FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

WHY IT MATTERS THAT BARACK OBAMA GOT A JOB, LAUNCHED A POLITICAL CAREER, AND WORKED SIDE BY SIDE IN THE COMPANY OF ADMITTED TERRORIST WILLIAM AYERS

John Murtaugh tells the story of the night the Weather Underground tried to murder him and his family. He was nine years old at the time:

I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother’s pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our burning house for fear of who might be waiting outside.

Are we always responsible for everyone we happen to attend a party with, or shake hands with, or break bread with? No. But a political fundraiser, the obtaining of a paid board appointment, the creation of a non-profit grant-giving organization from scratch, and the carrying out of its mandate over several years, are activities that foster RELATIONSHIPS, and we are personally responsible for such choices in our lives.

Barack Obama was able to work with an unrepentant domestic terrorist bomber for years, without ever feeling he needed a shower afterwards. Or, who knows?, maybe he did want that shower -- just not enough to risk sidetracking his jet-propelled trajectory to power.

In an interview which appeared in the New York Times on (coincidentally) September 11, 2001, William Ayers stated flatly that he did not regret carrying out bombings and felt he "didn't do enough" in the cause of violent anarchy. Perhaps, given access to better equipment, he'd have favored "air raiding villages and killing civilians" like Obama thinks American soldiers have done in Afghanistan. Maybe he can still apply for a grant, come the new administration.


EDUCATORS SUPPORT THEIR FELLOW-EDUCATOR

A bunch of Chicagoland folks prepared to admit that they're in the same line of work as bill Ayers are soliciting an endorsement of their dear friend and colleague with this rather disturbing statement.

With a flourish of bad grammar and egregious style, the teachers make this dubious assertion about the nature of education as a profession:

All citizens, but particularly teachers and scholars, are called upon to challenge orthodoxy, dogma, and mindless complacency, to be skeptical of authoritative claims, to interrogate and trouble the given and the taken-for-granted. Without critical dialogue and dissent we would likely be burning witches and enslaving our fellow human beings to this day.

Hm-m-m. Guess when teachers get busy challenging dogmas and "interrogating and troubling the given and the taken-for-granted" (wha?), that would explain why so durn few kids these days graduate from high school knowing who Alexander Hamilton or Lewis and Clark were. Louisianna Purchase anyone? Spanish-American War? Teapot Dome? Six times eight?

The educators will admit this much: "It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans."

Funny, I don't remember hundreds of thousands of people committing one terrorist bombing per day between September 1969 and May 1970. That was left to those "passionate" specialists in the Weather Underground -- like the one who left Chicago City Attorney Richard Elrod paralyzed in October 1969, during the street riots of the "Days of Rage." Ah-h-h, those were the days, my friend. Read Elrod's story with a sweater on, 'cause it's chilling.

But it all happened SO long ago, when Barry Obama was only 8. However, Barry was over 40 when Bill Ayers spoke to the New York Times in 2001:

So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? ''I don't want to discount the possibility,'' he said.

What can I say, America? THINK before you vote.

UPDATE: Oh crap, my aunt signed this statement thing. I only know this because I checked for her name.....