Who was and who is Mr. William Ayers now?

If you go back to the 1960s, you will discover that Bill Ayers was one of the people who restarted the FREE SCHOOL movement, a revolutionary concept in education. (We have revived the Free School movement right here on HipForums!) Bill was very concerned about our education system and how it was turning out people to become corporate robots and ideal consumers.

So Bill started the Children's Community, a Free School project in Michigan to offer an alternative to the state required public education.

Here is an article I just posted to the Hippyland Archives about Bill Ayer's contribution to the Children's Community.

So as you can see as far back as 1968, Bill Ayers was an Education activist, focused on the education of minority students. Obviously he shares this interest with Barack Obama, and that is why they know each other.

Right after this article was published, Bill Ayers had to go underground. This was because the group he founded, the Weather Underground, had just blown themselves up in a Greenwich Village townhouse while manufacturing bombs.

Bill himself has revealed in his autobiography, Fugitive Days: A Memoir published on Sept 10th, 2001 (the day before the WTC attack on 9/11), that he had indeed participated in bombing the Pentagon, the US Capitol building and NYC Police Headquarters! Yet Bill had all charges dismissed because he was under investigation by COINTELPRO, an illegal spying operation run by the US government. (Today the gov't can do exactly the same sort of spying, but it's now legal under President Bush).

Ayers was also active in the Weatherman's 1969 "Days of Rage" riots in Chicago, where 300 weathermen protested the war in Vietnam via violent acts. It was only the most violent protests such as this that got media attention.

You can find out more about Bill Ayers here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

The American "terrorist" Bill Ayers was given Chicago's Citizen of the Year award in 1997. Bill Ayers is currently a DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago! (is that where all terrorists go?)

So my question is this: IS Bill Ayers a Domestic terrorist or an American Hero and freedom fighter?

Terrorists target innocent civilians randomly. Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground did not target randomly. They attacked government symbols of the War in Vietnam after careful consideration.

If you wonder what could be considered heroic about bombing government buildings, consider the following...

The most radical elements during the 1960s showed the American public that the government had crossed the line during the Vietnam War. The line being the point at which Americans would no longer tolerate government sponsored VIOLENCE against human beings (wherever they lived).

To drive that point home, these radicals used violence themselves. In other words until Americans witnessed violence in their own country, they would not understand the impact that squadrons of B-52s carpet bombing Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos had upon the innocent people in those countries.

It was about bringing the war HOME to those who supported it.

This was an important issue, especially for "liberals" and "hippies" to understand. Most were peace-loving, non-violent types who could not condone the violent actions of the Weathermen and others.

But as today's new cycle proves, unless you do something so radical as bomb gov't buildings you won't get the media's attention to your cause. It was true then and it is even more so now.

The thing that all the peaceful protests seemed to be unable to do was end the war itself. But the threat of domestic violence by those who wished to end the war really brought home the fact that Americans would no longer stand idly by while the US gov't pursued it's inhumane imperialist policies.

And finally all the ruckus drummed up by the 60s activists is the main reason why YOU and following generations were never drafted into the armed services. Even conservatives now acknowledge that the American public won't stand for a draft for an imperialist war. That is something that these radicals from the 60s impressed upon the nation.

And yet we still let them have their wars, just so long as WE don't have to go... What a fucking cop-out of the succeeding generations! Where are the protests? (peaceful please!)

So in conclusion, the actions of Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground and others helped turn the tide against the war in Vietnam, helped rid the US of the draft, and probably saved thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives, American and foreign.