William Ayers

I do agree that Ayer's himself, in the present day, was blown out of proportion by the McCain campaign so that he could be used as part of their campaign of fear. The Weathermen were a very radical group who took protesting against the war in Vietnam to an unacceptable level and I in no way support what they did nor Ayer's participation in their activities. He is, however, a free man and I have not read or heard anything to indicate that his radicalism goes beyond what he teaches in the classroom or writes in books.

Ayers ran a terrorist group. He was not convicted, got off on technicalities and shoddy procecution but he was non the less, a TERRORIST, who ran a TERRORIST organization. I am one who fully supports the rights granted in the second amendment. There are apropriate situations that warrent the use of organized or unorganized citizen militia for defense of a free state, the people and the U.S. constitution. The weathermen were quite far outside those remedies. I saw someone in here mention that Ayers did not actualy kill anyone, just his group and called it "guilt by assosiation. This is equivelent to saying that Though Bin Ladin runs Al quieda, he didn't actualy kill anyone so he isn't a terrorist.

What I think William Ayers is can be summed up in one word - IRRELEVANT! Obviously, few people cared before the election and I don't think any more care now. Hopefully we won't hear any more about him for awhile, but unfortunately if God tells Sarah to plow through an open door in 2012 we'll probably hear her screeching about "Pallin' around with terrorists" a few more times...lol! Annie

He doesn't think that bombing the capitol, the pentagon, or a police station are violent acts. He's proud of bombing these places and continues to insist that it was right and he should have done more. I can understand the people who want to believe that Obama doesn't share his views, but I can't understand anyone who doesn't see this man and his actions as terrorist.

No, it wasn't blown out of proportion. I saw parts of that interview and sure, he sounds almost "normal". He is very intelligent and well educated. But how can I say this nicely -- I can't: HE LIED The Weathermen DID indeed kill people. They bombed the home of a judge trying a case of a Black Panther, at NIGHT, while he, his wife, and children were asleep. They put 4 bombs, covering the front and back doors, as well as the car by the gas line. I heard that straight from the mouth of the man who was a 9 yr old boy asleep in that house that night. They didn't kill that family, but it sure is hard to think they weren't trying to kill them, setting 4 bombs, one near a gas source, and the rest blocking the doors. I heard an interview of the FBI agent who infiltrated their group, and he said that Ayers was the one who taught him about fixing the bombs and suggested putting in staples and other sharp metal, "to kill and hurt more people". Once, when they were discussing a particular spot they planned to bomb, this agent pointed out that there would be a good chance of someone getting killed if they put the bomb there -- Ayers' reply was in a revolution, sometimes innocent people have to die. There was TONS of evidence against him. The only reason he didn't go to jail was because of some improper handling of his case, wire tapping and such, by the FBI -- but there was never any doubt that he was guilty; he got off on a technicality. He has said he is guilty. He stomped on the US flag, saying "guilty as hell, free as a bird! What a great country!" I think 7 police officers were killed in one bombing, and another police officer in a separate bombing. He painted such a pretty picture, saying the atrocities were done by our government, in the Vietnam war. He claimed they had the right to behave that way, because of our government. Now, that would be true, if the government were stomping our rights, taking away our Constitution. But that is NOT an excuse for the kind of violence this man participated in and LED, just because they didn't like our government's policy. One of his more recent books was dedicated to a list of 100 "political prisoners" -- one of them was Sirhan Sirhan, the man who killed Senator Bobby Kennedy on national tv, in front of the world, including school children (I was one -- 12 yrs old). I don't know how old you are, but I was around 14,15 in 1970. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the news at that time and I don't remember very much specific details from back then. One thing I do remember was the fear. It was a scary time to grow up. DO you remember the way the nation was after 9/11? Everyone on pins and needles, wondering if there were more attacks coming that day? Well I wouldn't say it was quite as bad as the actual day of 9/11, but the few weeks after, yeah, it was always scary. Not just because of the Weathermen, but all the people like them. The Weathermen, Black Panthers, so many. Constant protests and always violence. When I was a teenager, I was not allowed to go to football games of our school, except when I was a cheerleader (because we were on our own bus and with teachers). When my younger siblings were in high school, they were allowed such normal activities, but when I was in high school my parents were too afraid to let me go to such things because of constant racial violence and war protests that was fueled by people like Ayers. My parents were not overly strict in general, just the average strictness for that time period, but things were really scary in this country. Believe me, we weren't making things up, nor were we making a lot of fuss for nothing. I heard several reporters and politicians actually say they would not shake hands with Bill Ayers under any circumstances, much less serve on a board with him. To be honest, people didn't make enough over Bill Ayers and Obama. Imagine if McCain was an "acquaintance" with someone who ran a group that blew up abortion clinics and threatened and bombed the homes of abortionists -- for the same reason that Ayers did what he did: they didn't like the policy of the government (allowing abortions). Can you imagine how the media would go totally nuts over that?? I am vehemently against abortion, but I DETEST someone bombing clinics or people who perform abortions. I see no reason for any American to have anything to do with Ayers and his wife (also a terrorist).

According to my dad, Ayers wasn't anti-war, he was pro-communist. As for my views about him... well, I'd have to read his book to make any comments about that. I'm all for peaceful protesting but I don't think bombing the capital is considered peaceful, whether anyone gets hurt or not. I do think that he has had enough punishment for his actions and that we should really stop judging him.

I think he is trying to clean up his reputation so that his friendship with Obama is not so controversial. Could be Obama has asked his buddy to do that for him.

William Ayers will always be a domestic terroristm, because he still celebrates his past. He will always be unrepentant of his acts. He will always be anti-government. He is an artifact, a specimen, a remnant of our past. He is representative of the worst of us from that era. As the saying goes "you can put lipstick on a pig......" William Ayers is also highly intelligent. He is well read. He is well educated. He also never paid for his crimes. I don't know, doubt that any of us ever will, what the full extent of his association with Obama has been. I suspect it is little to nothing. I suspect it has been blown far out of proportion.

He thinks he did no wrong because "I didn't kill anyone". Well, his organization did and he helped do some of the same things; he just happened not to kill anyone. It could have gone differently. He isn't repentant of what he did wrong. In fact, again, he repeated he didn't do enough. A person like this, to me, is very dangerous. I felt he was 'adding to' things. For instance when asked about his and Obama's relationship, he said he knew him well, and he DID come to his house that day, but, then 'he probably went to another 100 houses that day'. I think he was skirting the issue. I guess time will tell if he and Obama are as close as most people think they really are.