I was planning to post this afternoon in support of Mike Petrilli, whose post questioning AERA’s embrace of Bill “Guilty as Hell, Free As a Bird” Ayers was unaccountably described as “McCarthyism” by the usually smart and sensible Dean Millot. But I see Diane Ravitch, as is her wont, has settled matters nicely. It’s a bit surprising that otherwise reasonable people seem eager to overlook Ayer’s past. We’re not talking about “youthful indescretions” here. We’re taking about clear, unambiguous criminal behavior which claimed lives–behavior for which Ayers claimed credit and refuses to renounce. “I don’t regret setting bombs, said Ayers. “I feel we didn’t do enough.”
McCarthyism? Please.
The Last Word: It belongs to Matthew K. Tabor, who posts a lengthy backgrounder on Ayers and the Weathermen, and draws Millot into his lair for a few rounds of responses. Well played, sir.
Robert,
Thank *you*, sir.
When the issue came about outside the education blogs – Sen. Obama and Ayers, as it reflected on Sen. Obama – I realized that plenty of people wanted a quick refresher on SDS, RYM, WUO, etc. I tried to keep it short with plenty of general links, but it’s such a fascinating subject [to me, at least] that one could write a million words on and still not touch every salient point.
Having said that, I think that one can look at the evidence process a fair judgment of Ayers’ actions in no more than one word.
I thought that intimations of McCarthyism were inappropriate and tried to reflect those thoughts in the post and in the ensuing comments. It’s been an interesting and informative discussion.