Ayers speaks at UW

The bat­tle is over and Meg Lanker reached her goal. On April 28^th, at 7 p.m. Dr. William Ayers spoke at the Small Sports Com­plex at the Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming. The pro­test­ers along the side­walk to the door were quiet with their signs as stu­dents, pro­fes­sors and com­mu­nity mem­bers alike filled the gym.

Due to pre­vi­ous threats of vio­lence when Dr. Ayers was sched­uled the first time, intense secu­rity mea­sures were put in place. Every­one enter­ing the com­plex was searched and bags were exam­ined before enter­ing the bleach­ers. Police offi­cers with bomb dogs stood next to the entrances and along the walls sev­eral other offi­cers stood at the ready, but the audi­ence was calm.

The con­tro­versy build­ing up to this appear­ance of Dr. Ayers elicited a crowd that exceeded by mul­ti­ple times the pos­si­ble atten­dees to the intended pre­sen­ta­tion on April 5^th. With the debate and law­suit about his appear­ance well in mind, the audi­ence was keen to hear what Dr. Ayers him­self had to say about the con­tro­versy regard­ing his pres­ence on cam­pus. Those atten­dees hop­ing to hear him berate the UW admin­is­tra­tion were out of luck. The civil­ity which with Dr. Ayers addressed the con­tro­versy set the tone for the evening.

…It is impor­tant to note that an invi­ta­tion is in no way an endorse­ment, Dr. Ayers said about the con­tro­versy and refer­ring the influx of crit­i­cisms Dr. Fran­cisco Rios had received when the out­rage and sub­se­quent can­cel­la­tion first hit cam­pus. Fol­low­ing the brief recog­ni­tion of the con­tro­versy, Dr. Ayers began his pre­sen­ta­tion on edu­ca­tion in the United States. His speech started by exam­in­ing the moment in which we live today. He brought the audi­ence through the changes that gave women the right to vote and abol­ished slav­ery. End­ing these injus­tices took an insur­rec­tion in think­ing and this is really the theme of what I want to talk about tonight– an insur­rec­tion in think­ing. That is, all of us, every one of us, all the time, is trapped in a cer­tain kind of com­mon sense, a cer­tain kind of moment, Dr. Ayers said.

The energy and inspi­ra­tion in his speech evoked in the audi­ence the dis­cus­sion that he had antic­i­pated the first time he was invited to UW. Despite the huge atten­dance, the dia­logue that fol­lowed his pre­sen­ta­tion cre­ated an envi­ron­ment of mutual teach­ing and learn­ing, even when two mem­bers of audi­ence ques­tioned him about his past actions as a mem­ber of the Weather Under­ground. While their com­ments and ques­tions were less than cor­dial at points, Dr. Ayers answered them with respect and calm.

The evening ended with a sense of appre­ci­a­tion for the process Lanker, Dr. Ayers and sev­eral other mem­bers of the Uni­ver­sity went through to ensure that free­dom of speech was kept alive at UW.