by Mark Silva
Bill Ayers, that "washed up terrorist,'' the way the McCain-Palin campaign wanted to portray an early supporter of Barack Obama in Chicago, or distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the way academics might rather portray the professor and veteran of 1960s protests, has some pointed criticism for Obama's choice for education secretary: Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan.
"I would have picked (Linda) Darling-Hammond, but then again I would have picked Noam Chomsky for State, Naomi Klein for Defense, (his wife and fellow former radical war protestor) Bernardine Dohrn for Attorney General, Bill Fletcher for Commerce, James Thindwa for Labor, Barbara Ransby for Human services, Paul Krugman for Treasury, and Amy Goodman for press secretary,'' Ayers writes in a blog posted at the Huffinton Post. "So what do I know?''
Our colleage at the Top of the Ticket, Andrew Malcolm, brought the good professor's column to our attention. In retrospect, it seems rather amazing that Ayers, a co-founder of the Weather Underground responsible for a variety of bomb protests of the Vietnam War in the 60s, could have become the lightning rod that he was for Obama during the presidential campaign. Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin helped make him one, variously labeling Ayers as a former and washed up "terrorist.''
"Obama is not a monarch,'' writes Ayers, who hosted a modest coffee for Obama when he was waging his first campaign for the state Senate in the 1990s and is a friend and neighbor on the South Side of Chicago. Ayers also ran the Annenberg Challenge, an educational reform effort in Chicago which included Obama on its board, and is a prolific writer on the subject of educational reform. So his criticism for Obama's nominee for education secretary should be interesting, at least, in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Arne Duncan is not education czar -- and we are not his subjects,'' Ayers writes in the HuffPost. ""If we want a foreign policy based on justice, for example, we ought to get busy organizing a robust anti-imperialist peace movement; if we want to end the death penalty we better get smart about changing the dominant narrative concerning crime and punishment....
"During Arne Duncan's tenure in Chicago, a group of hunger-striking mothers organized city-wide support and won the construction of a new high school in a community that had been underserved and denied for years,'' he writes. "Another group of parents, teachers, and students mobilized to push military recruiters out of their high school; Duncan didn't support them and he certainly didn't lead the charge, but they won anyway. If they'd waited for Duncan to act they likely be waiting still.
"Teachers at another school refused to give one of the endless standardized tests, arguing that this was one test too many, and they organized deep support for their protest; Duncan didn't support them either, but they won anyway,'' Ayers writes. "If they'd waited for Duncan, they'd be waiting still. Why would anyone sit around waiting for Arne now?.
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"What makes education in a democracy distinct is a commitment to a particularly precious and fragile ideal, and that is a belief that the fullest development of all is the necessary condition for the full development of each; conversely, the fullest development of each is necessary for the full development of all.
"Democracy, after all, is geared toward participation and engagement, and it's based on a common faith: every human being is of infinite and incalculable value, each a unique intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual, and creative force,'' the professor writes. "Every human being is born free and equal in dignity and rights, each is endowed with reason and conscience, and deserves, then, a sense of solidarity, brotherhood and sisterhood, recognition and respect.''
So much for terrorism.
Comments
Speaking of Bill Ayers...
I find it laughable when rightwing blowhards like Limbaugh and Hannity go on and on about how the corporate media gave the election to Prez-elect Obama.
I must have missed that, was it when they were playing the Rev Wright tapes 24/7 or was it when they were parroting Sarah the Blunder Woman Palin's accusations of Obama "palling around with terrorists/Bill Ayers"?
Was it when they were calling Obama a secret muslim or not black enough or not white enough? etc etc etc.
The rightwing Rovian propaganda machine got smacked down right in its tracks this year because people tired of it and the rightwingers are the only one's who still can't understand how that could have happened...
Posted by: Bill/Jeff | January 9, 2009 9:15 PM
Wow. Arne Duncan lives about 5 houses from me in good ole Hyde Park.
He is about the classiest nominee for Education Secretary of all time.
Particularly when you recall the Reagan-Bush appointees had an avowed aim to abolish the department they were supposed to be leading.
(Just another version of "Government doesn't work. Government isn't the solution; government is the problem" right wing swill that created the present financial crisis.
I thought Daley was grooming Duncan as a successor as Mayor of Chicago. (He might have to change his last name to Daley, however.)
He has exerted strong leadership for the supremely difficult Chicago Public Schools.
In addition he is a great role model for students.
He and Sanjay Gupta are being fly-specked. I don't understand it. Is it sour grapes?
Duncan and Gupta are brilliant and charismatic. They will be able to project and advocate Obama's programs.
Most people could not even name the grey bureaucrats who currently hold these positions in the Bush Admin.
Duncan has dealt with the toughest issues there are in public education.
Gupta by all accounts is a brilliant neurosurgeon; everyone knows how telegenic he is. A practicing neurosurgeon does not understand issues in health care???
Looks like the silly season isn't over yet.
Posted by: ornery | January 9, 2009 9:48 PM
Mr. Ayers, your 15 minutes ended in November. Bye-bye, you washed up has-been. Oh, and don't forget to eat your granola bars - they say it's especially helpful to old hippies.
Posted by: Bemused | January 9, 2009 9:49 PM
Good on Bill Ayers
Posted by: Geraldine "Hussein" Too | January 9, 2009 10:33 PM
wow. those last paragraphs - wish hed been saying them while obama was on the campaign trail, but still...
Posted by: twinter | January 9, 2009 11:14 PM
Why give Ayres a continuing platform?
The judge's house that was bombtargeted by Ayres contained children. Ayres is a meglomanic who believes his thoughts are the right thoughts.
Tell Ayres to move to Venezuela and save that country.
There is a dedicated group of journalists with an agenda who continue to keep repeating and repeating stories on non-entities.
This "news spewer" is not a journalist. There are no journalists. Just people pushing an agenda.
Posted by: Rocky | January 10, 2009 7:18 AM
Let's not pick on old hippies, please. How about a deal-- if Sarah Palin goes away, Bill Ayers goes away, too.
Posted by: rupert | January 10, 2009 8:51 AM
Mark, an article on the guy who dedicates one of his "manifestos" to the murderer of Bobby Kennedy? You should not belittle The Swamp, let the aged, deluded, insignificant bomber "fade" into oblivion, were he should have been with one his bombs. I may criticize your writings and positions, but your insight and forum has too much "class" for this guy to grace its pages.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 10, 2009 9:23 AM
Neither Ayers or Palin will go away until the press stops focusing and reporting on them.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | January 10, 2009 9:33 AM
I've met many children in my life, in fact I have some of my own. Not every child is special. Some are quite average. Mathematically speaking, of course, somebody has to be average. If everyone is special, then nobody is.
Posted by: The Daily Pander | January 10, 2009 11:14 AM
You left one important fact out of your misleading piece. Bill Ayers endorsed Arne Duncan in the same piece you so selectively quoted, which, otherwise, would be an embarrassment to the Obama camp:
"Arne Duncan was the smart choice, the unity choice--the least driven by ideology, the most open to working with teachers and unions, the smartest by a mile-- and let's wish him well."
Posted by: Jim Horn | January 13, 2009 8:25 AM