Update: UNL 'will surely suffer,' for cancellation, Ayers says (full story)

[Omaha Steve]

Full story now online.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10485273

Published Wednesday November 12, 2008
UNL 'will surely suffer,' for cancellation, Ayers says
BY KHRISTOPHER J. BROOKS
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Even given the likelihood of heightened security and threats to his safety, education professor William Ayers still wanted to speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this weekend.


William Ayers

"I wouldn't force myself on the college, of course, but I felt that canceling would send a terrible message to students, bring shame to the university, and be another step down the slippery slope of giving up on the precious ideal of a free university in a free society," Ayers writes in his first detailed statement on the controversy, published today.

Ayers, an anti-war radical in the 1960s, wrote that he told UNL administrators the day before they canceled his speech that complaints over his appearance were "a bit of a tempest in a teapot" that surely would pass. And he indicated to them that he would have felt safe speaking at UNL.

"Certainly no matter what a group of extremists claimed they might do, I said, I thought that the Nebraska state police could get me to the podium, and I would handle myself from there," wrote Ayers, who became a controversial figure in the presidential campaign because of his ties to Barack Obama.

In addition to saying his speech should not have been canceled, Ayers denied committing terrorist acts 40 years ago and indicated that he thought Gov. Dave Heineman and other state officials bullied UNL leaders into rescinding the invitation.

"Is a public university the personal fiefdom or the political clubhouse of the governor? . . . Do we collapse in fear if a small mob gathers with torches at the gates?" Ayers asked.


FULL story at link above.

Archive of World-Herald Ayers-UNL stories: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10484645


Weather Underground The Weather Underground, also known as the Weathermen, was a radical organization formed in 1969 to violently protest the war in Vietnam.

The group issued a declaration of war against the U.S. government, participated in riots in Chicago and set off bombs at numerous public buildings, including the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

The only people killed or injured by the bombs were the group's own members: three died in 1970 when a bomb they were making in New York City accidentally detonated.

William Ayers, one of the founders and leaders of the Weathermen, went into hiding after the blast, not resurfacing until 1980. That was long after charges against him and other Weathermen had been dropped because of misconduct by investigators and prosecutors.

[Disturbed]

1. Many RWingers were saying that the Weather Underground killed

Americans. The RWingers just lie & only few in the Corp. Media corrected them. William Ayers was never charged or convicted of any crimes, yet the RWing kept saying that he was a Terrorist.

[leftofcool]

2. He was charged, he got off on a technicality