you have children or fan, mr. ayers. i am a white liberal democrat and group in the '60s and was very idealistic. quite honestly reforms in education that we have seen come from the left in the '60s have decimated education, literacy rates have skyrocketed, the jaw about rates have skyrocketed, as a result because we are no longer providing children with a classical education coming individual help when they needed, and free and honest discourse. i have seen education and become extremely ideological. we are not allowed to think for ourselves. in fact, we are attacked and censored when we dare deviate from the status quo of the far left, especially in higher education in. this is sensitive to me as someone who cares about social justice, rights and freedoms. i will hang up and listen. >> i am not sure where to begin except to say that what ever you are referencing about the slaughter of innocents and killing people is not true. i never killed or injured anyone. it is part of the narrative of the far right blogosphere as

quickly before i ask my question, mr. ayers, given your statement you just made how can you still not regret the slaughter of incident americans that yourself, your wife, and the weather underground perpetuated? you left children orphaned, mr. ayers. i'm a lifelong liberal democrat. i grew up in the '60s, i was very idealistic. quite honestly, the reforms in education that we have seen come from the left since the '60s have decimated education. ill literacy rates have skyrocketed, the dropout rate has skyrocketed as a result because we are no longer providing children with a classical education. individual help when they need it. and free and honest discourse. i've seen education become extremely ideological. we are not allowed to think for ourselves, in fact, we are attacked and censored when we dare deviate from the status quo of the far left. especially in higher education. this is offensive to me as someone who cares about civil rights and social justice rights and freedom. i'll hang up and listen. >> host: bill ayers. >> g

thank you, mr. ayers, you know, for opening this forum up. i have nothing but the greatest respect and preeshes for the sacrifices that you've made. i wanted to also i'm a retired special operations disabled vet who was poisoned in iraq due to depleted uranium shells, and i have grown really disenfranchised with the government, especially the government lying to us. it still denies that my medical condition was related to my combat service, but nonetheless, i wanted to ask you how you felt about the way in which the media portrayed you, especially fox news which seems to have a, a very significant impact on the public's perception with regard to how we cast in terms of what type of light is cast upon the particular person or event that it's covering? i was wondering if you had any particular views at all or experience with how this news operation operates and how that's affected your life. thank you, i appreciate it. >> host: thank you. >> guest: i try very hard to kind of ignore what's said on fox news in particular, but on any kind of media

. >> host: if it's okay with you, mr. ayers, we had scheduled a break at this point, but if it's okay with you we'd like to continue to take more phone calls and questions from our audience. we'll take a short break in half an hour. you need to break? you go right ahead. you can leave, if anybody here in the audience needs to leave, that's okay to do. we're just going to continue to take your calls here from chicago. ocala, florida. george, you're on the line, thanks for holding. >> caller: gentlemen. mr. ayers, with your writing and selling of books, are you incorporated? i have a couple questions, so maybe you want to take notes. now, i am a combat veteran of vietnam. i was medevaced through valley forge army hospital and separated there. given the recent authors of from generals of the nva, they said that after tet we had them beat because we eliminated one-third of their army. now, they also said it was people like you that made the war go on because they said that they would win it in the street. and i've got to ask you as

mr. ayers, with your writing and selling of books are you incorporated in i have a couple questions so maybe you want to take notes. i am a combat veteran of vietnam? i was med-evacked through valley forge army hospital and visited -- separated there. given the recent authors from generals of the nva they said after tet we had them beat because we eye him nateed a third of their army. they said it was people like you who made the war go on because they said they would win in the street, and i got ask you as a combat veteran, don't you realize you gave aid and confident to -- comfort to the enemy in the sense they knew they could win it with people like you in the street and you were not for the troop. you were the for the poor vietnamese and you seem to dismisses common sense and reasoning and i will say. why your analogy in the beginning was that poor black children do not know what a poach is. i come from west philadelphia, underprivileged a lot poorer than a lot of blacks and was drafted bef

obama enjoys approval ratings around 60%, mr. ayers insists that racism it the dominant cultural factor in america today. it's very hard not to drag the chains of that history into the present he said last week to though washington times. his goal seems to be to keep america's minorities angry which keeps america divided. >> guest: no goal to keep anybody angry but i think we should be angry about the reality that bernadine described. we have something like 5 million americans who have lost their citizenship because of felony convictions. can't vote. that's odd if you think about it. i think some day we will reject that notion that because you're convicted of a felony you can't vote. the number of african-american men who were disenfranchised in florida would have made the difference in the 2000 election. so disenfranchisement is a serious problem and it's race related. if you look at capital punishment and the death machine. troy davison in georgia is facing imminent death for a crime that is very doubtful he committed, and again, the

would you like mr. ayers to respond to what you just said? >> caller: well, yes, but would he prefer an educational system like, like the leader of venezuela, hugo chavez? because i know you praised mr. chavez when you go down there, his educational system. would you like to see that here in america for the kids to denounce capitalism and go more for a marxist type of education? and i'll -- thank you for -- >> host: bill ayers. >> guest: sure. i'll answer two of those questions or comments. on the question of the communist party funding the vietnam vets against the war, i don't know about it, but i'm -- it may be true. but it makes me actually, i've never been a supporter of the communist party of the usa, but if they gave the vietnam vets money against the war, it makes me feel warmer towards them in an odd way. it reminds me of a friend of ours who founded the highlander folk school. at the end of his life when he was dying, we were going over pictures from the civil rights movement. highlander was the center of the civil rights movement in

