My podcast Sunday detailed more of the relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers. Obama has said that Ayers is just a guy in the neighborhood, and has minimized his relationship with Ayers. As I talked about Sunday, this is a lie.
Two more items that need attention are specific times when Obama and Ayers spoke together in public.
In 1997, Ayers and Obama spoke together on a panel hosted by the University of Chicago and introduced by Michelle Obama.
William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court(Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come from?”
Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop of the Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University Ave.
The panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center’s monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago.
The event is free and open to the public.
Ayers will be joined by Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, who is working to block proposed legislation that would throw more juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender who spent 7 years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank Tobin, a former priest and teacher in the Detention Center who helped Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is currently a teacher in the Detention Center. (Emphasis mine.)
In 2002, Ayers and Obama again spoke together on a panel. It was at another function hosted by the University of Chicago, and Ayers terrorist wife, Bernadine Dohrn, spoke as well. The name of the conference was “Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?”
2:15-3:45 p.m.
IV. Intellectuals in Times of Crisis
Experiences and applications of intellectual work in urgent situations.William Ayers, UIC, College of Education; author of Fugitive Days
Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University, Center for International Human Rights
Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago, Political Science
Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune; In These Times
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Barbara Ransby, UIC, African-American Studies (moderator)
Are we to honestly believe that Obama didn’t know the past of Ayers when he spoke with him this time? Are we honestly to believe that following the 2001 article where Ayers claims the Weather Underground didn’t set enough bombs and after writing Fugitive Days Obama was ignorant of the fact that Ayers was unrepentant?
Either Barack Obama is a liar, or he is incredibly dense. I say he’s a liar. What do you say?
