Thinking about the denial of Bill’s emeritus status.
Joe McCarthy
I posted a few days ago about the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois voting unanimously to deny retired education professor Bill Ayers emeritus status.
It was later that I found out that it was a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees. I’m more than a bit disappointed in Trustee James Montgomery who once was Mayor Harold Washington’s lawyer.
The vote came after a statement by Chairman Chris Kennedy who raised the initial objection. He said that his objection was based on a dedication in a Weatherman book written in part by Bill Ayers 40 years ago. It was dedicated to among others, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant who killed Robert Kennedy, Chris Kennedy’s father.
A colleague wrote and agreed with me that denying emeritus status to Bill Ayers was wrong. He asked me my thoughts about the Sirhan dedication.
I was a student anti-war activist back in those days in LA. I remember very well the night that Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel in LA after winning the California primary against Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1968. I literally watched it on TV. I was not an admirer of the Kennedys, but was pleased that two anti-war candidates were running against LBJ and then Hubert Humphrey.
This is all a long time ago.
And that is the point.
Bill’s dedication was in a book printed 40 years ago. Only 15 years earlier Robert Kennedy, before he became an anti-war convert, was a loyal assistant to the witch hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy for which an entire historical period is named.
Because of the efforts of Robert Kennedy, Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy (among others) thousands of progressives, leftists and communists lost their jobs, went to jail and some even committed suicide.
Does millionaire Chairman of the Merchandise Mart Christopher Kennedy (the Mart was founded by his rum running Nazi apologist grandfather, Joseph Kennedy) think we should judge his dad by what he did with Joseph McCarthy? Or by the totality of his life?
The vote to deny Bill Ayers emeritus status does nothing to discredit the good work of Bill or address political mistakes most of us make if we live long enough. In fact, there’s no moral equivalence. McCarthy, aided by Robert Kennedy, was among the most politically evil men in US history.
It also does nothing for the reputation of the Mart’s Chairman.
What you are not saying, and they are not saying, is that this is part of a war.
It has nothing to do with the 1960s, or the 1950s. It has everything to do with the current political atmosphere, the Tea Party, and what Obama symbolizes (and fails to live up to).
Make the reasonable argument. Someone should, and you do it well. But let’s remember what this is about.
But this war about privatization and resegregation and military adventures with private profits, this war takes both real and symbolic victims. Ayers is an example of the latter.
Thanks JD. You make important points with which I absolutely agree.
I did not say it because it was not the answer to the question my colleague asked me. He was asking me about the Sirhan case, a question which many people have.
And, of course, there are political lessons from the 60s and 50s that are applicable to today. I’m sure you didn’t mean to dismiss that.
No, not at all. I agree. What happened then is important for us to know about and understand.
But taking a shot at Ayers has everything to do with the political and culture wars of today, and nothing to do with what happened back then – that’s just their (lame) excuse.