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Jesse E. James

Published: September 15, 2008

I will likely vote for John McCain, but certainly not because of the column you published by Mr. Stover. He makes it sound like Senator Obama has secretive close ties with a terrorist fugitive named Bill Ayers. This is utter nonsense.

Billy Ayers was one of many thousands of militants who railed at American government in the 1960s. Yes, he was prominent in the Weathermen, and yes, he set off a bomb under a statue, but that was over 40 years ago when Obama was perhaps in third grade, and he has apparently mellowed a bit like almost all radicals of his generation.

The Bill Ayers with whom Obama has had only limited contact is now a "Distinguished Professor" at the University of Chicago. It is the Bill Ayers picked by Chicago's Mayor Daly to set up an educational reform program in the Windy City, funded by a $50 million grand from the prestigious Annenberg Foundation.

It is the Bill Ayers named to the board of the Woods Fund, another philanthropic enterprise. Obama also sat on this board for a couple of years. Ayers lives in the same upscale Chicago neighborhood as Obama, and in 1995, hosted a reception for Obama, who was at the time a candidate for the Illinois state senate.

Ayers contributed $200. Does this really sound sinister?

We should knock off the kind of character assassination found in Mr. Stover's sources and look at
Obama's stand on real issues.

Jesse E. James
Avon Park

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