Three Cheers For Boston College! Says No To Terrorists!

College Cancels Former Radical's Visit

Ayers' Association With Obama Sparked Controversy
March 28, 2009
BOSTON -- A 1960s radical whose relationship with President Barack Obama became an issue during the presidential campaign had his visit to Boston College abruptly canceled Friday night.

The Jesuit university withdrew two student groups’ invitation to former radical William Ayers to speak on campus Monday. “After meetings between administrators and students, the decision was made to rescind the invitation,” spokesman Jack Dunn said.

The school was unaware that Ayers had been invited to speak by the students until the controversy boiled on talk radio in Boston Friday.

Ayers was a founding member of the violent anti-war group the Weather Underground, which was blamed for a series of bombings that killed several people in the 1960s.

Their targets were police stations, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Ayers was charged with riot and bombing conspiracy charges, but the case was eventually thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Ayers figured in the 2008 presidential campaign as Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, criticized Obama for his association with the former radical. She accused Obama of "palling around" with a domestic terrorist.

During a debate last year, the president said that he knew Ayers "as a guy who lives in my neighborhood" and said they had served on a charitable board together. He also denounced Ayers' support for violence.

Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois, Chicago, was due to speak on education reform and civic engagement, the Boston Herald reported. Before the speech was canceled Ayers had addressed the controversy saying "This isn’t Saudi Arabia or Cuba. Speech is something we believe in a democracy.”

The student organizers of the event said they would try to reschedule his speech and hold it off-campus. “All of us who have put a lot of hard work into planning and defending this event are really disappointed because we had hoped this would be an open academic forum for someone who’s widely respected,” Melissa Roberts (Member of the BC College Democrats) told the newspaper. “We’re going to make sure this respected academic gets heard.”

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