The Inland Empire of Bill Ayers

Many of David Lynch's best films share the same theme: The wrongdoer who cannot comprehend his or her own crime, and thus escapes into an alternative mental reality. Bill Ayers is living out his own personal David Lynch movie.

Quite a few people have noted that he refers to Obama as a "family friend" in his latest apologia. That's not what interests me. This does:

"I never actually said that I 'set bombs,' nor that I wished there were 'more bombs.' ... I killed no one, and I harmed no one, and I didn't regret for a minute resisting the murderous assault on Viet Nam with every ounce of my being."

Lots of people resisted the war, and did so with honor. Bill Ayers was not among that number. The Weathermen made the anti-war movement look terrible. Their antics, their cries of "Sirhan power!" and "Charlie Manson power!" smeared a generation and did much to create the Reagan reaction.

He was particularly disturbed by a newspaper headline published in 2001: "No regrets for a love of explosives."

"That's neither my narrative nor my sentiment," Ayers wrote...

Not his "narrative"? He takes umbrage at the "no regrets" headlines, yet refuses to express regret. That's called trying to have it both ways.

I don't like quoting Wikipedia, but this summary is concise and accurate:

Ayers participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago in October 1969, and in December was at the "War Council" meeting in Flint, Michigan. Larry Grathwohl, an FBI informant in the Weatherman group from the fall of 1969 to the spring of 1970, stated that "Ayers, along with Bernardine Dohrn, probably had the most authority within the Weatherman"

After the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970, in which Weatherman member Ted Gold, Ayers' close friend Terry Robbins, and Ayers' girlfriend, Diana Oughton were killed when a nail bomb they were assembling exploded, Ayers and several associates evaded pursuit by U.S. law enforcement officials. Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson survived the blast. Ayers was not facing criminal charges at the time, but the federal government later filed charges against him.[3] Ayers participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972...

More here:

On February 21, 1970, gasoline-filled molotov cocktails were thrown at the home of New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh, who was presiding over the trial of the so-called "Panther 21," members of the Black Panther Party over a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores.

Then on June 9, 1970, their first publicly acknowledged bombing occurred at a New York City police station,[28] saying it was "in outraged response to the assassination of the Soledad Brother George Jackson,"[2] who had recently been killed by prison guards in an escape attempt. The FBI placed the Weather Underground organization on the ten most-wanted list by the end of 1970.[6] On May 19, 1972, Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, The Weather Underground placed a bomb in the women’s bathroom in the Air Force wing of The Pentagon.

Did Bill Ayers personally kill anyone? He killed the left. At least, his fingerprints, along with the fingerprints of others, were found on the weapons which killed the spirit of '60s protest. He led a movement which led to a number of injuries and shootings and deaths. Granted, the victims were usually his own followers.

He and Bernardine Dohrn led a movement which advocated murder and tried to achieve the violent overthrow of the United States government. I've already highlighted this dialog between SDS leader Carl Oglesby and Bernardine Dohrn:

Dohrn: When it comes to fighting real battles against the empire, where do you think you’re going to be?

Oglseby: Fighting? You mean like, what, bombs and guns? Blowing people up? Shooting people?

Dohrn: This is what you refuse to see. We can’t keep doing what we’re doing without at some point encountering the armed power of the state? Okay? If we mean to continue the struggle, we have to be willing to pick up a gun.

But Bill Ayers acknowledges none of this.

"The more serious point is that Obama was asked once more to defend something that ought to be at the very heart of democracy: the importance of talking to many people in this complicated and wildly diverse society, of listening with the possibility of learning something new, of speaking with the possibility of persuading or influencing others. ... In a robust and sophisticated democracy, political leaders, indeed, all of us, would seek out ways to talk with many people who hold dissenting, even radical, ideas."

You see? The Weathermen were merely a debating society. Diana died during a particularly heated conversation. All that metaphor and sarcasm just sort of blew up in her face.

If you saw David Lynch's Lost Highway and could not understand why Bill Pullman turns into Balthazar Getty -- well, now you know.