Zombietime post about Ayers’ book Prairie Fire leads to his denial of Emeritus status
During Barack Obama’s 2008 run for the presidency, I dug up an extremely rare original edition of Prairie Fire, the forgotten communist manifesto co-written by Obama’s friend and colleague William Ayers, and I published excerpts of the book at zombietime.
As I wrote at the time, “This essay only exists to correct and unequivocally debunk claims routinely made by the mainstream media over the last few weeks … that William Ayers wasn’t such a bad guy after all, and that it is no shame to be associated with him.” Read the full essay to see the full extent of the devastating evidence against Ayers.
In my exposé, I highlighted what I thought were the most noteworthy aspects of Prairie Fire, including the part where Ayers brags about and then lists in detail the numerous terrorist bombings he carried out in the 1970s; where he describes himself as a communist, and cites his desire for a communist revolution to overthrow the United States; where he cites the many motivations driving the Weather Underground’s terror campaign, most of which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Vietnam War (as the media endlessly claims to this day); and so on. I also listed the many close links between Ayers and Obama.
Almost as an aside, I pointed out halfway through the report an absurd detail that I noticed by accident when scanning one of the book’s pages — that Ayers and his co-authors had dedicated Prairie Fire to (among dozens of lesser known criminals and radicals) Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin who killed Robert F. Kennedy.
If this had been an isolated fact, it would have been outrageous enough, but compared to the numerous other outrages in the book, it practically didn’t even seem worth mentioning — at least to my mind.
Boy, was I wrong.
As I had hoped, the report did ignite a massive amount of publicity and coverage. But most of that coverage barely mentioned most of the damning facts which I had highlighted; instead, to my astonishment, the blog posts and TV reports and newspaper articles focused almost entirely on the Sirhan Sirhan dedication, which somehow struck a nerve in the national consciousness.
Unfortunately, my Prairie Fire essay failed to derail Obama’s run for the White House, but now two years later it has had an unexpected side effect — a fitting and ironic postscript to the whole affair:
Bill Ayers denied emeritus status at UIC
Son of RFK — now U. of I. board chair — rips prof for dedicating book to his father’s assassin
When retiring University of Illinois at Chicago professor Bill Ayers co-wrote a book in 1973 [sic], it was dedicated in part to Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy.
That came back to haunt Ayers when the U. of I. board, now chaired by Kennedy’s son, considered his request for emeritus status Thursday. It was denied in a unanimous vote.
Before the vote, an emotional Chris Kennedy spoke out against granting the status to Ayers.
“I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy,” he said.
“There is nothing more antithetical to the hopes for a university that is lively and yet civil, or to the hopes of our founding fathers for their great experiment of a self-governing people, than to permanently seal off debate with one’s opponents by killing them.”
Take that, Bill Ayers!
[Scan of part of the dedication page; see the original report for the full-page scan and more details.]
See also Michelle Malkin: Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers denied emeritus status
Getting a slap like this so late in life is better than having it tossed under the rug. Way to go, Chris Kennedy. Good on ya.
Also, I’m very pleased that the vote was unanimous.
oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh yes…
When least expected, the universe serves up those life lesson pay backs ice cold.
I actually “giggled” when I heard this..
—Zombie– I remember your expose on Ayers—great piece of work and a shame it did not get more coverage at the time.
I wonder if there is an audio of video of Kennedys denunciation of Ayers?
BTW- how about some more photo journalistic coverage of left wing fruitcakes in the SF Bay Area?
Congratulations to Zombie! I’m glad that something, in however slight a way, from Ayers’ disgraceful past has had a negative impact on him now.
I could never understand, during the election, how Obama could duck the Ayers tie, and the even more obvious link to the hateful Jeremiah Wright. The traditional media made their choices about all that, and somehow enforced their decision, that even to mention the Ayers and Wright connections was somehow scurrilous.
