More From the Neighborhood Email Chain

One of my Obama-supporting neighbors sent this Bill Ayers apologia around.

Here's my response, written but not sent to keep the neighborhood peace:

Before we all give Bill Ayers a great, big group hug take a gander at this. Mr. Ayers convicts himself more eloquently than anyone else ever could. And note the publication date: 9/11/01. One of the planes, as I recall, hit the Pentagon and killed a couple hundred people. Do you suppose Ayers was appalled at the idea of Islamic terrorists trying to finish the job he started all those years ago? Or did he exult in the attempted smashing of the U.S. military's nerve center? I really do wonder, and I also wonder why Senator Obama would associate with him in any way even if they don't "pal around."

But, for the sake of this exchange, let's say I agree with the idea that McCain's effort to link Obama and Ayers is ridiculous and that their association says nothing about Obama's political pedigree, his view of the country he asks to lead, and his sense of America's place in and contributions to the world, all of which is possible. In fact, one of the things that commends Obama to me as a potential president is his utter pragmatism about throwing old cronies like Ayers and Wright under the bus when his associations with them get uncomfortable. It gives me hope he will be far more hard-headed and practical than his record would otherwise indicate.

Setting all the Obama-related considerations aside, I still want an apology, the more abject the better, from Bill Ayers and the rest of the Weather Underground. These folks, in their zeal to bring their very peculiar vision of heaven to earth, abandoned the democratic process for domestic terrorism. Rather than apologize for their crimes, Ayers and his wife seem to revel in them. It is one of the glories of living in a free country that people like Ayers are allowed to roam the streets and spout their nonsense. But we shouldn't lionize an unrepentant criminal and terrorist. That would be more ridiculous, and far more dangerous, than a whole evening full of John McCain ads.