By William Warren
Bill Ayers’ “Fugitive Days” are over.
With the election passed and Barack Obama’s presidency assured, the unrepentant terrorist has emerged from his cave and is now out in the open, basking in the sunlight like the scaly reptile he is—no offense to reptiles.
Having sequestered himself from the media since being made an issue in a Clinton-Obama primary debate, Bill Ayers decided to clear the air on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in a Friday interview with Chris Cuomo. And although it’s ironic the media has decided that now is a good time to truly probe Mr. Ayers, Chris Cuomo deserves credit for asking the Chicago radical the tough questions—questions of the kind Mr. Obama was fortunate never to have faced.
What Mr. Ayers revealed—with thanks to the persistent goading of Mr. Cuomo—is what ALG News has argued for months. Yes, President-elect Obama and Ayers are friends. In fact, Ayers, in the new afterword of his “Fugitive Days” memoir, even refers to the President-elect as a “family friend”…a significantly weightier title than the “just a guy who lives in my neighborhood” title Mr. Obama assigned to Ayers.
One can assume, therefore, that Ayers, Ayers’ even more despicable wife Bernadine Dohrn, Barack and Michelle Obama have all been “palling around together” the way good family friends do.
Nevertheless, Mr. Ayers tried his best to downplay his familial, neighborly and business friendship with Obama, spending more time promoting the timely reissue of his “Fugitive Days” memoir—an interesting move coming from a man who’s dedicated his life to the destruction of the “evil” capitalist system.
Speaking of his memoir, Ayers urged that his writings about his violent past are “more relevant now” with America in the middle of two wars—three by Ayers’ count if you include the Arab-Israeli conflict—and that the same vigilance against the “violent terrorist war” in Vietnam ought to be applied today.
So when Ayers reiterates that he doesn’t regret setting bombs and “didn’t do enough” in the 1960s and 70s and then goes on to say we aren’t doing enough today to stop America’s wars, what, in Ayers’ opinion, would be enough? Is he advocating yet more terrorism?
Perhaps he is hopeful that a President Obama will just take care of it.
All in all, with Mr. Obama’s victory secure, Bill Ayers does appear comfortable enough to publically say and do things he otherwise wouldn’t even consider. The nation’s selection of Mr. Obama has been the green light for Ayers’ big media debut. It seems Vladimir Putin wasn’t the only one emboldened by November 4th’s news.
And the list goes on.
Last week, for example, the AP ran a story in which Louis Farrakhan, the world-renowned racist and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader, heaped praises upon the new President-elect. As Farrakhan said in a November 9th sermon:
“For nine months, I kept quiet because I saw that the good words that I spoke about this beautiful young man at our Saviours’ Day convention and the way they were misused. I decided it would be better for me to just be quiet rather than be drawn into the controversy that was swirling around his pastor, Father Pfleger, and others. I feel freer today to say the things that are in my heart.”
So now Mr. Farrakhan feels free to speak up? What else might Mr. Farrakhan have to say now that he has been liberated?
Ironically enough, on November 8th, a mere four days after the election and a day before Mr. Farrakhan gave his “freer” sermon, Bernadine Dohrn and a panel of other 1960s radicals met in Manhattan to discuss President-elect Obama and the role of social activism. As the following New York Times article describes:
“Though President-elect Barack Obama was not a product of the antiwar movement 40 years ago, the panelists described him as a benefactor of its transformations and predicted he would be the inspiration for social movements.”
So, according to the panel, Barack Obama is a “benefactor” of Ayers’ and Dohrn’s bomb-throwing, car-burning, cop-cursing, communist-sympathizing and window-smashing efforts. How very reassuring. Thanks for clearing that up.
So now that Ayers, Farrakhan, Dohrn and other radicals have reared their ugly heads, what other notorious and controversial figures will feel encouraged to speak up and voice both their radical views and their simultaneous support for President-elect Barack Obama? What other fugitive-types will feel more at home now that the election is over?
Had Dohrn and the rest of these radicals held such a panel praising Mr. Obama the weekend before Election Day, perhaps the outcome may have been different. The swarm of radicals coming out of the woodwork may have dismayed a voter or two. Maybe.
Or, perhaps we are experiencing the radicalization of mainstream politics. If so, will mainstream Americans become the new “radicals”?
Regardless, hopefully mainstream Americans can muster the courage to “do enough” to send Ayers and all his radical “family friends” back to the cave from which they crawled—or at least put them back on the lam with the rest of the remaining fugitives.
William Warren is a contributing editor of ALG News Bureau.