I have always been completely and thoroughly disgusted by Ayers and his wife, both of whom should still be in jail. It took a long time for the chickens to come home to roost at UIC and roost they have. Thank you, UIC Board, for standing up for decency and accountability. In particular, thank you, Chris Kennedy. I still miss your father, oh, what might have been!
Ayers, I have no doubt where you will go in the afterlife…somewhere your rich daddy cannot save you.
Food for Chris Kennedy and the UI board! William Ayers Jr. deserves all the attention that can be given to him and his intimate connection with his beneficiary, B. H. Obama. References to his communist partisanship in the past tense are incorrect. He remains an unrepentant communist and open supporter of all communist regimes.
If you doubt this, just go to his blogspot, with its Red Star rising over the arc of the globe, or look at the photos of him, outside of his home, when he called the cops to protest investigative reporters, in a T shirt with a huge red star – and he wasn’t promoting Macy’s. When he decided that killing both enemies and friends with poorly-made bombs was not going to swing America to communism, he wangled a job as professor at the U of I, through sympathetic academic connections, in order to (guess what) indoctrinate public school children in the glories of socialism. From this cozy position, and with excellent writing skills (viz. “Dreams From My Father) he has published may “educational” books advancing socialism, and become tenured. So he is highly esteemed in Communist circles, world-wide, for his promulgation of the cause.
He was the one who first recognized the political potential of the cool, articulate, mixed- blood Alinsky-follower, saw him as a surrogate, promoted his advance through the Chicago Machine, and initiated his campaign for the Presidency. Obama would no more throw him under the bus than he would his grandmother: he just asks him to keep a low profile – which we should not permit.
I wonder if he was forced out of that teaching position??? I can’t believe that he would quit trying to form the minds of young people…
Congratulations Zombie, you did great work. You should have won a Pulitzer. They did not care. Best to you.
Good. I hope Ayers goes out, gets drunk to drown his sorrows, stumbles on to the El tracks and gets run over by the train in front of his kids, if he has any. And I hope it gets captured by one of the many security cameras in Chicago, so I can see it, too.
Why not pray that he repents and joins the good guys? (Although a near death experience might catalyse that.) That would have a much more positive effect on our nation. “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” – God Did you notice that Castro is having second thoughts?
(clickety-click) “Well, I ain’t Jesus.” (BOOM)
Zombie:
Feels pretty good when one of your torpedoes hits its target, doesn’t it?
Congratulations…you gave an unrepentant terrorist scumball an 11th round “dick-punch”, and you get to hear him squeal like a little girl….SWEEET!
“That came back to haunt Ayers when the U. of I. board, now chaired by Kennedy’s son, considered his request for emeritus status Thursday. It was denied in a unanimous vote.”
The Almighty will have His little jokes.
Who can deny that the ironic justice here is Divine?
Why not turn Bill Ayers killing of California cops over to an FBI Cold Case Unit (Oh yea – Obama’s FBI now – well maybe not for much longer)? There’s no statute of limitation on murder. Let’s get those Cold Case Sleuths hard on Ayers trail. Ayer’s has admitted his involvement in murder…
Yeah, Mac, they’ll get on that right after they deport the Alleged Hawaiian’s illegal alien half-aunt, who is living in metro Boston in a Housing Authority squat and is “retired” at 58 on Social Security (which she never paid a dime into).
