The Justice

Is Bill Ayers really the type of person we should pay to come speak at this University? I'm asking this question under the general impression that the man will not be speaking about elementary education, his area of professorial expertise. If I am mistaken and that is indeed the case, I applaud Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society for their desires to share their interest in education reform with the rest of the University.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. DFA campaign coordinator Liza Behrendt '11 stated in an earlier interview with the Justice that she first contemplated bringing Ayers to campus during the 2008 presidential campaign. At that time, Ayers was on the media's radar as a misleadingly divisive topic of conversation regarding then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's associations with him.

However, we shouldn't bring Ayers here simply because of a media storm that came and went during the campaign.

According to Behrendt, "Ayers has unique historical insight to share … especially in light of Brandeis' reputation for activism." She also referred to Ayers' tendency to participate in "extreme activism," and offered that bringing Ayers here might allow us to question "the limits of activism."

But exactly what activism are we talking about? The tactics Ayers employed were unproductive and certainly not aligned with any social justice mission we seek to follow at this University. Ayers was a founding member of Weathermen. Later known as the Weather Underground Organization, this radical leftist group was responsible for creating domestic chaos in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Among other activities, Ayers and others in the organization detonated bombs in loud protest to the United States' role in the Vietnam War.

Continued...

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