Patterico's Pontifications

4/16/2010

Bill Ayers vs the University of Wyoming (Updated)

Filed under: Education — DRJ @ 9:45 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Last month, Bill Ayers was invited to speak at the University of Wyoming but the invitation was withdrawn after the school received hundreds of protests. Now Ayers, a University student, and a Denver lawyer are trying to force the University to let Ayers speak:

“Bill Ayers, a 1960s radical turned academic, is scheduled to visit the University of Wyoming later this month despite the school’s ban on allowing him to speak on campus.

Bill Ayers will be on campus April 28 at the invitation of UW student Meg Lanker. Lanker has hired Denver lawyer David Lane, who has threatened to sue unless university officials allow Ayers to speak. The lawyer gave the school until noon Wednesday to respond.

School officials last month withdrew an invitation for Ayers to speak on educational issues after receiving hundreds of phone calls and e-mails protesting the invitation.”

Ayers is concerned about the students’ free speech rights:

“Ayers said Monday several colleges and universities have stopped him from speaking in the past. However, he said he’s always eventually been invited to speak on or near those schools by student or private groups.

“I don’t want to impose myself on some group that doesn’t want me, but I do think that in this instance the injustice that happened was not against me,” Ayers said. “It was the people who wanted to invite me that had their, kind of, right to speak trampled.”

— DRJ

UPDATE 4/17/2010: Ayers and the student have sued the University of Wyoming. They asked a Wyoming federal judge to issue an injunction and allow Ayers’ lecture.

30 Responses to “Bill Ayers vs the University of Wyoming (Updated)”

  1. well, given Bill’s background, maybe a nail bomb detonating under the podium while he’s talking would be a form of dissent he could appreciate? he should be abjectly grateful his opponents afford him the courtesies and civilized behavior he denied his opponents back in his heyday, but, like all lefties, he only views that as weakness to be exploited for his own ends.

    ‘Thank you’ Bill, and your bs concern for “free speech” too.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  2. The only thing I’ll add is that those damned hippies finally got the government they wanted and all they can do is complain that everyone is not on board.

    I was one of those damned hippies. Too bad it’s not 1969.

    Well, actually, I wasn’t a damned hippie, I was only 11.

    Nonetheless, I guess I should be thanking the President, Pelosi and Reid.

    Too bad it’s not 1969 anymore.

    Ag80 (f67beb)

  3. Other than being more incompetent with explosives, it’s hard to see how Bill Ayers’ past actions are all that different from Timothy McVeigh. And if President Clinton’s worried about the speakers at Tea Parties spawning a new generation of McVeighs, shouldn’t the same concern apply (using Clintonian logic) to have a speaker who was an actual terrorist bomber in the past and repeatedly has said he’s unrepentant about his actions?

    John (0202d7)

  4. Good point, John.

    DRJ (09fa6c)

  5. An unrepentant terrorist is simply not welcome anywhere that values safety. If he thought killing some students, perhaps those protesting, would help his crazy political ideals, he would actually attempt to kill those students.

    You can’t let people like that on your campus. Ayers may have eluded conviction, via screw up or Chicago connections, depending on who you ask, but he admits being a terrorist.

    No shock he wants to force people to hear his views.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  6. Well, they could balance the program by pairing Ayers with the commander of the Kent State National Guard unit –
    though I think he’s more appologetic for the actions of his associates than Ayers ever has been.

    AD - RtR/OS! (f9a039)

  7. What I found really amusing was the unspoken but typical far-leftist assumption that “ONLY I” can properly speak for these poor silenced people on campus who wanted me. No other speakers in the world who can cover the topic of educational issues, I guess.

    That’s assuming of course that he really believes that, and isn’t just claiming to be So Concerned for their welfare so that he wouldn’t miss the speaking fee and hearing himself talk. In which latter case he chose his words, well, poorly.

