Faculty support for Ayers

Bill Ayers, the radical militant-turned-university professor whose ties to Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama are under scrutiny, is getting some support from the American professoriate.

An online petition in support of Ayers has more than 3,200 signatures from faculty members across the country. More than a dozen signatories are from local universities here in the Triangle.

One is Lawrence Grossberg, a communications studies professor at UNC Chapel Hill. He said he signed the petition because he believes Ayers should not be demonized for his actions 40 years ago, and he respects the work Ayers does now as an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Ayers is a school reform advocate who has written or edited more than a dozen books.

"He did break the law, and he was punished and he moved on," Grossberg said. "He built an extraordinary life. He has become one of the leading scholars in the field of education. [People are] excoriating him for things he did 40 years ago and misrepresenting what he has done since, in order to make someone else suffer. That doesn't seem very American to me."

Another is Michael Tigar, a Duke law professor. Here's what he told me:

 "I have known Bill and Bernardine for many years.  He is today a respected teacher and author who focuses on reforming the educational system in constructive ways.  Bernardine teaches at Northwestern Law School and is an expert in children's rights, in the US and overseas. 

They have raised their children to be constructive members of society.  I signed the petition.  I think that the McCain campaign's desperate attempt to tag Senator Obama with Ayers' conduct, back when Senator Obama was 8 years old, is a discreditable attempt to divert attention from the serious issues we face."

The background:

In 1969, Ayers helped found Weather Underground, a radical group that would launch a series of bombings targeting U.S. landmarks like the U.S. Capitol and The Pentagon. Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dorhn, were indicted in 1970 on charges of inciting to riot and conspiracy to bomb public buildings, but the charges were dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct.

These days, the couple is living in Chicago and teaching at local universities there, she at the law school at Northwestern, he at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Ayers has carved out a niche — and in some circles, redefined himself — as an expert in education. But with Obama's ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket, some are pointing out his connections to Ayers, who he first met in the mid-1990s and with whom he has worked, on occasion, in Chicago. The extent of Obama's relationship with Ayers is detailed in this New York Times article. (You'll need a password to access that story.)

The online petition is a statement of support for Ayers and attempts to draw attention to his scholarly work. It reads in part:

"The current characterizations of Professor Ayers — “unrepentant terrorist,” “lunatic leftist”— are unrecognizable to those who know or work with him. It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans.

His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution---including publishing 16 books--- to the field of education. The current attacks appear as part of a pattern of “exposés” and assaults designed to intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."

I suspect some would argue with the characterization that Ayers "participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s," as the petition states. The fact is, he helped orchestrate bombings of federal buildings and landmarks. And in some cases, bombs placed by members of his group killed people.

As the New York Times points out:

"Most of the bombs the Weathermen were blamed for had been placed to do only property damage, a fact Mr. Ayers emphasizes in his memoir. But a 1970 pipe bomb in San Francisco attributed to the group killed one police officer and severely hurt another. An accidental 1970 explosion in a Greenwich Village town house basement killed three radicals; survivors later said they had been making nail bombs to detonate at a military dance at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

And in 1981, in an armed robbery of a Brinks armored truck in Nanuet, N.Y., that involved Weather Underground members including Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, two police officers and a Brinks guard were killed."

To be clear, Ayers was never accused of killing anyone.