William Ayers on Good Morning America

It amazes me that the media just doesn't get it - America doesn't care about William Ayers, and certainly the election a week-and-a-half ago is all the evidence one should need.

Yet, this morning, Good Morning America hosted William Ayers to ask about his past and present association with President-Elect Barack Obama. No matter how many different ways Ayers gave a full accounting of his alleged "friendship" with Obama, Chris Cuomo kept asking the question in five or six subtly different ways. This is such a non-story.

On another note, I plan on reading Ayers' book, Fugitive Days, which is now being reintroduced with a new forward and afterward.

I also think it's highly hypocritical for people to criticize someone for trying to make a difference during an unjust, illegal war where over 58,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died. Yes, violence shouldn't be the answer, but the media painted Ayers as someone who killed innocent people (he didn't), while our government was responsible for and trying to justify the deaths of thousands of people. (Much like today, actually.) Revolution was in the air, and Ayers was hardly the only one with those feelings.

The man has renounced his violent ways, yet the media persists.

What's more, I decided to go back and do a little checking for his comments in the New York Times when he said "we didn't do enough" in regard to the Weatherman Underground's bombings and terrorist activities, and I found it - it was published on Sept. 11, 2001, which means the interview was conducted days or weeks prior to the 9-11 attacks.

However, this truth doesn't fit into the media's meme of painting Ayers as a man who, after the Sept. 11 attacks, said "we didn't do enough." Oops! I guess their characterization was off by a day. Again, a fact ignored by those on the right who were trying to smear Obama.

I admire Ayers' past and previous activism (sans the bombings), and I'm not going to try and judge a man who tried to make a difference to end a war that was killing countless innocent people. I look forward to reading his book.