[lit-ideas] Obama and Bill Ayers
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 01:17:57 -0700
I have made no special study of either Obama or Ayers; so I have been
prepared to be corrected. I have not been. Instead someone took something
I intended as frivolous and humorous - and concluded I was being vicious. I
was responding to what I perceived to be an absurdity accompanied by an
insult, something not worthy of serious treatment, something worthy only of
humor, and that is what I supplied, but my readers perceived only
viciousness. And they wanted to discuss my non-existent "viciousness"
instead of the Obama-Ayers issue.
Language is not self-authenticating. I intended to be humorous and can
explain the joke if some asks, but if a reader sees "viciousness" instead of
"humor," and doesn't ask, doesn't engage in dialogue to find out what my
motivation really was, then what is my responsibility for his misperception?
Do I have one? Well, if we are having a dialogue, I am responsible for
clarifying the ambiguity. If we are merely quarrelling, which we seem to
be, then the heck with him.
Since I don't want to lose sight of the Obama-Ayers issue, I'll return to
what was said. In my note of 7:59 I wrote, "Kouri ends with a 2001 quote
from Ayers: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
Ayers is quoted in a New York Times article."
John then responded to my note by writing Barack Obama was eight years old
when Bill Ayers was a Weatherman. By the time they met, Ayers had become a
perfectly tame and highly respected community figure in Chicago. This kind
of phoney guilt-by-association is, IMHO, one of the more despicable, if all
too typical, tactics of the right."
Already we are entering absurdity in my view (although try to ignore the
gratuitous insult which adds something to the absurdity). I previously
wrote that Ayers in 2001 said, and was quoted as saying in a NYT article, "I
don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
John responds with something utterly illogical.. He said 1) Obama was only
8 years old when Ayers was in the Weather Underground. Why did he say this?
No one was saying that Obama was in the Weather Underground. No one was
saying Obama was a terrorist. What is in question is the extent to which
Ayers is unrepentant (and the 2001 NYT quote states that he is unrepentant)
and the extent to which Ayers influenced Obama.
So John 1) makes an irrelevant statement about how old Obama was when Ayers
was blowing things up and 2) makes a false statement when he writes that
Ayes "had become a perfectly tame and highly respected . . .." This
statement is false because Ayers stands by his bombing days. He hasn't
repented his earlier terrorist activities. He wished he had blown up more.
He is like the Japanese not apologizing for the Rape of Nanking. You can't
pass that over. Either you are sorry for your past acts or you stand by
them. Ayers stands by his. He wished he had bombed more. He didn't bomb
enough.
Actually, I was disgusted with the lack of reading ability I perceived in
the people reading my notes. Ayers is not a respectable person if he stands
by his bombing activities! Ayers was on a board, described as a Left wing
board (although I didn't check that), with Obama. Ayers was in regular
contact with Obama. They communicated, Obama said, "not on a regular
basis."
And so in my frustration at the obtuseness I perceived I turned frivolous.
Now Paul Stone says my words weren't "tame." Probably not. I was getting
annoyed but still amused at the obtuse reactions to what I wrote. I did find
it Ironic that one of Obama's mentors, Bill Ayers once wanted to blow up the
White House (you can find that in Ayers book, Fugitive Days, I believe.).
Some of my tentative conclusions are open to correction or clarification,
but I have heard none from anyone here. They just want to talk about my
viciousness. But I am interested in how much Ayers influenced Obama. It
has been stated by several that Obama's career was launched in Ayers home.
Is that true? I don't believe Obama denied it. He said some other things
but he didn't deny it -- that I've read. I haven't read about this
exhaustively; so I am open to correction here. But if his career was
launched in Ayers home and if there as a long standing relationship
including a sharing of ideas, Ayers may well have been one of Obama's
mentors.
In case someone's knee jerks and they want to say that Obama would never
have a mentor like Bill Ayers, I remind them of the Reverend Jeremiah
Wright. If memory serves, Obama called Wright one of his mentors. Do any
of you hear any alarm bells ringing yet, or are you still all worried about
my viciousness and whether if I keep it up, as Phil warns, it will be the
end of civilization as we know it . . . or some such expression. I don't
remember his exact words. Obama already demonstrated poor judgment in
choosing Wright as one of his mentors. We cannot off hand conclude that he
is incapable of making another poor choice in Bill Ayers.
Let's return to the hypothetical danger of being mentored by Bill Ayers.
Lots of people were Leftists back in the 60s, and became respectable people
later on. Perhaps Ayers was one of those. Obama has said that he was.
Others have expressed the belief that he was, but look at what Ayers
actually said. He said in 2001, when Obama was in the Illinois State
Legislature, long after Obama's career had been launched in Ayer's home,
that he wished he had done more bombing. I take that statement of Ayers to
mean that Ayers was not respectable.
But Obama says that Ayers is respectable. Let's consider that. Does Obama
say that knowing that Ayers wished he had done more bombing back then? Or
does Obama not know what Ayers said to the NYT in 2001 and what he wrote in
his book, Fugitive Days? These are not frivolous questions because if Obama
finds someone who wished he had done more bombing in the 60s respectable;
then he, not yours truly is "over the top."
Lawrence Helm
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