|
 n
the very morning terrorists would take 5,000 lives in New York City
and Washington, the New York Times printed a celebratory
profile of 1970s terrorist Bill Ayers. "I don't regret setting
bombs," said Ayers, in a Times interview whose purpose
was to promote Ayers's new memoir, Fugitive Days. "I
feel we didn't do enough."
Those comments
would have drawn attention no matter when they were spoken —
Ayers was in the Weathermen, a homegrown terrorist group that killed
innocent Americans but nevertheless achieved chic status among left-wingers
who admired its "ideals." But it's especially creepy to
think that somebody in the World Trade Center was reading Dinitia
Smith's fawning profile of him (headlined "Life With the Weathermen:
No Regrets for a Love of Explosives") at precisely 8:45 am
on September 11.
For a man of
no regrets, Ayers did seem somewhat humbled after last week's carnage.
The Times printed a letter of his on Sunday: "I'm filled
with horror and grief for those murdered and harmed. . . . We are
witnessing crimes against humanity." He didn't retract his
words, as he should have done, but at least he implicitly acknowledged
that they weren't wholly appropriate. Even a man of low morals can
have a small sense of decency. The letter was short and to the point.
And it was
edited. NR has obtained a copy of the original missive Ayers sent
to the Times, which includes this line: "I fear that
we might soon see innocent people in other parts of the world as
well as in the U.S. dying and suffering in response." In other
words, the American government's response to mass murder will be
morally equivalent to what happened on September 11.
There's more:
"My book . . . is an unambivalent criticism of the glorification
of violence. It would be preposterous to use it now to suggest that
any of the Vietnam-era protestors would endorse acts of terrorism
such as those we witnessed in horror this week." Why would
anyone come to such a preposterous view? Well, there is Ayers's
comment in Fugitive Days that there is "a certain eloquence
to bombs, a poetry and a pattern from a safe distance." The
book begins with the words, "Everything was absolutely ideal
on the day I bombed the Pentagon" — a reference to a 1972
incident that caused extensive damage to the defense building.
The Times
has not apologized for its toadying treatment of Ayers — it
even ran another puff-piece on him in its Sunday magazine. The Times's
front page did, however, note that the magazine had gone to press
before Tuesday. (Was it inserted into the Sunday newspaper that
early too? And why exactly were two puff pieces on Ayers a good
idea beforehand?)
The Times
is not the only party that has some explaining to do. The University
of Illinois at Chicago made Ayers a "distinguished" professor
of education, and Beacon Press published his book.
Will any of
these institutions, in light of what happened last week, apologize
for allowing this man to profit from violence — a man who says
he doesn't think he set off enough bombs a generation ago? Probably
not. It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind is
blowing.
D.C.
Event
The America's Future Foundation is running a panel Wednesday night
on "Ending Terrorism." Panelists include Gary Schmitt,
executive director of the Project for a New American Century, and
Christian Lowe of Defense Week. The discussion begins at 7:30 at
the Fund for American Studies (1706 New Hampshire Ave NW); there
will be drinks beforehand starting at 7, and probably afterward.
On
the Site
Ramesh
Ponnuru on Fr. Andrew Greeley.
|
