One Man's Terrorist...

...is another man's freedom fighter, as they say. I heard an EXCELLENT interview today (yep, on NPR) with Bill Ayres - the 'terrorist' that Obama pals around with. To be honest, I didn't know much about the guy, beyond what was being said of him by the McCain campaign.

Which Way The Wind Blows: Bill Ayers On Obama
FreshAir,
NPR.org, Nov 18, 2008

At the start of the interview, there seemed to be a lot of passing the buck. "I was misquoted", "they exaggerated", "they misunderstood", etc. But then he got into the meat of the conversation, and it was exceptional. I'd take a course from this guy in a hot second! The students at U of Chicago have a goldmine in him, hope they take advantage of it.

His thoughts on protest, on what constitutes terrorism, on who should be apologizing and/or admitting to their actions during the Vietnam war, on the responsibility of 'witnessing' and then taking action, the importance of questioning your own dogma, etc. were quite salient. I was left admiring his views, though questioning his methods - and wondering why McCain was so willing to paint Ayres with such broad strokes. Perhaps because he asks what McCain was doing when he was shot down.

Agree or disagree with his views on the war, it is a VERY thought provoking conversation that asks questions as pertinent today as they were in the late 60s.