The Unrepentant Terrorist? A Conversation with Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and favorite whipping boy of the failed McCain campaign, gives a primer on the summer of ’68, discusses his favorite tattoo, and explains how the Chicago Police Department now loves him. The interview was conducted by a colleague of mine, Scott Hutchins, and you have to like the ironic way it begins:

…our interview [started] with a bomb scare. We sat down on the couch in a busy hotel lobby and a worried security guard approached. “Is that your bag?” she asked, pointing to a backpack and coat that were definitely not ours. “Nope,” we said. “Oh boy,” she said. She asked a few other people. The owner was not there. She radioed in. I considered the irony of being blown up while interviewing Bill Ayers. I figured it would at least get me a wikipedia entry.

Get the full interview over at The Rumpus.


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Comments (2)
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  • Really, really interesting.
    I hadn’t seen the picture with the flag until just now.
    Thanks for this post.

  • chikara says:

    “We were very careful from the moment of the townhouse on to be sure we weren’t going to hurt anybody, and we never did hurt anybody. Whenever we put a bomb in a public space, we had figured out all kinds of ways to put checks and balances on the thing and also to get people away from it, and we were remarkably successful.”
    —Bill Ayers

    What the f?.

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