    So. Arrogant and delusional, or arrogantly self-serving pr***? Who cares — just go away, terrorist.

    no one you know (4186cd)

  8. He was a wannabe Che Guevara, same sense of un earned arrogance, his greatest harm has been in propagating his ideas through academia. Interesting
    a more establishment version of Ayers is the villain in the latest James Patterson book

    ian cormac (422538)

  9. Obama must have learned his sense of humility from this quaint little fellow. Freedom of speech? You should be on death row for murder and treason.

    JHE (9284aa)

  10. #8 ian cormac:

    his greatest harm has been in propagating his ideas

    I’m going to go with JHE on this one, I think treason, murder, and the use of rape as a political indoctrination tool score a little higher up the ladder than propagating seditious ideas in academia.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  11. Actually you would think so, but no, Lenin realized
    that ‘the propaganda of the deed’ which is what the
    Peoples Will, and later the Social Revolutionaries
    were doing, ultimately isn’t enough to seize power, so he went deeper into the society, to rally discontent, that was the lesson that Gramsci learned under Mussolini, and Alinsky passed on

    ian cormac (422538)

  12. Mayor Daley thinks that Bill Ayers is one of the greatest humanitarians on the planet, and that you should all be ashamed at yourselves for believing otherwise.

    http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/04/mayor_daley_defends_obama_vouc.html

    Dmac (21311c)

  13. I only wish Bill Ayers would swing by my neighborhood, as I’d sincerely like to trample on his right to free speech and give him a few rights and then a left hook for good measure.

    GeneralMalaise (24d3e0)

  14. Ag, I wasn’t hippie either in 1969. I was a surgery resident and was completely separated from 99% of those people. We did get a few as medical students. It was interesting. I had one on my service in 1971 who called himself “Doctor Mickey.” Pony tail and all. We had medical students do a history and physical on the patient (We did one too) and they could scrub in on the surgery. One day, “Doctor Mickey” had a patient to work up who was to have an aortic valve replacement. That’s open heart surgery and fun to see. After he worked up the patient, he came out to us and announced that he wanted to do the surgery, too. Not scrub in to watch but do the case.

    After we explained to him that medical students (especially none too bright ones) did not do open heart surgery, he went in and told the patient not to have the surgery.

    A couple of weeks later, an older friend of mine came up to the ward to tell us about his experience with the internal medicine board exam that he had just finished. He was ahead of me by about four years and has been a distinguished cardiologist in Los Angeles for thirty five years. Anyway, this was the oral exam, which were notorious and are no longer held because lots of dopes sued. They are still part of the surgery boards because it is the best way to judge who might be dangerous.

    Anyway, Earl said that he walked in to the room and introduced himself. The examiner started with a bit of chit chat and then said “What did you have for lunch?” Earl replied, thinking it was more chit chat, and the examiner said, “OK For your exam, describe the digestion and assimilation of that lunch.” We were all commiserating with Earl about what an incredibly difficult question that was when “Doctor Mickey” pipes up and says, “What so hard about that ? You just chew it and swallow !”

    I wonder where he is now or whether he was murdered by a patient. He is probably a senior health advisor in the Obama Administration.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  15. Just as Ann Coulter should have been allowed to speak in Canada, Ayers should be able to speak if he has a proper invitation from the university or a representative organization.

    People opposed to him can make their views known and let people make their own decisions about what he says.

    I don’t know what process was used to invite him but if it was the same for others then let him speak. It is never right when conservatives like Coulter are drowned out and the same should hold for someone as despicable as Ayers.

