Support Bill Ayers (Updated 2x; Video added)

Since September 24, 2008, there have been approximately 3247 “endorsements” to an Educator Statement (see page 2) posted on the Support Bill Ayers website.

The RBO tipster who sent the link commented:

Just on the first page, some of the “usual suspects”. I’m sure to someone in tune with the radical left, many of the names are significant.

The originator of the Support Bill Ayers website (private registration 09/19/08) is possibly established on line 1 (see below). It is the name of Obama education adviser Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin, who has been the pivot point for a number of posts about Bill Ayers by Dr. Steve Diamond on his Global Labor and Politics blog. As described by Diamond, Ladson-Billings is “the inventor of a proposal to make repayment of centuries of ‘education debt’ owed to people of color the top priority of the next President, an idea shared by Ayers.”

On line 5 is Rashid Khalidi, of whom RW/RBO has written since Februrary 11, 2008, and most recently discovered from a Summer 2006 City Journal article by Sol Stern to have a direct connection with Bill Ayers:

In 1997, Ayers and his mentor Maxine Greene persuaded Teachers College Press to launch a series of books on social justice teaching, with Ayers as editor and Greene serving on the editorial board (along with Rashid Khalidi, loyal supporter of the Palestinian cause and the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University). Twelve volumes have appeared so far [by Summer 2006], including one titled Teaching Science for Social Justice.

Moving down the list, on line 38, is another name well familiar to RW/RBO readers — Mike Klonsky — here identified with his Small Talk Blog and not his closer Ayers’ associations, like the original and “new” Students for a Democratic Society, Movement for a Democratic Society, and Small Schools Workshop, among others.

While we’re on the subject of Ayers, Klonsky and the Small Schools Workshop, John at Verum Serum wrote October 11, 2008, that,

All told, boards on which Barack Obama sat delivered $1,087,556 to Bill Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop.

However, digging deeper, John at Verum Serum reported October 16, 2008,

… the total given under Barack Obama’s direct supervision was $1,056,162. Adding that amount to the money given by the Joyce Foundation and Woods Fund during Obama’s tenure brings the grand total to $1,968,718. Just shy of two million dollars! That’s a lot of scratch, to put it bluntly. And don’t forget, this doesn’t count the 3/4 million that went to John Ayers during the same time period.

On line 117 is the name of Rosalyn Baxandall of SUNY Old Westbury. Baxandall is not only one of many endorsers of Obama’s campaign at Progressives for Obama, but also of New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama and Historians for Obama.

A known Marxist, with her sister, Harriet Fraad, Baxandall wrote the chapter “Red Sisters of the Bourgeoisie” in Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. She also wrote the chapter “Marxism and Sexuality: The Body as Battleground” in Marxism in the Postmodern Age, which is discussed in Red Feminism.

On line 132, is the name Thomas Good, identified as an “Independent Journalist”. Another Progressives for Obama endorser, Trevor Loudon identifies Good as a “Communist turned anarchist.” RBO has written recently here and here about Good’s involvement with MDS and the “new” SDS, a revival of Students for a Democratic Society. In fact, Good edits the MDS “unofficial” ejournal Next Left Notes.

Skipping ahead, on line 202, we find Mona Khalidi of Columbia University and wife to Rashid Khalidi.

The Khalidis founded the Arab American Action Network in Chicago, with Mona Khalidi as president. In February 2005, at a big farewell dinner held in their honor by AAAN, both former domestic terrorists Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers were in attendance and a testimonial was delivered by then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, as well as Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago.

On line 421 appears the name of Maxine Greene of Columbia University. As mentioned above, Greene was Ayers’ mentor at Columbia.

Without a doubt, a comparison of names of endorsers at Progressives for Obama with signatories to the Support Bill Ayers campaign would find most of them on both lists.

In fact, given the number of years that Bill Ayers has been teaching and lecturing and writing books, promoting his ideas on boards and doling out grant funds, as well as involved with SDS, MDS, the Weather Underground, it is surprising that there are only 3247 names on the list by those who “support” him.

It is even more surprising that, as of October 15, 2008, only 16,501 people have visited the website. Perhaps Ladson-Billings et al. should contract with ACORN to help spread the word. This IS a support Obama and Ayers website, is it not?

By the way, Kathryn Jean Lopez commented yesterday, October 14, at NRO’s The Corner:

There’s a petition making the rounds that has academics purportedly defending Ayers against unrepentant terrorist and other (factual) labels. It also has my name on it. It has Jonah [Goldberg]’s name is on it. And it includes others who you know obviously didn’t sign it. One wonders how many names are actually legit. I’m at least audacious enough to hope there’s more sense out there than the petition would suggest on its surface.

Update: Sol Stern wrote October 6, 2008, in his City Journal article “The Bomber as School Reformer”:

Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.”

“Supporting Voices” from Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, added 10/15/08

See page 2 for Educator Statement

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