No Regrets
From our August 2001 issue: "Kill your parents!" urged sixties leftist Bill Ayers, whose father was the chairman of Commonwealth Edison here. In Ayers's new memoir, Fugitive Days, he reconciles his militant past with his present identity: father of three, esteemed professor at UIC—and unabashed patron of the great bourgeois coffee chain, Starbucks
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At 55, Bill Ayers, the notorious sixties radical, still carries a whiff of that rock 'n' roll decade: the oversize wire-rim glasses that, in a certain light, reveal themselves as bifocals; a backpack over his shoulder—not some streamlined, chic job, but a funky backpack-of-the-people, complete with a photo button of abolitionist John Brown pinned to one strap.
Yet he is also a man of the moment. For example: There is his cell phone, laid casually on the tabletop of this neighborhood Taylor Street coffee shop, and his passion for double skim lattes. In conversation, he has an immediate, engaging presence; he may not have known you long but, his manner suggests, he's already fascinated. Then there is his quick laugh and his tendency to punctuate his comments by a tap on your arm.
Overall, it is not easy to imagine him as part of the Weatherman, a group that during the late sixties and early seventies openly called for revolution in America, led a violent rampaging protest in Chicago, and took credit for numerous bombings around the United States.
One of the Weatherman leaders was Bernardine Dohrn, a smart, magnetic figure who, in part because of her penchant for miniskirts and knee-high boots, was dubbed "La Pasionaria of the Lunatic Left" by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. After a bomb exploded accidentally and killed three of their colleagues, Ayers and Dohrn "hooked up," in the parlance of the day, and, since 1982, they have been married. This—violence, death, and white-hot rhetoric—is his past and Ayers insists he has no regrets. "I acted appropriately in the context of those times," he says. But it's hard to reconcile this quick-witted man with that revolutionary. Today Bill Ayers seems too happy to have ever been so angry.
Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, claims to abhor nostalgia ("Nothing is more boring than some old person going on and on about the way things used to be"). But he has been thinking lately about the past—both his and the country's—and soon he will likely be engaged in what he calls "a dialogue" about the sixties, the antiwar movement, and the radical life he led. The spur for this dialogue will be the publication of Fugitive Days (Beacon Press, $24), a memoir Ayers has written about the trajectory of his life, from a pampered son of the Chicago suburbs to a young pacifist to a founder of one of the most radical political organizations in U.S. history.
In the pantheon of radicals of the sixties and seventies, Ayers's place is unique. "He was not as notorious as Bernardine Dohrn," says Don Rose, a political consultant who has written about those times. "But what made Ayers of particular interest then was that he was the son of a captain of industry. Now he's interesting because, of all the farther-out radicals, he has achieved the most scholarly reputation."
Writing the book has been "a daunting task," Ayers says, "because I want to be true to those times. I don't feel nostalgic for the sixties, but there is no doubt in my mind that the events I write about were shaping events, and they provided for me a way of seeing the world that seemed so alive and so resonant that I can't escape it, no matter what I do."
Certainly there are moments when Ayers has the sound of the sixties down pat, like when he tells me, "Imperialism or globalization—I don't have to care what it's called to hate it." And then there are moments when he sounds light-years away from his radical sensibilities, more like an old grump lamenting today's uninformed youth: He tells me a story about going into Starbucks and having the young woman behind the counter mistake his photo pin of John Brown for Walt Whitman. "And when I told her, no, it's John Brown, she said, 'Who is John Brown?'"
But I am struck by another part of that story. What are you doing in a Starbucks? I ask the man who professes to hate globalization.
"Oh," he says. "I have an addiction to caffeine."
There you have the complexity of Ayers: a man who once tried to overthrow his country's government and now works for a state university; an opponent of the bourgeoisie who has been married for 20 years; a left-wing radical who loves a good cup of imperialist coffee. Maybe he's always known how to choose his battles. Once one of his sons wanted to hear about how Ayers had been a draft card burner. "Tell me again how you burned your credit card, Pop," his son confusedly asked.
"I'm not that radical," Ayers retorted.
* * *
Photograph: Jeff Sciortino
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Reader Comments:
POS
He should be hanged as a traitor. In the least, he is a typical elitist hypocrite, and no wonder he's Obama's buddy. Cut from the same America-hating soiled cloth.
