? associated as I. They made a work-related choice to move to U. of Chicago and Hyde Park and I was launched into the next ?chapitre? of my decidedly roccoco life story. Like Jesse Jackson (Sr.) -- whom I (much later) "almost" got a chance to work for at Rainbow Push during his unsuccessful run for the presidency) I (ethnic "white" if this is relevant) cried on the news of the election of our new president-elect.

We've all "come a long way, baby". Heartfelt thank-yous to everyone here at Salon.com -- even [partly maybe especially?! ;-)] those of you whose er um writing style (and/or actual opinions) have sometimes left me almost tearing out what few hairs still manage to grow out of my wizened head.

salonmarte

Thanks, not for the first time, To Walter Shapiro for an enlightening piece of work---and to Bill Ayers for speaking so frankly. I note the discussion about John McCain's (relative) restraint in respect to the Reverend Wright, guess that the Senator was in part moved by Reverend Wright's service as a Navy corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam. I also note the discussion of "honor" and venture to point out that it is not an easy or fixed concept. "In Meine Ehre Ist Meine Treue" was, I think, the slogan of the SS ("My Loyalty Is My Honor")---

suggesting only that "honor" has a multiplicity of uses.

Susan McGee and others are trying to excuse the behavior of the radical left by saying you had to be there. I was in college in DC from '68 to '72, so I was in the middle of the anti-war movement and I completely reject that lame excuse. As a generation that had seen the success of the peaceful protests of the civil rights movement there was no excuse for the violence and anarchy promoted by groups like the Weather Underground. As I know from personal experience these were a bunch of spoiled rich kids who were on a power trip and wanted to have their way right now! They killed what had been a very impressive, growing, PEACEFUL movement which was turning public opinion against the war - always critical in a democracy (not that these guys were into democracy). The peaceful anti-war demonstrations in DC in which I and my friends participated were huge and very impressive. As the radicals gained power and protests turned to destruction and violence I and most everyone I knew backed away in disgust and the peace movement collapsed. Funny how you lose all credibility when you try to promote peace with violence.

I firmly believe that Ayers and co. destroyed the movement and damaged progressive political causes. They frighthened the public and gave the right a powerful weapon to wield against us for years, which they did masterfully.

Ayers still brags that he is an anarchist/marxist and says openly that he feels he and his compatriots did not do enough. Just because he speaks in measured tones does not mean that he is not the same morally arrogant, despicable man he was back then. Any progressives/liberals that excuse his behavior are being conned. Again. The last thing we need is to align ourselved with these radicals.

By refusing to join the fray during the height of the campaign, Prof. Ayers helped to assure Obama's election. For this I call him a hero.

I was there too -- and you definitely have a point. Remember, though, that the civil rights movement was also in the process of giving up on peaceful protest and changing hearts and minds, and had, by this point, hatched the Black Panthers, who weren't spoiled rich kids but were every bit as unbalanced, hysterical, and violent as the Weather Underground were. And remember that the burned-out Johnson administration had been replaced by Nixon, who was blatantly cynical, mendacious, divisive and paranoid. It was a time of widespread disillusion and despair.