. >> host: mr. ayers, we've gotten several e-mails along this line and want to read these and let you just respond and talk about it now. jesse leavenworthover terryville, connecticut, still waiting for mr. ayers to reject his past in bomb making and terrorism. did he realize and does he realize even now that innocent people who had nothing to do with his target organizations could be hurt by his tactics? and ken e-mails in, why does bill ayers think that bombing the u.s. capitol and police stations was a good idea? >> guest: well, let me go back, and i'll have to take a minute to talk about this because, you know, the fact is that as i said, i was arrested in 1965 opposing the war. at that point something like 75 or 80 percent of americans supported the war. i worked for the next three years to a pose the war from 1965-1968, those three years. i worked constantly as an organizer, as an activist to try to stop that war. a lot of things happened in the three years from 19 # 5-1968, and by 1968 a majority o

t host: in racecourse, miss dohrn and mr. ayers discussed militarization of u.s. schools. thad you like to respond to her comments? un guest: i will link her comments with one that came before, we need universal service but it doesn't have to ice,ll military. we need universal service. l go to another question, we should have a couple times in t r life. we should probably have it at 18, 30, 40, 60. >> every 10 years. >> every 20 years. th the fact is taking a year out and doing something that is a range of options about how to be productive in society whether it b retrofitting of our house or creating green jobs, doing transportation that works, making bicycles for everybody. whatever it is, we have a huge amount of work to do, much of it in human relations, taking care of our elderly, taking care of people with disabilities. we should do this regularly. it will be good for everybody. not having only the military as a way of showing our desire for tbetter world and our commitment to the future seems to me to be an essential part of uestjob. >> question from the audience, n

but for mr. ayers, the bomb that went off in the town house, that was intended for for dicks, it was un mail bomb meant to go off at a dance at fort dix. why not come clean about it to dlly? leat did you have to do with that bomb? y wthe book discusses that's length. the fact is that the people who hatw the whistle on what they were up to in the town house was a loss and it was something we peod very hard to work away from. that was a terrible, terrible decision by the people who were there. fortunately it didn't actually become what it might have become. unfortunately it did kill 3 of our dear friends and comrades. we did write about it and come ome.n about it. i am hesitant to ask you to buy the book, get it at the public library. i won't get a nickel. >> host: do you stay in touch with kathy wilkerson or any of the others? >> of course. one of the interesting things to me, i want to refer back to the comment from the woman who praise us for sticking with our values. most of the people from the 60s e

mr. ayers to reject his past in bomb making and terrorism. did he realize and does he realize even now that innocent people who had nothing to do with his target organizations could be hurt by such tactics, 1k3 ken decker the e-mails in, why does bill ayers think that bombing the u.s. capitol and police stations was a good idea? .. americans opposed the war. what happened? well, antiwar activists were part of the story. probably the least important except important to me because i was one. more important than that was the black freedom movement came out in large numbers to oppose the war. martin luther king certainly from 1965-'68, read his speeches. he calls the u.s. government the greatest purveyor of violence on earth. he calls for, he calls the war illegal. he risks all of his prestige and his allies to make the point that the war is wrong morally, ethically, that it's illegal, and that it's a travesty and a catastrophe for the world. he says in april 4, 1967, we need to get on the right side of the world revolution. i mean, it's hard to

still waiting for mr. ayers to thoroughly reject his past in bomb making and terrorism, did he realize and does he realize even now that innocent people could be hurt by such tactics and ken desk at the e-mails in that why does bill ayers thing that bombing the u.s. capitol and police stations is a good inside. >> guest: i have to take a minute to talk about this. the fact is, i was arrested in 1965 opposing the war. at that point something like 75 or 80% of americans supported the war. i work for the next three years to oppose the war from 1965 to 1968. those three years. i worked constantly as an organizer, an activist to try to stop that war. a lot of things happened in the three years from 1965 do 1968, and by 1968 a majority of americans opposed the war. what happened? well, are activists were the part of the story. more important was that black freedom movement came out in large numbers to oppose the war. martin luther king certainly from 1965 to 198. read his speeches. he call this u.s. government the gre

ayers. >> caller: to straighten out, defense spending little 19% but not 57% of the federal budget. mr.the bomb went went off, mail bomb meant to go off at a dance. come clean about it. what did you have to do with the book? >> guest: the question of coming clean. the book discusses that at length. >> guest: new morning discusses it. >> guest: the fact is that the people who blew the whistle on what they were up to in the townhouse was us. and it was something that we tried very hard to -- you know, to work away from. so, yes, that was a terrible, terrible decision by the people who were there. fortunately it didn't actually become what it might have become. unfortunately it did kill three of our dear frenches and comrades, and -- friends and comrades so we did come clean about it. i'm hesitant to ask you to buy the become. get it at the public library and i won't get a nickel. that's okay. >> host: do you stay? touch with kathy will kerrson or tom hay dep? >> guest: sure. i want to refer back to the comment of the woman who praised us for sticking with our values. most of the people fr