Now we are told that Bill Ayers is going to retire from the University of Illinois' Chicago campus. Ayers was a co-founder of the radical -- today we would say terrorist -- Weather Underground, which, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, engaged in quite a lot of political activism that involved bombs, as well as street demonstrations and other acts of violence. Ayers was involved in blowing up a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket riot -- twice. I take that personally, for my great-grandfather was, for many years, the sole survivor of that riot. As a little boy, I was chosen by the Chicago Police Department to place a wreath on the monument. Today I have a splendid picture of the monument in my office.
Ayers went on to other bombings, for instance at the New York City Police Department, the United States Capitol and the Pentagon. He recalled these acts and others in spectacularly ill-timed memoirs, "Fugitive Days," which came out Sept. 10, 2001. We all know what happened a day later. When The New York Times quoted him as saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough," he relied on his formidable gifts at obfuscation to argue that he was talking about peaceful ways to end the Vietnam War, though what they might have been is unclear. All we know is that he relied mostly on bombs, and several of his colleagues blew themselves up making them. Perhaps in retirement he will explain.
Which brings me to Assange. He published last month 76,000 documents classified by the U.S. military about the war in Afghanistan. The left views this act as hugely legitimate. Undoubtedly, soldiers and other friends of democracy have been killed and will be killed because of it, but Assange promises more documents. Also, he says this talk of his molesting women is a dirty trick, and he hints darkly at the Pentagon. Will Assange come out of it looking like a Dwight Armstrong or a Bill Ayers? Will he perhaps manage to appear reasonable and go into legitimate politics? It is too early to tell. All we know is that history works in mysterious ways. Some become footnotes, others presidential candidates.