Doesn't surprise me in the least. There are plenty of old national socialists that aren't apologetic about their "Good Old Days" either. Why should this Left-wing fascist be any different?
>>> "Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice," he says. "I've never considered it a neutral or passive profession."
Of course not. Neo-Marxists don't view education as the conveyance of information and skills, but as a means of political indoctrination for the next generation. No wonder his views are so popular amongst the American education monopolists.
Would love to hear his arguments in opposition to school choice and voucher programs, or rather why parents shouldn't be allowed to influence the educational system in any way. I bet he dances a merry jig around that one.
The irony of people like this is hard to fully comprehend, in my opinion. Here's a guy that literally tried to start a bloody revolution in this "evil" country, yet never had to pay any price for his crimes. If he had done the same thing in one of his socialist utopia's, he would have been executed as a traitor. Instead, he's a rich man with ties to a potential (if not likely) President of the United States.
Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18
I wonder how Mr. Ayers would feel if a bunch of old vets decided to bring the war home - to his home. Oh, if Mr. Ayers agonizes over how his beloved blew herself up I'll tell him. She screwed up the bomb along with the other nitwits. Finally, how's this for the free exchange of ideas Mr. Ayers so passionately desired. Abortion is murder, Islamists are murderous barbarians, the Jews are right and the Palestinians are wrong, socialism is evil, capitalism is good, and the baby boomers are the most worthless, self obsessed generation in history. I would imagine Mr Ayers' present day comrades would not allow discussion on any of these ideas except maybe the last. But of course I doubt you could find anyone to take the other side of that argument since Mr Ayers' re-emergence makes the propostion self evident. How pathetically tiresome these retreads are still trying to justify their worthless lives and lousy choices. (don't bother to point to Mr Ayers' academic career as evidence of a life well spent. I taught in a university English dept. and have more respect for folks who work the midnight shift in a convenience store or who can wire a three way switch than I have for ANY liberal arts or ed. dept. faculty member)
Remove his american citizenship
"The Days of Rage," as the 1969 protest was called, brought several hundred members of the Weatherman—many of them attired for battle with helmets and weapons—to Lincoln Park. The tear-gassed marches, window smashing, and clashes with police lasted four days, during which 290 militants were arrested and 63 people were injured. Damage to windows, cars, and other property soared to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Around this time, Ayers summed up the Weatherman philosophy as "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents—that's where it's really at."
- Gee, I wonder how this historical account would have differed had the exact same protest taken place in China, Cuba, or the Soviet Union? My guess is it would have lasted 4 hours instead of 4 days with 0 arrests, 0 injured, and lots of body parts strewn around.
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a capitalist pig...
"There you have the complexity of Ayers: a man who once tried to overthrow his country's government and now works for a state university; an opponent of the bourgeoisie who has been married for 20 years; a left-wing radical who loves a good cup of imperialist coffee"
Nope, there you have typical liberal hypocrisy.
typical. Hypocrite. scumbag.
"The next year, a Weatherman killed a Brink's guard and two state troopers in a bungled armored truck robbery."
I must have missed the part where Ayers details how much of his University salary he has donated to the families of the guard and the 2 troopers, not to mention how he reimbursed the hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage done by his group's bombings and Days of Rage.
I guess he is too busy sipping his lattes and writing his memoirs to be worried by that.
Why, again, is it that this "esteemed professor" and demonstrable fool is not in jail?
-- Brian Kennedy
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
I am trying to imagine an article about say, a 60s Alabama Klan member who bombed churches, and his cool swagger, and how he loves Starbucks now.
Yeesh.
Karen Barefield
Arlington Virgina
Hey, don't be so hard on Bill Ayers. This is a free country. He is perfectly free to be an idiot. Lord only knows how many upstanding American men and women in uniform have laid down their lives in defense of our nation so nut jobs like him can drink lattes and contaminate the minds of young people with left-wing dribble.
He's a piece of garbage.
I remember their mantra of "Don't trust anyone over 30" well how does it feel being twice that age? The fortunate thing about these 60's rejects is that the inevitability of their own mortality is rapidly approaching and they will soon have to face the six foot deep dirt nap and leave the rest of us alone. All their treasonous actions will fade into the history books as a sad footnote to the 20th century. It will be nice to have you feed the worms to help renew our environment - at least that is a worthy contribution along with your books in the landfills. Don't anybody dare drape an American flag over the coffin of this terrorist, he prefers a hammer and sickle or maybe a swastika since he is trying to create his own version of Hitler Youth through his teaching degree.
