pimblr.com

Bill Ayers in February 2000. Photo for the Tribune by Kevin Tanaka
by Frank James
Many people are likely wondering “Who’s this Bill Ayers guy?” about whom so many words were expended at last night’s Democratic presidential debate between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Ayers was a 1960s radical, a leader in the Weathermen, a group which exploded a few bombs, one of which accidentially killed three of its members. Ayers, along with his wife Bernadine Dohrn, went undergound for years only to eventually reemerge to become a University of Illinois education professor, a Hyde Park neighbor to Obama and, now, a touchpoint in the 2008 presidential race.
School reform crusader Bill Ayers works within the system now, but don’t ask the former Weatherman to apologize for his radical past
By Don Terry. Don Terry is a Tribune staff reporter.
A good-looking married couple from Chicago, professional, accomplished and just the other side of middle age, are on their annual August vacation in northern California, reminiscing about their youth, their fugitive days.
They are sitting on a bluff, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the soothing sounds of the crashing surf floating up to surround them like background music in yoga class. A chilly fog has rolled in.In the old days, the couple enjoyed coming to such places. The sea air tasted like freedom. But they had to be careful about who saw them trying to be normal. They had to remember to use their phony names.
For years, his was “Joe.” Hers was “Rose.”
“I was at the top of my field,” the wife says. “I was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.”
She smiles at her husband.
“He was on the bottom,” she adds. “I was most wanted, he was just wanted, sort of wanted.”
“Sexism,” he contends, shrugging. “We were facing the same federal charges. She has better legs. I could have been No. 1.”

weblogs.baltimoresun.com