My Night With Bill Ayers

I have a cool post for you guys today. One of my jobs at Northwestern is to do sound and lights at one of the auditoriums on campus. Last fall I was able to do the sound for a speech by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (the picture is one I took of Wright and Ayers together in November, and yes, I met and talked with them both). Well on Wednesday I did the sound for Bill Ayers. If you don’t know who Bill Ayers is, let Wikipedia help you:

William Charles Ayers (born December 26, 1944) is an American elementary education theorist who was a 1960s anti-war activist. He is known for the radical nature of his activism in the 1960s and 1970s as well as his current work in education reform, curriculum, and instruction. In 1969 he co-founded the violent radical left organization the Weather Underground, which conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings during the 1960s and 1970s. He is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar.

Ayers became a huge name during the Presidential campaign as some Republicans did their best to link Ayers with Obama because they live in the same neighborhood and served on an education panel together some years ago.

Anyway, here are the juicy details of the event:

The Muslim-cultural Students Association Presents:
Peaceful Progress: A Discourse on Affecting Change
Wednesday, February 4th 2009

With:
Bill Ayers – a distinguished professor of education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ayers helped shape Chicago’s school reform program and in 1997 was awarded Citizen of the Year by the city for his work.

Bernadine Dohm – a professor of law at Northwestern University. Ayers and Dohm were involved in the radical left organization Weather Underground in the 1970s, but since then have become prominent educators and social activists in Chicago.

Rami Nashashibi – is the Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN). Nashashibi has lectured across the country on a range of topics related to the American Muslim identity, community activism and social justice issues. He was also a recent recipient of the LISC Community Hero Award and the National Housing Service Community Leaders Award.

I will only give a summary of the speech by Bill Ayers, although the whole event was interesting. This won’t flow very well, since it is more in the form of notes, but you guys will get the overall picture.

A Discourse on Affecting Change with Bill Ayers

Central Station, which is a movie from Brazil – Lady in Rio de Janeiro is paid one hundred dollars to pick up a ten year old boy, bring him across town, and give him to an American couple who is going to adopt him.

She does the deed, takes the money, and buys a television and takes it back to her modest appointment. A neighbor visit and asks her where she got it. She tells her the story.

Dora, are you that stupid? He wasn’t being adopted; he was being sold into the international market for organs. He is going to die. He may even be dead now.

Before she understood what it was, she was living her normal life. There was no question of right or wrong. Then someone pried her eyes open and she saw life differently.

This is the beginning. This is what we need.

Book – Blindness by José Saramago

Starts out with man in a city. He suddenly becomes blind. He is helped from his car and then his car is stolen. He is taken to a hospital and he joins a large group of other blind people. The blindness spreads. Slowly everyone in the society becomes blind.

They start to pray with each other, but then they do terrible things to each other. Just as it seems like there is no hope, the first man regains his sight. Slowly they all regain their sight.

Why did we do these things? Why did we go blind, and why can we now see?

Maybe we were already blind. We had the power of sight but were blind. We only saw what we wanted to see.

We all are against slavery…right? Of course we are.

But would we have been in 1840? We would have been against the law, against convention, against our friends. Why would we have been?

When you are 60 years old and you have a granddaughter she will ask if you were in Chicago when that fine young black man was elected.

Yes, I was there.

Were you in Grant Park?

Yes, of course.

Were you at the inauguration.

Yes, I was in the first row, practically on the stage.

Is it true that it cost him half a billion to be elected?

Really? I didn’t hear about that part.

And you thought that was democratic?

Well…he raised it on the Internet.

Is it true that when you were at Northwestern there were 2.2 million Americans in prison?

Really…I don’t remember that.

I’m not saying these are the things that matter, but you must exile yourself from convention to see what you are not seeing. What is out of balance?

There is a good scene in the Monty Python movie Life of Brian.

A reluctant messiah is up on a rampart. Saying to the crowd below:

I am not the messiah.

CROWD: You are not the messiah!

No, no, no you have minds of your own!

CROWD: We have minds of our own!

MAN IN CROWD: It’s funny, I don’t feel like I have a mind of my own.

CROWD: Shut up! You have a mind of my own!

In reflection, you become a better activist, a better citizen. Open your eyes, doubt, act, repeat. Light one candle, challenge the darkness.

Love your own life enough to take care of your children, the elders, to enjoy a sunset. Love humanity enough to put your shoulder on history’s wheel and create change.

- The End-

Quote of the Night by Rami Nashashibi:

“The election of Barack Obama as president did not destroy white supremacy, but it did give it a black eye.”

Have a nice day!