Is the University of Illinois a state-funded university? If so, do the residents of Illinois not have a say as to whether or not this terrorist remains on the faculty?
Give the guy a break, he's not the testosterone-fueled radical of his youth. He's cleaned up his act and is a productive member of society.
Give him a break??? You have got to be kidding me? He wished he could do more so now he teaches our youth to follow in his footsteps. He got enough of a break because of a technicality and isn't rotting away in prison. Take a close look at the photo, isn't that an American Flag under his feet? Cleaned up his act? What drugs are you on?
"Give the guy a break, he's not the testosterone-fueled radical of his youth. He's cleaned up his act and is a productive member of society."
I doubt the 3 people the Weathermen killed think he deserves a break, and ol' Professor Ayers sure doesnt sound remorseful in the least now that he is a so-called productive member of society:
Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html
This man is ignorant about human nature to a fault.
And incredibly lucky to not have to bear the consequences of his actions.
what starbucks does he hang out at?
if its the one nearest UC campus; then lets all meet there and stomp his hippie ass!
Why isn't this guy in jail?
Hmm, an accusation of sexual misconduct:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=9E8CD8A7-E90B-4311-8AA9-AEFD014A14B2
Ayers and Dohrn are founding members of the Weathermen. They are proud of their violent past and Ayers says he didn't set enough bombs. Their main goal was to sabatoge the US govt. through violence and bombs.
10/7/69 Bombing of Haymarket Police Statue in Chicago, as "kickoff" for the "Days of Rage" riots
10/8/69 "Days of Rage" riots in Chicago in which 287 Weatherman members were arrested and a large amount of property damage was done
10/6/69 Bombing of Chicago Police cars. The WUO stated in their book "Prairie Fire" that they did the explosion
12/27/69 Weathermen hold "War Council" where they finalize plans to submerge into an underground status from which they plan to commit strategic acts of sabotage against the government. Thereafter they are called the "Weather Underground Organization" WUO. Dohrn raised three fingers in a "fork salute" to CHARLES MANSON, whom she proposed as a revolutionary inspiration. "Dig it," said Dohrn at the time. "First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!"
1969 Ayers attempted to extort money from the Vietnam Moratorium Committee -- demanding $20,000 to abstain from violence during a planned peace protest. After rejecting this demand, a member of the Moratorium group asked Ayers what he really wanted. "To kill all rich people," Ayers responded. When another peace activist pointed out that Ayers himself came from wealth, he answered: "Bring the war home. Kill your parents."
2/13/70 Bombing of Berkeley CA police vehicles
2/16/70 Bombing of Golden Gate Park branch of San Francisco Police Department, killing one officer and injuring a number of other policemen
3/6/70 Bombing 13th Police District of the Detroit PD. 34 sticks of dynamite are discovered
3/6/70 "bomb factory" located in Greenwich Village explodes. WUO members die. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, NJ that night. The bomb was packed with nails TO INFILICT MAXIMUM CASUALTIES UPON DETONATION
3/30/70 Chicago Police discover WUO "bomb factory" on Chicago's north side. Subsequent discovery of a WUO "weapons cache" in a south side Chicago apartment several days later ends WUO activity in the city
5/10/70 Bombing of The National Guard Association building in Washington, D.C.
5/21/70 WUO under Bernardine Dohrn's name releases its "Declaration of a State of War" communique
6/6/70 WUO sends letter claiming credit for bombing of San Francisco Hall of Justice; however, no explosion actually took place. Months later, workmen in the building located an unexploded device which had been dormant for some time
6/9/70 Bombing of New York City Police Headquarters
7/27/70 Bombing of The Presidio army base in San Francisco.[NYT 7/27/70]
9/12/70 WUO helps Timothy Leary break out and escape from the CA Men's Colony prison
10/8/70 Bombing of Marin County courthouse
10/10/70 Bombing of Queens traffic-court building
10/14/70 Bombing of The Harvard Center for International Affairs
3/1/71 Bombing of The United States Capitol
4/71 abandoned WUO "bomb factory" discovered in San Francisco
8/29/71 Bombing of the Office of California Prisons
9/17/71 Bombing of The New York Department of Corrections in Albany, NY
10/15/71 Bombing of William Bundy's office in the MIT research center
5/19/72 Bombing of The Pentagon
5/18/73 Bombing of the 103rd Police Precinct in NY
9/28/73 Bombing of ITT headquarters in NY and Rome, Italy
3/6/74 Bombing of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare in San Francisco
5/31/74 Bombing of The Office of the CA Attorney General
6/17/74 Bombing of Gulf Oil's Pittsburgh headquarters
9/11/74/ Bombing of Anaconda Corporation
1/29/75 Bombing of US State Department
6/16/75 Bombing of Banco de Ponce in NY
9/75 Bombing of Kennecott Corporation
10/20/81 Brinks robbery in which several members of the Weather Underground stole over $1 million from a Brinks armored car near Nyack, NY. The robbers murdered 2 police officers and 1 Brinks guard. Several others were seriously wounded.
1991 "Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. America is a great country," Ayers said when interviewed by David Horowitz.
1995 Obama campaign launch event at Ayers/Dohrn house
9/11/2001 "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? "I don't want to discount the possibility," he said. Ayers quoted in NYT article
Give it up, you wingnut freaks. Obama has virtually nothing to do with this guy. Your man McCain surely has more in common psychologically with Ayers (i.e., macho, chip on the shoulder) than does Obama.
Ps, On the subject of sexual misconduct... should we get into "hero" John McCain's infidelities?
You tinfoil-hat/Rushbo/parents'-basement-living 45-year-old Nazi fetishizing retreads are just... about.. done.
Now, go get jobs.
Why is Obama Hiding the Truth About Ayers?
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/26/why-is-obama-hiding-the-truth-about-william-ayers-follow-the-money
"Give it up, you wingnut freaks. Obama has virtually nothing to do with this guy."
1995 Obama campaign launch event at Ayers/Dohrn house.
I guess Obama also has nothing to do with the reverend either, right? Read the noquarterusa.net article above. You'll see just how much the two of them do know each other.
Typical.
All the working class kids had to go to work. They couldn't afford his elitist BS point of view, they had mouths to feed and people to take care of. This schmuck is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is so overcome by guilt from it that he decides to make the rest of us pay for his misfortune. He suffers from Ghetto-Envy plain and simple. But unlike all the working stiffs in this world, he has always had a Safety-Net to fall into when the going got tough. They didn't tell us the part about his wealthy father putting the money up for his clever defense did they? Or about the fortune he inherited just because he was born lucky. And now he's a celeb amongst other upper-middle class losers from that era. What a life! Take this lesson to heart young America. Never trust a liberal professor. They didn't earn it, they didn't sweat for it, and when they inherit it, they won't deserve it.
Bill Ayers why not move to a comunist country like North Korea and live your dream? Because your a crap chucking chimp.
I believe that history has a rich sense of irony. They're now what David Brooks call Bohemian Bourgeois, or BoBo's for short. They get their coffee at Starbucks now, for crying out loud. Capitalism won. They lost. They've become the very thing they hated.
Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice," he [Ayers] says.
Social justice would be much better served if these two losers were serving hard time. Shame on UIC!
The next time a public university (e.g. The University of Illinois at Chicago) asks for funding increases, demand that the state legislature and Board of Regents not fund demented and seditious frauds such as Bill Ayers. Remember, fellow taxpayers, that WE are paying this creep to spread his poison. Enough!
This man did more to harm America than any of the Nazi saboteurs who invaded America via U-boat during WWII. They got the chair. This man, Ayers, gets a teaching job, does not apologize for being a terrorist, and has the audacity to trample the American flag in a picture for a magaine.
The fact he's allowed to sip his double skim lattes in Starbucks despite his crimes is a travisity. The same goes for his hoebag wife.
Oh boy - in a year's time he'll be sipping lattes at the White House! Way to go America!!
Ayers exhibits all of the stereotypic characteristics of a Sixties liberal --- self righteousness, hypocrisy, hubris, and unrepentance. Could it be that his frau and her cohorts died in the Greenwich Village explosion not, as Ayers muses, because she selflessly and sacrificially detonated the device, but rather because they were careless amateur bomb makers?
I'd Love to know who came up with the idea that this murdering swine was fit to teach our kids? If this is who obama thinks is a valued man in the usa, that says something about him. You're freinds represent you. Oh and btw that convention in Chicago would have gone no where had they not been handing out free drugs.