    MU789 (25b69d)

  16. To my knowledge, Coulter never belonged to a group that killed people. Perhaps they should have allowed Ayers to speak, sitting on the stage with the son of the judge Ayer’s little group tried to murder. Ayers speaks, then the judge’s son speaks. All in front of law students as proof that not all criminals can be rehabilitated.

    retire05 (2abfb2)

  17. True, Coulter has said some intemporate remarks, more often than not they’ve happened to be true,
    Ayers spits out the same lies, time after time, he hasn’t changed, as his support for Chavez has shown

    ian cormac (422538)

  18. Tell the truth. Let him engage but strip him of his glam credentials. Follow any speech with a counter presentation. Sort of like Beck does Mao but without the incendiary host aspect. Give each student a gift basket with a rainforest t-shirt, Starbucks coupons, a Lady Gaga cd and maybe a Thomas Sowell book. Show what Ayers and Obama are fighting for with scenes of totalitarian rule, elite exceptionalism and cramped human submission. It could be funded through a nonprofit. Call it something like The Fistbump PAC.

    Vermont Neighbor (7510a7)

  19. Let him speak to an empty auditorium. If he does, students need not fear questioning his beliefs and ask him why his ideology is worthy of this venue. And ask him how much will his contract or fee pay him. Students really need to understand he will play you as a victim and spread anti capitalist Status Quo filth. Keep in mind this guy is communist

    Bostinks2 (9e7db6)

  20. So, Meg Lanker’s kind of, right to speak, depends on a Bill Ayers presentation at UW. Any arrogant and unrepentant domestic terrorist ought to be able to understand the obvious Constitutional basis for that, it’s clearly spelled out in Mao’s little Red Book.

    ropelight (6777f5)

  21. Well, if he hired David Lane then no worries. That’s the idiot that lost Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  22. “Well, if he hired David Lane then no worries. That’s the idiot that lost Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado.”

    Yeah, that struck me too. He’s the Wendy Murphy of college litigation.

    Federal Dog (8dc08a)

  23. I invite the son of a bitch to spend as much time as possible in the public eye. He makes himself available to those who seek justice on there own for the damage this bastard did to our nation. One can only hope he reaps what he has sown.

    Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (a3803b)

  24. Ayres is a communist? Um. No one gets to be called a communist who owns 300 dollar shoes. You know?

    I’m happy to let the guy speak, if some students want to hear him, with two conditions: (i) he donates his honorarium to a local soup kitchen, and (ii) those same kids pledge to respectfully support a talk by Ann Coulter or Michelle Bachmann.

    Bueller? Bueller?

    Eric Blair (1d3bd8)

  25. I’ve updated the post. Ayers and the student have sued.

    DRJ (09fa6c)

  26. Ayers should be allowed to speak… and… protesters should be allowed to silently hold signs that ask “Who killed Diana Oughton?”

    Steve G (7d4c78)

  27. That is a great idea

    Make signs that say “Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground = Tim McVeigh”

    Steve G (7d4c78)

  28. It’s amazing how they have the chutzpah to do this at the exact same time as they’re doing the crap they’re doing with regards to Sarah Palin’s speaking engagements out in Cali.

    The hypocrisy makes words fail. The mind just boggles at it.

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)

  29. > Ayres is a communist? Um. No one gets to be called a communist who owns 300 dollar shoes. You know?

    Not at all. They are two distinct SETS:
    Communist.
    Hypocrite.
    The two sets intersect in at least one point that we know of. In actuality, there is a huge overlap.

    One set is an expressed ideology.

    The other set relates to how much one applies that ideology to ones’ own actions.

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)

  30. This reminds me of the swastika wearer at the Tea Party rally.
    Not sure anyone said the guy ought to have been left alone, except me. The reason being, all the ethnic racists get a pass. They can wear their la raza symbols and whatever else.
    In this case, I’m not certain who the complainers were, and the University has to think about big pocket donations from wealthy people, families, or foundations. Perhaps that’s what ultimately allowed the cancellation to go forward.
    However, it seems to me that since the Universities staffs and faculties are near full on left lib near commie or full blown red diaper babies, how is this guy not speaking anything but an insult to the USA’s entire Democrat Party ?
    Yes, the whole democrat party should sue, and since this Ayers is Obama’s mentor, office bro for 3 years, and politcal launch master, Obama should be the main party to the suit.
    There, the reality is stark, it comes off as a joke, but it’s flat out true.

    SiliconDoc (7ba52b)


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