The Boston Herald ran a piece on Bill Ayer’s GMA interview here is a section of that interview as printed in the paper:
“Ayers also defended his own actions during the Vietnam war. Although he was quoted in 2001 saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs . . . I feel we didn’t do enough,” he has denied in recent interviews that he was involved in terrorism.
‘Let’s remember that what you call a violent past, that was at a time when thousands of people were being murdered by our government every month, and those of us who fought to end the war were actually on the right side,” he told ABC. “I never hurt or killed anyone.’”
What I find most amusing is how Ayers tries to explain to the American people why he should not be consider a terrorist. First, he pulls the “My actions were justified” card, because he strongly disagreed with the government’s policies. Oh, of course! Disagreeing with the government’s policies justifies setting bombs off in the capital. Now, where have we heard this kind of language from before? Oh yeah – timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden, and abortion clinic bombers. Terrorists always use this kind of language to show why their actions were justified.
But alas, Ayers says, he didn’t hurt anyone. Well, this is technically true; though the various explosions set off by the Weathermen did end up killing seven. Ayers own bombs hurt only property, thus he isn’t a terrorist. By that reasoning, McVeigh and abortion clinic bombers would not have been terrorists if they could have only timed their bombs to go off when no one was around. What strange reasoning. Does this mean Nixon and his cronies would have been innocent if they had only blown up a Democratic office?
More appalling than Ayer’s equivocations is the collective yawn of the American people. Is this where we really are as a nation? Ayers gives two reasons he should not be labeled a terrorist; two distinctives which set him apart from the run of the mill hate mongering fanatic. Unfortunately for Mr. Ayers, these are distinctives without a difference. Fortunately for Mr. Ayers, the thought of person like him teaching at a prestigious university in Chicago seems not at all unusual to the American people.
“Ayers also defended his own actions during the Vietnam war. Although he was quoted in 2001 saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs . . . I feel we didn’t do enough,” he has denied in recent interviews that he was involved in terrorism.
‘Let’s remember that what you call a violent past, that was at a time when thousands of people were being murdered by our government every month, and those of us who fought to end the war were actually on the right side,” he told ABC. “I never hurt or killed anyone.’”
What I find most amusing is how Ayers tries to explain to the American people why he should not be consider a terrorist. First, he pulls the “My actions were justified” card, because he strongly disagreed with the government’s policies. Oh, of course! Disagreeing with the government’s policies justifies setting bombs off in the capital. Now, where have we heard this kind of language from before? Oh yeah – timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden, and abortion clinic bombers. Terrorists always use this kind of language to show why their actions were justified.
But alas, Ayers says, he didn’t hurt anyone. Well, this is technically true; though the various explosions set off by the Weathermen did end up killing seven. Ayers own bombs hurt only property, thus he isn’t a terrorist. By that reasoning, McVeigh and abortion clinic bombers would not have been terrorists if they could have only timed their bombs to go off when no one was around. What strange reasoning. Does this mean Nixon and his cronies would have been innocent if they had only blown up a Democratic office?
More appalling than Ayer’s equivocations is the collective yawn of the American people. Is this where we really are as a nation? Ayers gives two reasons he should not be labeled a terrorist; two distinctives which set him apart from the run of the mill hate mongering fanatic. Unfortunately for Mr. Ayers, these are distinctives without a difference. Fortunately for Mr. Ayers, the thought of person like him teaching at a prestigious university in Chicago seems not at all unusual to the American people.
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