Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem

Guest blogger Droxana writes:

We have Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago to thank for the reinvention of the vile human being known as William Ayers. Daley magnanimously forgave and waved his royal hand over the head of extreme leftist/terrorist Bill Ayers, giving him more influence on America than we can fathom — it is very likely Ayers has directly influenced your children or children you know. Mayor Daley hired Ayers to do the one job where he could spread his neo-marxist poison in the largest, surest measure — training teachers. It wasn’t bad enough that Ayers and the charming Bernardine Dohrn had 3 of their own children (one child adopted from a pair of imprisoned fellow terrorists) to indoctrinate… hey, why not turn Ayers loose on the entire teaching establishment where he could literally become a weapon of mass destruction? What a fabulously enlightened idea, mayor. (See Sol Stern’s Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem. The ex-Weatherman is now a radical educator with influence, City Journal, April 28, 2008.)

Don’t think it’s quite that bad?

Let’s take a look at the speech Ayers gave in Venezuela (that bastion of freedom, capitalism, and innovation) less than two years ago, in November 2006. Among those Ayers was addressing was Hugo Chavez. Ayers opened with these remarks:

President Hugo Chavez, Vice-President Vicente Rangel, Ministers Moncada and Isturiz, invited guests, comrades. I’m honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout Northamerica. Welcome to the World Education Forum! Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana!

This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez.

[...] I began teaching when I was 20 years old in a small freedom school affiliated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The year was 1965, and I’d been arrested in a demonstration. Jailed for ten days, I met several activists who were finding ways to link teaching and education with deep and fundamental social change. They were following Dewey and DuBois, King and Helen Keller who wrote: “We can’t have education without revolution. We have tried peace education for 1,900 years and it has failed. Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.”

[...last paragraph...] Let those of us who are gathered here today read this poem as “The Teacher’s Obligation.” We, too, must move in and out of windows, we, too, must build a project of radical imagination and fundamental change. Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education– a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation. This World Education Forum provides us a unique opportunity to develop and share the lessons and challenges of this profound educational project that is the Bolivarian Revolution.

Viva Mission Sucre!
Viva Presidente Chavez!
Viva La Revolucion Bolivariana!
Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

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