Will the Real Radicals Please Stand Up? (with Update!)

(7 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Alice Palmer had a Party, a coffee club meeting at a home in Hyde Park. It was to introduce her successor, Barack Obama. She was running for the 2nd Congressional District and was annointing Obama to be her replacement as a State Senator. The home, one of several coffee meeting places, happened to be the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This is the “fundraiser” the neocons are raving about????? The upshot is that she lost, Jesse Jackson won. And Barack Obama will be our next President who has to deal with the shambles the neocons have made of our country.

Dick Kay, on Ed Schultz, today, pointed out that Hyde Park, a neighborhood of university professors and educators has a distinctly different attitude than the rest of Chicago. It is very liberal and Bohemian.The coffee meetings at people’s homes are very common there and cannot be considered fundraisers.

Dick Kay, a radio personality and political commentator/reporter in Chicago, discussed Bill Ayers, the weathermen and the “Days of Rage” in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember them too and thought it was funny that they would blow up the policeman statute at Haymarket Square. What would that accomplish? Turns out, it accomplished a lot.

The Weathermen were very anti-police, but, then, a lot of people were in those days. (This is after the 1968 Convention Riots which were also police inspired.) And the blast brought attention to The Haymarket Riots and the kangaroo courts that resulted in the hanging of innocent men. To me, it was a political awakening. I was young and stupid and didn’t believe that people could have been so unjustly charged and convicted. Having lived near Altgeld Gardens for most of my life, I didn’t even know who Altgeld was, just that he was a Governor of Illinois. He pardoned the remaining anarchists ( four were hung and one committed suicide)and most of them were probably not at the Square when the bomb went off. Evidence even points to the facts that no weapons were found among the “rioters” and that all seven of the police killed were shot by “friendly fire”. But the public demand for retribution and the outcry against foreigners was so strong that the “usual suspects” were rounded up , charged and convicted.

Back to Dick Kay. Ayers’ said that the intent of the bombing was not to “harm” anyone, but to make a point and call attention to injustice. It may have been his intent but Diana Oughton (from Dwight, IL) and a couple of others were killed in a Greenwich Village blast when the nail bomb she was working on prematurely exploded. They were pretty much discredited after that and Dohrn and Ayers went into hiding for about 10 years. They surrendered and Ayers went to trial but got off on a “technicality”. But would justice have been served if he had been convicted?

When I was in college at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. I wore jeans and an old woolen army shirt. (Yes, my hair was long, but frizzy and curly. It still is frizzy.) The weathermen and the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society – I still have their buttons!) had some pretty wacky ideas like neighborhood vigilante committees to protect the neighborhood from outsiders!!!!!. But their main idea, that the War was wrong and illegal was correct. They were radicals and anarchists and were against authority and government. They damaged property with their bombs, but no lives were lost other than their own.

Dick Kay also pointed out that Ayers could not rightly, be called a terrorist. They were protestors. They were political. But as to terrorism??? I think Kay is right. They just didn’t qualify. Terrorist as a label is being over used and abused. it will soon have no relevance.

The “good old days” of the 60s and 70s were not so good. The Chicago Seven trial was a farce, the killing of the Black Panthers was criminal and a travesty. There were injustices and riots all over.

And, yes, I did kinda meet Ayers while in Grad School. He was standing outside his office and I was waiting to see my Advisor whose office was nearby. I guess I should throw away my copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook now!

So character assassins…do your worst….but terrorist?  I think not!

UPDATE

Well, I checked Wikipedia and discover that Ayers also founded the Small Schools Workshop given at the University of Illinois Chicago. Uh, yes, I attended that too. William Klonsky led the training. It was back in the 90s. And, yes, I helped write a million dollar grant for my district so we could start small schools in our very large high school. So, I must confess, I am a terrorist, too! Less than six degrees of separation there. I even received training!

Please don’t kick me out!!!!!