Who Is Bill Ayers? (Letter to NYT)

[dtotire]

To the Editor:

Re “Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths” (front page, Oct. 4):
The 1950s McCarthy-era “guilt by association” is rife in this campaign season. Anyone a candidate knows or has talked to can be used to credit or discredit him. This is a dangerous return to a time when reputations and careers were ruined because of suspicions about the political persuasion of one’s friends or associates.

Most anyone in the nonprofit field in Chicago knows and admires Bill Ayers for his knowledge and commitment to quality education. A respected professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he is beloved by his students. Most of us met him long after his time as a radical Weatherman in the late 60s. Certainly, we don’t condone his behavior at that time.
Barack Obama was 8 years old when Bill Ayers was violently protesting the Vietnam War. That they now live in the same neighborhood and share deep concerns about education has nothing to do with Bill Ayers’s past, and shame on the McCain campaign for suggesting that it does and going back to the horrendous tactics that were so repulsive in the 50s.

Judy Wise
Chicago, Oct. 5, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/opinion/l07politics.html?ref=opinion

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