Semper Fi, (W1/4)
It goes without saying that Chris Kennedy and the University of Illinois trustees did the right thing by denying Ayers emeritus status. But before conservatives pop the champagne bottles and celebrate a victory for decency and common sense, they might do well to consider the fact that the trustees only voted Ayers down because Mr. Kennedy was personally offended by Ayers’ dedication of Prairie Fire to the man who assassinated his (Kennedy’s) father, RFK. The “no” vote on Ayers had nothing to do with his Weathermen/Weather Underground history of domestic terrorism (e.g., the “Days of Rage” in Chicago, bombing of the Pentagon, the killing of a Detroit police officer, Diana Oughton’s fatal bomb-making mishap in Manhattan, etc.), his 1960′s/70′s efforts to overthrow the American government (or his alleged corresponding plan to exterminate 30 million Americans in death camps), his lifelong advocacy of militant communism or his overt efforts — through his work as a professor of education at UIC and through his authorship of education text books — to pave the way for communism by propagandizing America’s schoolchildren through the institution of pro-communist, anti-American curricula in schools. What’s more, the “no” vote had nothing to do with Mr. Ayers’ astonishing lament (on 9/11/01, no less!) that he and his Weathermen/Weather Underground cohorts hadn’t perpetrated enough acts of domestic terrorism.
No, the apparent sole basis for the University of Illinois trustees’ decision to deny professor emeritus status to Bill Ayers is the fact that Mr. Kennedy’s feelings were hurt by Ayers’ 1973 celebration of his father’s assassin. And while Kennedy and the other trustees made the right decision by voting “no,” their decision seems to have been based more on Mr. Kennedy’s emotions (and the trustees’ attendant sensitivity to those emotions) than on any sort of rejection of Bill Ayers’ life and works, or on an adherence to common sense, decency, or noble principles.
Remember, Bill Ayers is wildly popular in wealthy & connected social circles around Chicago. The more he’s decried by people like Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, the more he’s in demand at parties frequented by people like Christine Heffner, Penny Pritzker, Oprah and Sam Zell. It’s likely that if Chris Kennedy and the Chicago Kennedys (who are hugely influential, behind-the-scenes players in Chicago’s political, business and real estate scenes) hadn’t objected to Ayers on the basis of Ayers’ insensitivity to their personal family history — not on a rejection of Ayers’ body of work — Ayers and his mover-and-shaker friends would be toasting to his newly-minted “professor emeritus” status at a cocktail party somewhere in Chicago tonight.
And frankly, that’s more depressing than it is reassuring.
Whatever the reason(s) for denying him emeritus status, the rebuke is welcomed and overdue. And the people he is wildly popular with have more cents than sense. Party on, leave me alone to cling to my religion, guns…and love of country.
You are absolutely right. If not for the reference to Sirhan Sirhan I wonder if Chris Kennedy would have had any problem with Bill Ayers at all. This isn’t a stand on principles, its just a snit amongst the rich and politically connected circle. If Bill Ayers hadn’t have been from a rich and politically connected family he’d still be doing time in prison today.
Thank you T.S. for saying what I thought immediately upon hearing the news. It it weren’t for the fact that it was Kennedy’s dad that was killed by Sirhan Sirhan, we wouldn’t be commenting the Board’s rejection of Ayers, just lamenting the new honor bestowed on this terrorist.
Thank you for your wise and informed comment TS. For Chris Kennedy, it was not so much a matter of principle, as principal. This is hardly cause for celebration from decent folk.
To TS, Thank you for so succinctly expressing what I was thinking as I read the original post. This is a great example of sacrificing a dollar to gain a million. Ayers may not have the UI status that was in the offing but he’s still there doing his dirty work…
The surprised reaction by Ayers’ colleagues to his denial of tenure because of his “political beliefs” is something to remember. They seem to live in sort of a “progressive” bubble where the ideologies behind the greatest mass murders of the 20th century are still revered, and where activism to promote those ideologies, even through terrorism, is respected. Only intellectuals could cling so stupidly to the dream that somewhere, someday, somehow Marxism will work. They have taken leave of their common sense. They don’t usually need it in Hyde Park, I guess.
Even if this denial of tenure is based on a personal matter, I liked the way Chris Kennedy tied it to American values.
On second thought, there are a few people in addition to intellectuals who still cling to a dream based in Marxism – Sean Penn, Michael Moore, etc. Maybe they live in bubbles, too.
