home Ex-activist's detention absurd
In the 1950s it was communists. In the 1960s, student radicals. Since then we've had a panoply of villainous forces. Lately it's Islamic terrorists. The common thread is that the situation was never as black and white as the power brokers of the day wanted us to believe.
Ayers was on the run for ten years but never convicted of more than a misdemeanour. Yet despite being a respected University professor, he is apparently still a threat to our government.
Why have successive governments feared intellectuals? Probably because back in the 1960s, students learned to question authority. There are many in power today who still prefer not to have their action questioned.
Backers of the War on Terror are probably the prime suspects. As Ayer, Arar and Khadr have demonstrated, the bogeymen we are told to fear often turn out to be the real victims.
Gary Dale