Did You Know...

Whaddya know. Academia did something right and honorable for once.

Denied:

The University of Illinois on Thursday denied 1960s radical William Ayers emeritus faculty status after trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy noted Ayers dedicated a book to, among others, the man who killed Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy.

All nine voting trustees either opposed granting Ayers, a recently retired University of Illinois-Chicago professor, the largely honorary status or abstained from the vote. Universities often grant emeritus status to distinguished retired faculty members. At Illinois it doesn’t come with any monetary benefits, spokesman Tom Hardy said.

Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war group held responsible for a series of bombings during the Vietnam War era, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

Trustees voted after a speech by Kennedy in which he noted the 1974 book “Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism,” by Ayers and other members of the Weather Underground. The book includes a dedication to a lengthy list of revolutionary figures, musicians and others, including Sirhan Sirhan, who shot Robert Kennedy to death in 1968 after the New York senator declared victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.

Good to know not everyone has forgotten Ayers’ forgotten Communist manifesto.

If you were reading this blog in October 2008, you know about “Prairie Fire” thanks to Internet sleuth Zombie’s investigative work.

In November 2008, Ayers showed himself to be the consummate crapweasel. Asked about the dedication to RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan and other “political prisoners” in the Weather Underground’s “Prairie Fire” manifesto, Bill Ayers denied that it’s true — then went on to express his “regret” for singling out the killer.

Flashback: