By Susan Swift
GCC/Staff
Nov. 29, 2009
Editor’s Note: The staff at the Chronicle, would like to welcome Susan Swift to our staff. We first heard of her when she appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s Radio show as one of his callers.
She has passion and freely expresses what millions of Americans are feeling, and about where this country is headed. Susan is married, well educated, and the mother of seven beautiful children.
Susan will be writing a weekly column in both Gold Coast Chronicle, and in our children site Young Chronicle News & Reviews.
We hope you will enjoy her passion and commitment to this country like millions of other Americans who are disappointed in the direction this Administration is pursuing to lead us.
We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com
Ayers lives a quiet life of academic prestige. But 40 years ago, young Bill Ayers fully embraced the anti-war movement, condemned its ethnocentric assault on the yellow man, and acted on his passion.
His Weather Underground bombed the New York City Police Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol Building to protest the Vietnam War.
A generation later, Dr. Nidal Hasan also fully embraced an anti-war movement, also condemned its ethnocentric assault on the brown man and the Muslim man, and also acted on his passion. He opened fire at a military base in Texas.
One can only wonder if, say, two or three decades from now, Professor Hasan will be endowed the William Ayers’ Chair of Cultural Evolution at the same state university where Ayers now enjoys honored tenure.
And why not? Leftwing America embraces Bill Ayers. A somewhat younger Barack Obama embraced Ayers in the 1990s, moving into his Chicago neighborhood, socializing with him, getting appointed to the same Board of the politically charged Woods Fund – along with friend Rashid Khalidi, radical Muslim and former Arafat spokesman (yes, that Arafat, the now-deceased leader of the PLO terrorist organization).
Leftwing America rewarded Bill Ayers with a tenured professorship. Why shouldn’t the Left now embrace Nidal Hasan? How was his crime different from the Weather Underground or Bill Ayers?
If anything, Hasan can claim a more personal affront than Ayers, as Hasan, an Arab Muslim, suffered the indignity of serving in the same military that waged its unprovoked war-based-on-lies against fellow Arabs and Islam.
But as in the Vietnam era, you will not immediately hear any vocalized “attaboys” from the Left. They will, as they did with Ayers, solemnly wag their fingers and demand “justice” (though, to the Left, their vision of justice was likely served with Bill Ayers.) So for now, we are lectured about not jumping to conclusions, with commentaries on how the emotional stress of Bush’s War has caused untold stress on many a good man.
The stage is set. In 2040, Professor Hasan’s leftist biographers will solemnly wag their fingers at those who condemn Hasan.
They will observe how Hasan acted out, perhaps inappropriately, but only in response to the bloody pogrom waged against his Arab and Muslim brothers.
No, we never would condone his specific act of violence, but we must not be judgmental and allow emotion to cloud an appreciation of why he felt the need to act so boldly.
But that is the rhetoric of 2040. Today, we hear the obligatory “tsk tsks” from the Left, though give it time. It took decades, but they feel safe in letting their guard down when speaking of Ayers.
The leftist FactCheck.Org cautions against describing Ayers’ bombings as “terrorism” (sound familiar in the current stories about Hasan?) And as Obama lectured us during the campaign, Ayers may have “engaged in some despicable acts 40 years ago”.
Source: Susan Swift
Dear Dan & Susan
I’m not going to say whether I agree or disagree with what Susan has to say. I’m just going to deal with whether or not her voice should be carried. As I say this, remember that Diversity means more than Diversity of Color…
I’m sure many of your readers will be angry at what Susan has to say and will demand that she not be carried in the Chronicle. This article of hers is going to really “Push their buttons” and “Piss them off”. Please don’t listen to them – Many people in some areas of our country (I live in one) have created situations where they never have to hear or listen to ideas which challenge their “Liberal Orthodoxy”. Because of that, they think their thinking is “Mainstream” and “Self-Evident”, and that all of those who disagree with them, no matter how well-informed, well-intentioned or well-thought-out are “extreme” and are evil and mean (as well as wrong).
I heard that expressed recently by someone who was trying to gather signatures for “Gay Marriage” – He claimed that, “Mormons raised money every Sunday to defeat Gay Marriage,” and, “Mormons are evil people.” Since this was in one of those “Bubbles”, no one disputed him, until I asked how he knew Mormons were evil…
Situations such as this only occur when ideas and statements aren’t challenged. By carrying people such as Susan Swift who will challenge your readers and their ideas, you will be performing a huge service for them. Because of that, and because of their need to THINK, resist their demands to censor or to fire Susan. They will still be Liberals, but at least they will realize there is more than one side to every issue, and they may even occasionally see when they don’t “have the answer”…
Conservatives haven’t had the dubious privilege in living in “Bubbles” where their ideas aren’t challenged – That has forced Conservatives to THINK & REASON, to come up with ANSWERS to problems that real people have, and to be willing to discard the “Old Right Wing Orthodoxy” when it didn’t work.
Do Liberals the same favor. In the end, they’ll thank you for it. And, Our Country will be better for it. Diversity means more than just Diversity of Color – It also means Diversity of OPINION.
Sincerely,
Michael Sweeney