Kurt Nicklas
2008-10-21 22:11:24 UTC
Barack Obama’s review of William Ayers' book
Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 7:26 pm
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=64
On December 21, 1997, Barack Obama wrote a short review of William
Ayers’ book A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court,
which had recently been published by Beacon Press. Here’s a photo of
how the review appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
(Bloggers, journalists and media members are all free to re-post this
image with no restrictions. If you would like a hi-resolution version,
right-click or control-click here.)
Obama’s review of Ayers’ book says, “A searing and timely account of
the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue
hope from despair.”
I had seen mentions of the existence of this review in a very few
media outlets, including CNN, National Review, American Spectator, and
a handful of others. But because the review was published before the
Chicago Tribune began digitizing and archiving its articles online,
there was no direct Web link to the review itself — only citations of
it. So, out of curiosity, I took it upon myself to visit a library in
San Francisco, and using the library’s Lexis-Nexis access and its
archive of microfilm versions of major newspapers, including the
Chicago Tribune, I finally tracked down a copy of the actual review
itself.
Turns out the review was very short — what I had thought (from reading
the citations in the online articles) were just short quotes from it
was in fact the entirety of the review. But it was accompanied by a
photo of Obama, standing by his statement. The review was part of a
column called “Mark My Word,” in which Chicago notables praise their
favorite current books.
Just a few weeks before this review was published in the Chicago
Tribune, Obama and Ayers appeared together on a panel about juvenile
justice organized by Michelle Obama on November 20, 1997:
Children who kill are called “super predators,” “people with no
conscience,” “feral pre-social beings” — and “adults.”
William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of
Juvenile Court (Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a
child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We
have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come
from?”
Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile
Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak
on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop. The
panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice
system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center’s
monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The
event is free and open to the public.
Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law
School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more
juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of
the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender
who spent seven years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank
Tobin, a former priest and teacher at the Detention Center who helped
Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is
currently a teacher at the Detention Center.
I find it very hard — no, make that impossible — to believe that
Barack Obama had “no idea” who William Ayers really was, or that he
had a past as a notorious domestic terrorist (as Obama’s campaign has
claimed) while serving on panels with Ayers and simultaneously
praising Ayers’ book in a major newspaper.
This story is likely to continue growing, and I thought that the image
above would provide a good “visual” for the Obama-Ayers connection.
[UPDATE: On page 82 of the book itself, Ayers mentions Obama. So
there’s no question they knew each other.]
Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 7:26 pm
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=64
On December 21, 1997, Barack Obama wrote a short review of William
Ayers’ book A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court,
which had recently been published by Beacon Press. Here’s a photo of
how the review appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
(Bloggers, journalists and media members are all free to re-post this
image with no restrictions. If you would like a hi-resolution version,
right-click or control-click here.)
Obama’s review of Ayers’ book says, “A searing and timely account of
the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue
hope from despair.”
I had seen mentions of the existence of this review in a very few
media outlets, including CNN, National Review, American Spectator, and
a handful of others. But because the review was published before the
Chicago Tribune began digitizing and archiving its articles online,
there was no direct Web link to the review itself — only citations of
it. So, out of curiosity, I took it upon myself to visit a library in
San Francisco, and using the library’s Lexis-Nexis access and its
archive of microfilm versions of major newspapers, including the
Chicago Tribune, I finally tracked down a copy of the actual review
itself.
Turns out the review was very short — what I had thought (from reading
the citations in the online articles) were just short quotes from it
was in fact the entirety of the review. But it was accompanied by a
photo of Obama, standing by his statement. The review was part of a
column called “Mark My Word,” in which Chicago notables praise their
favorite current books.
Just a few weeks before this review was published in the Chicago
Tribune, Obama and Ayers appeared together on a panel about juvenile
justice organized by Michelle Obama on November 20, 1997:
Children who kill are called “super predators,” “people with no
conscience,” “feral pre-social beings” — and “adults.”
William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of
Juvenile Court (Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a
child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We
have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come
from?”
Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile
Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak
on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop. The
panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice
system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center’s
monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The
event is free and open to the public.
Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law
School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more
juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of
the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender
who spent seven years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank
Tobin, a former priest and teacher at the Detention Center who helped
Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is
currently a teacher at the Detention Center.
I find it very hard — no, make that impossible — to believe that
Barack Obama had “no idea” who William Ayers really was, or that he
had a past as a notorious domestic terrorist (as Obama’s campaign has
claimed) while serving on panels with Ayers and simultaneously
praising Ayers’ book in a major newspaper.
This story is likely to continue growing, and I thought that the image
above would provide a good “visual” for the Obama-Ayers connection.
[UPDATE: On page 82 of the book itself, Ayers mentions Obama. So
there’s no question they knew each other.]