Could this become a defining moment signaling the beginning of the end to the progressive renaissance in American Academia? Or just a bump in the road? One may only wonder and hope. Kudos, Z.
Consider this a warm day in February, not the first day of spring.
About time Ayers gets the scrutiny he deserves. Thugs do not belong in higher education establishments.
This might get Ayers tenure at Princeton.
Nice followup to one of major media failures of our time. Enjoy this.
I remember the article on Prairie Fire, too, in ’08. Congratulations for a job well done, an act of patriotism.
This is another instance of one single member of the great unwashed masses doing something the elites can’t fathom. They believe we are so far beneath them we can’t touch them. There will be more of this.
It’s like one big glittering Hallmark card–reach out and touch someone (who advocated killing of 25 million Americans just because we’re so uncooperative and cluttering up the place). Those chickens not only come home to roost, Bill, they poop on you while they’re at it.
Thanks Zombie. Despite the fact that Chris Kennedy is surely a Socialist and might have Ayers over for dinner, if only he wouldn’t have dedicated his work to the assassin of his father, it is richly rewarding to hit Ayers hard and expose him as often as possible. Well done, well done indeed!
I am genuinely pleased to be so genuinely pleased at something done and said by a Kennedy. Very good. Very, very good.
Congrats, Zombie!
To think, our “betters” require such extensively researched and documented work to simply recognize Evil in their midst. How atrophied their common sense must be; how much their sense of smell must be compromised by the constant odor of corruption; how degraded their moral sense through constant baths of political correctness.
It’s a marvel that you manage to swim in such seas and retain your viewpoint, humor, and wit. That you do is a tremendous benefit to the blogosphere — and now to the University of Illinois at Chicago. They won’t thank you for saving them from such an embarrassment, but they should.
Aha! A mystery solved. I couldn’t figure out why the Kennedys had not acted on this in 1974 or earlier.
Well done, once more, Zombie.
I remember your posting of “Prairie Fire”, and at the time considered it yet another good reason not to vote for The Self-Exalted One. (On the “lie down with dogs, get up with fleas” principle.)
Now, it has come back to bite Billy Ayers on the backside, just when he was about to achieve the apotheosis all “progressive” academics dream of- being able to use the university as a soapbox for life.
Ah, schadenfreude.
cheers
eon
Hasn’t incredible damage already been done? How many young people has Ayers influenced since 1974?
If Bibbity-Bobbity didn’t have his offspring on the board, it would have remained under the rug.
Don’t give kudo one to academia here.
Good job, Zombie. Sweet!!
“revenge is best served cold” Way to go. To finally get his come-upence at the hands of a Kennedy no less is so filled with Irony.
Liberals, like the Kennedys, are the reason why Ayers, an out and out traitor, wasn’t tried, convicted and executed decades ago and liberals, like the Kennedys, are why Ayers got a job at UI.
This is purely a personal vendetta on Kennedy’s part. There are several murderers (and traitors) mentioned on the dedication page of “Prarie Fire” and if Sirhan Sirhan wasn’t one of them…Ayers would have gotten Emeritus status (basically a meaningless distinction at UI, anyway), and Chris Kennedy wouldn’t have said squat.
Ayers (and his whore of a “wife”) made war on the United States and ought to be brought up on treason charges NOW. They should then be hung, after conviction, of course.
No decent person would have anything to do with the University of Illinois. Boycott it.
If the Kennedy clan wanted to do their country a service, they should all commit mass suicide. There isn’t one of them worth a damn (at least not one that I know of).
My concern is that Ayers’ aren’t the only Obama “saints” in our government or country for that matter. Couldn’t agree with you more. The only kudos here goes to zombie. All the UI board and Kennedys should feel or get is embarrassment OR investigation for aiding and abetting the criminals. When John was elected I thought we’d finally found someone with common sense. I now know he was/is no better than the rest of them. Sad.
