The Weather Highground

All this stuff about Barack Obama and his association with ex- Weather Underground member Bill Ayers has got me thinking. I sometimes work with a guy who went to jail as a youth for a violent rape. He lives a normal life now (30 years later) though I know he wrestles with what he did all the time. A friend’s father spent three years in Canada escaping the draft, and he says the amnesty Carter extended didn’t help him when he looked for a job around here. He turned to drugs, then burglary, pretty much screwing up his family until he turned himself around and got straight in his early 40s. And I know a woman who was a habitual drunk driver up until she killed three other people in a wreck. Now she’s sober.I met all these people after their offenses, when they’d rejoined normal society, but I’d be lying if I said what they did doesn’t effect the way I view (and trust) them. Where and when do we separate people as they are now from what they were before?

—Torn and (un)trusting

The Wise (and winded!) Young Intern says: While I feel that your comparison between your own relationships and that between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers is legitimate, I do think that there are a few key differences that should be noted: First, the relationship between Ayers and Obama has been purely political, whereas the relationships that you describe have at least some sort of personal aspect to them; second, Bill Ayers has never expressed remorse for his deeds, whereas it seems that in all three examples you describe, each person is acting in contrition for the wrongs of their pasts. Ayers has in fact refused to affirm that he would never commit acts of domestic terrorism again. While most would agree that the methods that Ayers used while involved with the Weather Underground were too extreme, his absolute goals were not sinister. Ayers was then—and is still—involved in education reform, something that this country has been in dire need of for quite some time. While the McCain/Palin campaign would have you believe that Obama is joking around over beers with Ayers, or that he is the only politician who has been willing to work with Ayers, that simply isn’t true. Ayers’ theories on education are well respected, and public servants from both democratic and republican arenas have worked with him in the past. While the general public (myself included) holds every hope that Mr. Ayers will never commit such an act—an act that has brought both himself and the Obama campaign a heap of negative attention—again, his prior offenses do not eliminate the value of his expertise in a field that has for years been filled with inequities and shortcomings. So, if politicians of disparate ideals value the opinion and drive of someone with a checkered past, then it is safe to say that you too can cautiously respect and befriend people who enter your life who have had problems in the past. What these people have done in the past is not nearly as important as what they do today and in the future. While it is okay for you to use caution when trusting them, anyone who is doing the right thing right now does not deserve your dismissal

The Sales guy says: When it comes to guilt by association, people do change as life situations evolve and change. When Ronald Reagan sent stinger missiles to Osama Osama Bin Ladin fighting the Russians in Afganistan, do you assume Ronny was a terrorist ? Tom Haden was one of the Chicago Seven, and he later served as a member of congress: If another member of congress worked on legislation with him would that make him a bomb thrower too? Do all neo-cons have shit for brains ? If you happen to have a conversation with a neo-con, is it assumed you have shit for brains too? Lets face facts: When Obama worked with Ayers—as did both republicans and democrats—the Vietnam war was a fading memory and a different life ago. Except for the linear, flat-line thinkers, this is a non-issue and changes nothing.

Even if they try to pin the Lindbergh kidnapping on him, it’s Obama in a walk.

Ask Anyone is local advice by and for local people. Please send your questions for our panel of experts to advice@artvoice.com.