Ayers if you don't like the U.S.A LEAVE we dont need your I hate america kind. You deserve the suffering you gave out!
Can anyone explain why this asshole terrorist and his bomb-making wife aren't in prison?
"Can anyone explain why this asshole terrorist and his bomb-making wife aren't in prison?"
Uh because she served her time and he was never charged. Maybe your complaint lies with the US Attorney who didn't see fit to charge Ayers with any crime.
Is he a spoiled rich boy? You bet.
Does he represent 60's radicals who sought true change? About as much as does W. Both were spoiled rich kids. Bush went for nose candy and drunkenness and Ayers went for completely stupid ersatz radicalism. To call him a terrorist is to give him far too much credit. He was, and is, and effete snob born to privilege. Can you imagine how much he is just loving that you wingnuts are hyperventilating over him? He hasn't been this relevant since he was on the FBI's 10 most wanted. Keep feeding his ego, you're doing a wonderful job.
Too funny how he can still pull people's chains after all these years.
He was a dodo in the 60s and his politics is a dud today.
Real radicals had nothing but disrespect for the Weather Underground.
BTW Neither Dorn nor Ayers are killers. They were in custody when the deaths occurred in the botched robbery and the Weather Underground lost any semblance of a political entity and became just another criminal organization run by rich kids.
The right forgives Ollie North who tried to subvert the Constitution and former Nazi scientists and Charles Colson who gets religion in prison and former KKKers and segregationists who fostered an atmosphere in which blacks were denied fundamental rights and even killed, yet when it is someone on the left that has done something abhorrent at age 20, the stain can never be erased and facts are ignored. Thus in most of the comments above Ayres is tagged with all the Weatherman's sins though he wasn't involved in most of them, was eventually kicked out of the Weathermen because he was not radical enough and wanted them to disband and surrender, gave himself up to the FBI almost 30 years ago, got a Ph.D. and has been working for 20 years to help improve education in Chicago (praised by Mayer Daily, not exactly a radical) and his wife, a former Weatherman herself and once equally radical, provides free and low cost legal services to poor people. Perhaps the above critics lived far better lives than Ayres and his wife 35 years ago in their 20s, but how many have done as much to help people during the past two decades?
As for the "did not do enough" quote and the picture, Ayres was hyping a book, which I expect explains it. Look at his behavior before and after the hype. And don't take the "we did not do enough" quote out of context." Ayres so far as we know never did anything that hurt anyone; he was involved in setting a few bombs - in empty bathrooms. His quote, beyond the book hype, expresses the wish that somehow the Weathermen could have done enough to stop the Viet Nam War. Of course they never could have done enough to do this, and if killing more Americans with their bombs would have succeeded, the tactic would still be abhorrent and indefensible.
Consider, however, the context that motivates the sentiment. 50,000+ Americans and many more Vietnamese died in that war - to what end? (We now know that the Gulf of Tonkin incident which precipitated a major build up was mainly a fiction and that fear of a domino effect should Viet Nam go communist was unfounded.) So had Ayres and his cohort somehow been able to "do enough," there would have been far less grieving then and many more people alive today. With this in mind, all America should share Ayres regret, not that the Weatherman did not do enough - their tactics were not only often criminal but also not just ineffective but also counterproductive, Howeer, we should regret that we as citizens did not take control of things sooner than we did and insist on an end to the war or, better still, have objected through our votes before we got enmeshed in Nam. Many loyal, noble Americans died in Viet Nam, but there were also many noble,loyal Americans who protested the war and sought through political and other non-violent means to end it. Both those who fouhgt and those whon remained home and protested (and those like John Kerry who did both) were motivated by love of country and what the U.S. stood for. Ayres was part of an organization that began with the idealism of youth born of love of country and then because of the excesses of youth and the failure of the country to respond went too far both in their actions and in their transformed attitudes towa5rd the country that would not listen to them. But Ayre's character is reflected far more in his activities during the past 25 years than in what he was doing when he was barey out of his teens. No doubt if his excesses had been on the right - as were the activities of Macarthyites or ardent segregatonists or the hawks who led us into Viet Nam or the criminals in the Nixon Administration who tried to subvert democratic processes, he would have been long since forgiven and even his nostalgia for not doing enough (think Ollie North or Gordon Libby) would be treated as an inconsequential sentiment. But the right seems to be full of people who never forgive and do not believe people can change or be redeemed by their acts. How unchristian.