Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice. I've never considered it a neutral or passive profession. Bill Ayers More Quotes by Bill Ayers More Quotes From Bill Ayers I was arrested in 1965 for opposing the war in Vietnam. There were 39 of us arrested that day. But thousands opposed us. And the majority of the people in the country supported the war then. Bill Ayers war country people Terrorists destroy randomly. Bill Ayers terrorist There are things about classic liberalism that obviously I'm drawn to and I bet all of you are as well. Those are things like liberty, freedom, the Bill of Rights. But the reason that I reject the label is that I grew up cutting my teeth against the liberals. Bill Ayers liberty cutting rights I have an addiction to caffeine. Bill Ayers caffeine addiction I voted for Obama and I was delighted that he's been elected. Bill Ayers delighted I wish I knew as much about anything today as I knew about everything when I was twenty. Bill Ayers intelligence learning intellectual The [Vietnam] war's gone on for three years. And we'd thought we'd ended it because we'd done exactly what we were told and what we told ourselves we'd had to do. We had a majority. We were against the war and this created a crisis for democracy and a crisis for the antiwar movement. Bill Ayers democracy war years You cannot live a political life, you cannot live a moral life if you're not willing to open your eyes and see the world more clearly. See some of the injustice that's going on. Try to make yourself aware of what's happening in the world. And when you are aware, you have a responsibility to act. Bill Ayers political eye responsibility Andrew Breitbart, self-described media mogul, had several screws loose or missing and was the grinning bomb-thrower of the radical right. He was the attack dog kept on a tight leash and brought out on special occasions to hiss and to menace. Bill Ayers media self dog Chicago '68 was a relatively small demonstration for its time, but I've talked to millions of people who claim they were there because it felt like we were all there. Everyone from our generation was there and was at Woodstock. Bill Ayers our-generation chicago people Well, first of all I think that we have to be careful with terms like the working class, obviously. When [Karl] Marx wrote about the working class he was writing about something much more bounded than we're talking about. Bill Ayers writing talking thinking Large numbers of people are broken from the notion that the system is working for people, that the system is just or humane or peaceful. Bill Ayers broken numbers people I wish I had been wiser. I wish I had been more effective, I wish I'd been more unifying, I wish I'd been more principled. Bill Ayers unifying wiser wish I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire. Bill Ayers fire children world In a world as out of balance as this world, everyone can find something to do. And the question isn't can you do everything; the question is, can you do anything? Bill Ayers balance this-world world I think I am a radical. I have never deviated from that. By radical, I mean someone trying to go to the root of things. Bill Ayers roots mean thinking I suffer from a genetic flaw, which is that my mother was a hopeless Pollyanna. Bill Ayers hopeless suffering mother Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, once asked, "How shall we respond to the dreams of youth?" It is a dazzling and elegant question, a question that demands an answer--a range of answers, really, spiraling outward in widening circles. Bill Ayers circles dream house One of the great crimes of the Bloomberg/Klein administration [in New York City] is that they've removed themselves from communities, as if communities have nothing to say about what their needs and aspirations are for themselves and for their children. Bill Ayers cities new-york children Nothing is more boring than some old person going on and on about the way things used to be. Bill Ayers boring used way
