What a damn shame.
There seem to be a lot of people in Gainesville who think other people should be ashamed.
If they would rather spend their energy talking about conflicting versions of history instead of issues - as it seems is the trend among conservatives in this country - then so be it, but for the love of God, please get a couple things straight.
Both Jonathan Lott's letter and Bryan Griffin's column combined two arguments: condemning contemplating an act of violence and condemning an actual act of violence.
From what I gather, the anti-Vietnam war movement was a fundamentally splintered one at best. The state of the nation, combined with the government spying on its activities, made Weather Underground the constant target of both overt and covert illegal state actions.
The group's message was that the U.S. was committing the gravest moral mistake by drafting young men into a war it alone decided to enter. It is little wonder why immoral violent acts were, at least, considered.
As William Ayers has made clear in numerous interviews and publications, Weather Underground's ultimate targets were government properties where no one would be hurt. This is still morally wrong, but we can at least agree that it isn't murder.
Perhaps on questions of history, we should - when we can - defer to those who were a little closer to the events.
At the very least, we should be cautious before endorsing the arguments of a party that has brought us the current president, a vice presidential candidate who would be lucky to name one effect of the "Bush Doctrine" and a party platform that doesn't event mention the middle class.
