Bill Ayers: 'What could I possibly add?'

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Decades removed from his radical opposition to the Vietnam War, UIC professor William Ayers lies low amid the political furor

By James Janega | Chicago Tribune reporter

As his name was tossed back and forth Tuesday in the fury of the presidential campaign, 1960s radical William Ayers spent the day as he often does, working quietly as a professor and trying to ignore the political tempest.

Officials at the University of Illinois at Chicago say Ayers is on a previously scheduled sabbatical, but he was on campus Tuesday, sitting on a lunch-hour doctoral dissertation panel.

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When the Tribune caught up with Ayers on Tuesday, he had no interest in joining the unpleasant conversation.

"What could I possibly add?" he asked from the door to his office. "Life happens."

Earlier in the campaign, Obama's controversial former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., only heightened attention on his past remarks by publicly defending them. In contrast, Ayers has avoided public statements, and indeed declined to comment further to the Tribune.

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Ayers' office door is decorated with pictures of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Che Guevara and Malcolm X. It is also home to pictures of children, bills of rights for students and parents, and a rainbow-hued greeting card advising "How to Be Really Alive." A place of prominence is give to a New Yorker cartoon of a man interviewing for a job. The interviewer says, "I'm trying to find a way to balance your strengths against your felonies."

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