Dear “Nobody”
For your: “When John was elected I thought we’d finally found someone with common sense. I now know he was/is no better than the rest of them. Sad.”, yes, indeedee.
But then, John was put to PT 109 because, having taken a Nazi agent as consort (or, allowing himself to be so taken), he had to be removed from military intelligence; in withholding covering fire power at The Bay of Pigs, he showed lack of courage and resolve—letting many good men die like pigs in a pen or fish in a barrel, and not that, that shouldn’t have been bad enough, he then paid 50mil. in reparations in cash and heavy machinery; at the inception of the building of the Berlin Wall, he showed lack of courage and resolve; at the so-called “Cuban Missile Crisis” he showed lack of courage and resolve; so, . . . you know, . . .
It may seem like a small victory, in light of that fact that the Ayers connection did not derail Obama’s campaign.
But. Would Kennedy’s son, sitting on that board have known of this, had you not revealed it? Congratulations, Zombie, and enjoy the sweet, sweet feeling of vindication.
I love a chance to see justice prevailing. Thanks for it.
And Obama was friends with this dirt Ayers. We know where The O’s heart lies, and the scummy media as well.
So, William Ayers finally gets a small dose of justice. It isn’t much, but I suppose it will have to do for now.
True justice would be premature detonation…
Ayers is apparently a first class jerk. That said, Sirhan Sirhan may not have fired the fatal shots. At least one shot was fired from someone standing right next to Bobby (Sirhan was a little farther away). There is evidence that the masterminds were mafia bosses who had obvious motives. Fatally injured, but apparently not aware of the seriousness of his wounds, Bobby’s last words were to the effect, “Is everyone all right?” Ayers and Sirhan deserve condemnation for their roles, but those people that escaped justice also deserve condemnation. In addition, the LA police department deserves consternation for its shoddy, self-serving investigation. This comment is also something of a test. I have this kooky idea that the CIA still searches for JFK conspiracy theorists and answers their comments in a way to make them appear to be kooks. I suspect the words “Marcello” and “Roselli” help trigger the search.
thank you very much for writing and investigating to get out the truth.the angel from god told george washington about three wars to come . in 1776 they did not know about if they would win the war with england. they did not know about the civil war and WWI and WWII.it is interesting the angel called George Washington, SON OF THE REBUPLIC, 7 times!! look at examples… (son of god, son of man,son of perdition)the angel called him, son of the republic,NOT, son of the democracy.. this you can look up yourself. good job doing the work you were called to do since the time you were born. sis. kim emmerich, apostolic church of belleville illinois. you can e-mail me back anytime.you need a good bible study about the end time anyway!lol!
the kooks are coming out. good conversation otherwise.
There’s nothing more pathetic and asinine than an old commie trying to remain relevant and cutting edge. Here he is with his graying bald pate, earrings (how stupid is that), a worn and dessicated face who still fantasizes that it’s 40 years ago and he’s a philosophical/political genius. Grow the hell up already. You’re a geezer and those way younger than you regard you as a fossil. This guy is a laughingstock.
Well done Zombie. Since departing LGF I lost track of your principled work. Well, I did get somewhat turned off by your photojournalism on the gay life in San Francisco, but that is hardly your fault as I like living a protected life! What a great way to be reminded than this vile Ayes has finally gotten his comeupance!
Will visit your site again.
Here’s to you Zombie -
Still have the CD burnt from you original .pdf. In the digital age, it is MUCH harder fror stuff to go permanently down the Memory Hole. -S-
Here, here! Thank you, Zombie. This will be my favorite story until November 3. More good news is on the way!
Isn’t karma a bitch.
I emailed Glenn Beck this week, he did a spot about all the radicals, commies, etc. that want to get rid of capitalism, I told him to figure out just how much $$$ these jerks have/make/inheritated…. Go public with that and you’d see how many people turn..
