Bill Ayers and Mark Rudd, both members of the extremist Weather Underground group, famously bombed the Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh in 1974, inflicting more than $1 million in damages. The Weather Underground cited the Gulf Oil Corp.’s committing “enormous crimes” as the reasoning behind its actions. This past month, on two separate occasions, each with invitations and compensation in hand, they visited the University under a shroud of secrecy.
Ayers, sponsored by the Council of Graduate Students in Education, spoke in front of about 150 students. Pitt did not disclose the cost of bringing him to campus nor any details about the lecture he presented.
“It could be anywhere, anytime,” University Spokesman John Fedele told the Tribune-Review. Fedele also elected not to disclose when the event was held.
Alan Lesgold, the dean of the School of Education, said Ayers had been invited because of his expertise in education — not his political leanings.
“We’re not in the business of politics. We’re in the business of evaluating ideas and testing them,” he said. But by bringing Ayers to Pitt, he provided both a venue and a captive audience for Ayers’ violent politics.
Rudd, known as a co-conspirator in the Pittsburgh bombing and a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society who led a protest that shut down Columbia University in 1974, was also welcomed to town.
Through both events, Pitt essentially glorified terrorists. Most significantly, we footed the bill for lectures by people who are known only because they committed crimes against America.
Free speech is protected in our Bill of Rights, but the problem here is that student money was spent paying for lectures by terrorists who attacked our city.
Pitt still won’t answer its constituents, further cementing itself in a position whereby the school is harboring extremism.
Freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment, but Pitt’s student body shouldn’t have to sponsor the speech of terrorists. The fact that Pitt brought not one but two known terrorists in one month – paid for with student money – if nothing else, calls into question the judgment of Pitt’s administration.
