Peterike:
“They entered the Academy and ruined it, turning it into an indoctrination center. They entered the Democratic party and turned it into the Socialist party. They entered the media and turned it into a fifth column. They entered Hollywood and turned it into a center for anti-American propaganda. And on and on.”
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Some went in those directions. Ayers is an example.

As I wrote, I was a university student during that period. My father was a university professor, and I actually began taking some university courses when I was 17, so I was personally familiar with student attitudes, especially from about 1969 through 1975. It was during that period, especially the first half, that the war was a big issue on campuses.

I saw how many students would attend various meetings and participate in demonstrations and how they would act and speak at such events. I have personal experiences and impressions about the extents of radicalization among the students. And then I can extrapolate from my own university (the University of Oregon) to the totality of university campuses across the USA.

And based on my perception of the number of students who became radicalized and the various extents of their radicalization, I can say that you are demonizing a huge number of people.

Many people who were in their early 20s during that period were strongly affected by all those events. It was a time when there was a lot of civil disobedience, when there were a lot of demonstrations and riots, when there was a war that killed tens of thousands of Americans, when people that age were being drafted and were evading the draft.

People who themselves were personally were carried along in those strong political currents of that period are naturally able to feel more sympathy and understanding for people like Kerry and Ayers. I certainly can criticize them, but I also can understand that they got carried away and made some mistakes.

Those people of the same age in that same period who served in the military in Vietnam likewise can sympathize and understand how someone like Lieutenant William Calley led a military unit that committed the My Lai massacre. That doesn’t mean that they approve or excuse the My Lai massacre. It means only that they have some more sympathy and understanding for Calley than the average person does.

That’s how I myself feel about Kerry and Ayers.