University cancels speech by (Bill) Ayers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10463211

Published Saturday October 18, 2008
University cancels speech by Ayers
BY KHRISTOPHER J. BROOKS AND ANDREW NELSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

As criticism mounted hour-by-hour, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln canceled a planned lecture by Bill Ayers, a noted education scholar and controversial 1960s radical.

UNL, in a written statement, cited safety concerns as the only reason for canceling Ayers' Nov. 15 speech for the College of Education and Human Sciences. Campus spokeswoman Meg Lauerman would not specify the threats that UNL said caused the cancellation.


Just 11 days after next month’s election, the University of Illinois-Chicago professor, William Ayers, is scheduled to speak at a student research conference held by the UNL College of Education and Human Science.


"I understand why many Nebraskans were upset by the proposed Ayers lecture," University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken said in a separate statement late Friday. "While the immediate controversy . . . may be over, the importance of recognizing that a university is a place for the open exchange of ideas, free of outside political or popular pressure, remains."

Leading Nebraska Republicans, Democrats and university donors objected almost universally to the Ayers invitation.

Yet even those opposed — as well as some who had defended the Education College for inviting Ayers — questioned the university's explanation of security reasons for canceling.

"The university is doing the right thing here, even if they can't be forthright about the reason," said Nebraska Attorney General John Bruning, who had objected publicly to the invite. "If we can provide security for the president of the United States, security is a cop-out."


FULL story at link.

[SoCalDem]

1. Shame on Ayers for not having the foresight to cancel it quietly, on his own

:(

[Democat]

8. Exactly!

What was he thinking not canceling it for "private reasons" and worrying about it later, after the election.

Stupid!

[rucky]

11. Has he commented at all about all this crap?

[cliffordu]

2. Ah, yes....Chickenshit Nation strikes again.....

[BrklynLiberal]

3. It will be the University's loss....in terms of upholding freedom of speech, upholding its own

principles, giving in to political pressure when they should not, and definitely they will lose the information and inspiration that Ayers might have provided them. I think they are cowards.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[trashcanistanista]

5. Shame on the University. Cowards.

If he wasn't a legit speaker they wouldn't have scheduled him in the first place. They backed down due to the racist hate party and should have set an example to their community.

[aquart]

6. For now, he's radioactive.

[riverdeep]

7. So, we can let Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak at a University,

but this guy freaks us out? Is G. Gordon Liddy's career over?

On the other hand, Ayers being in the public spotlight anytime in the next couple of weeks can't be good for Obama, so it may have a benefit, but for the wrong reason.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. The cancelation could be grounds for an action in defamation.

True, Ayers HAD BEEN a "terrorist" decades ago. He has chosen a different path to reform right now. But he has been deemed and publicized as a terrorist in the present tense and has lost an economic opportunity because of such moniker. His reputation has been diminished and his future prospects compromised.

I hope he sues (after the election).

[shadowknows69]

10. Anyone else appreciate the irony of cancelling a "Terrorist"

Because of fears of possible terrorism?