T.S. above is completely right and fully justified in his continuing indignation. Ayers should never have been appointed—let alone retained and given tenure and a “distinguished professor ” chair. If his past crimes had not already disqualified him, his appraoch to education should have. His whole career as a teacher of teachers and as curruculum advisor has been to get the anti-capitalist, Marxist, revoultionary doctrine into the elementary and high schools of the country. He has advocated doing this not only in history, literature or “civics” courses but wherever the course content (even mathematics!) could be turned to propagandistic rage against our institutions, our national ethos and our foreign policy undertakings. And he has been quite succesful in pursuit of these aims, appealing to the mass of ill-educated educators by his “revolutionary” cachet and his pose as a hero on the barricades. One thing not widely known or appreciated in the larger world is that much of his academic career was due to endorsement–if not full, visible sponsorship–by the Daley machine and the two Mayors who must have been influenced by the prominence of Ayers’ father who, for many years ran Commonwealth Edison and was a mover in and contributor to the Chicago political machine.
I might add as a personal reminiscence that some years ago I had occasion to say, privately, to the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (who had just delivered the usual administrator’s enconium to his own institution on a radio program that I had moderated) that I thought Ayer’s appointment something of a disgrace. His response was, that to the contrary, they were very proud of Ayers who is doing wonderful work to improve education all over the country. This, and the recent praise of Ayers delivered by the chairman of the UIC Education Department, is as much a comment on the values that misinform American pedagogy as on the incomprehensible but continuing social prominence of the Ayers-Dohrn couple itself.
Bill Ayers is Charles Manson with a trust fund; both were manipulators of women, both inspired others to do murderous deeds, both wanted a race war.
Ayers escaped the fate of Manson due to wealth and connections. The small victory of denying Ayers emeritus status is good—and zombie deserves great credit for dealing Ayers this setback. But it should not be forgotten that as a professor of “education,” and as a distributor of money under the Annenberg Challenge grants in company with the current President, Ayers has foisted an incredible amount of poison upon the American educational system.
“The evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Didn’t Barack Obama say that he no longer has any association with Bill Ayers?
Well, while Googling for other information last week, I came across an obscure news item that mentioned that Bill Ayers was a guest at the White House, coincidentally within the same time frame in July, 2009, that Black Panther leader, Malik Shabazz, was a guest at the White House, also. What’s going on there? Are Malik Shabazz, the Black Panthers and Bill Ayers part of the new “Civilian Security Force” that Barack Obama said that he wanted to form, back during his campaign? Reminiscent of an SS or Gestapo or KGB perhaps? A secret, shadow government within our federal government with insideous aspirations? Don’t scoff. I wouldn’t put anything past this sneaky and deviant administration.
Milton Rosenberg,I agree with your comments.
Dianne, thanks for your research!
Although I find it hard to see Sirhan as a “political prisoner” I think it is petty to deny Ayers emeirtus status at this point in time. He did renounce violence and have a distinguished career as an educator. I’ve heard him speak (likeable and articulate) and read his “Fugitive Days” autobigraphy which was a very interesting and well written commentary on one person’s reponse to the political upheavals of the time. Most liberals eschew guns and violence which places them at a disadvantage against opponents with no such scruples.
Would you please look up the true definition of liberal in the dictionary you blinded leftist apologist.Ayres was and is no liberal.He is a communist anarchist the end result and true aim of socialism.Read Marx for God’s sake.The biggest mass murderers in the world were and are leftists-Hitler,Stalin,Caucescue,Castro,Pol Pot,ad nauseum.He tried to kill us and you call it “one person’s reponse to the political upheavals of the time”.
Your comments epitomize everything that is upside down in this country sir,and you should be ashamed of yourself.By excusing him and his ilk of their crimes you in effect are complicit in them although I am certain you eschew guns and violence.You’d rather someone else do it for you.I’ll bet you’d like to eat your apologetic commentary after the horror in Arizona and “Liberals”attempts to smear all conservatives with the crimes of a LEFTIST madman.You disgust me.