BILL AYERS: I've been in a lot of large crowds in my life, but I've never been in one that didn’t either have an edge of anger or a lot of drunkenness or kind of performance. This was all unity, all love, and what people were celebrating was this milestone which was sweet and exciting and important. But they were also celebrating, there was... you could kind of cut the relief in people's feelings with a knife. I mean, it was the sense that we were gonna leave behind the era of 9/11, an era of fear, and war without end, and repression, and Constitutional shredding, and tar... scapegoating of gay and lesbian people, on and on. And there we were, millions in the park, representing everybody - hugging, dancing, carrying on - right in the spot 40 years ago where many of us were beaten and dragged to jail. It was an extraordinary feeling...
The question is, as Bernadine's saying: How do we build a movement, on the ground, that demands peace, that demands justice?
...In a lot of ways, we have to get beyond, progressive people, have to get beyond the idea that we're waiting for a savior. We're not waiting for a savior. We need to transform ourselves, transform our movements, reach out to one another, and build an irresistible social force for change.
Ayers is trying to sound like a martyr. He fought the good fight 40 years ago.
No, he didn't.
There's no question that Ayers sees Obama's election as an opportunity to start a "Prairie Fire." He has reason to believe that Obama is going to change and rearrange the world.
It's incredibly naïve of him to think that Obama's election signals the end of the 9/11 era. For the sake of our national security, and the security of the Free World, I hope Obama isn't as naïve as Ayers.
The country is in deep trouble if Obama even remotely buys into the theories of Ayers, this friend of the family, or if you prefer, guy from the neighborhood.
It's too bad that on Election night the media didn't capture any shots of Ayers and Dohrn as they were "hugging, dancing, carrying on" in Grant Park to celebrate Obama's victory.
The cameras found Oprah and the weeping Jesse "I want to cut his nuts off" Jackson.
I suppose Ayers and Dohrn weren't up front. They were probably hiding out in the fugitive section, though you'd think ABC could have pulled some strings and given Ayers and Dohrn a prime viewing spot.
BERNADINE DOHRN: I want to add one word about the election last week, 'cause I'm not done with savoring it and being struck by the uniqueness of the moment. One of the things... I've been using the word 'jubliant' to describe the feeling in Grant Park and in Harlem and in Soweto and in Indonesia and in, you know, India. It was a global celebration of an election....
It does represent two important things, at least. One of them, it seems to me, is a pretty decisive rejection of the politics of fear, whether it's fear that there's some secret cell of domestic terrorists from the '60s hanging around or fear that our major primary approach to the world and to raising our children should be one of fear.
Obviously, life is, is... includes tragedy and pain and suffering, and that will come along. But approaching the world as 5 percent of the world's people now seems possible, adjusting how the United States thinks of itself in the world. That's, to me, an enormous thing.
Secondly, you want to recognize here that the famous and much talked about Bradley Effect, the notion that white people cannot leave behind some of the trappings of white supremacy and racism that have charactered... been the ugly river beneath all U.S. discourse, is really important.
Dohrn believes Obama's election can bring about a new world order, where the United States is no longer a super power.
She's jubilant!
Yeah, well.
2 comments:
Too bad these two aren't in Gitmo.
Rumor has it that Ayers is being considered for Sec. of Defense.
After all, he has the bombing experience.
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