Public Enemy
Page 27
I’m most grateful for my everyday comrades in arms in the battles (large and small) for peace and freedom, joy and justice in Chicago: Alice Kim, Barbara Ransby, James Thindwa, David Stovall, Lisa Lee, Therese Quinn, Erica Meiners, Kevin Kumashiro, Martha Biondi, Adam Green, Harish Patel, Tessie Liu, Tom Mitchell, Susan Klonsky, Jessica Disu (FM Supreme), Randolph Stone, Jeff Haas, Prexy Nesbitt, Peter Sporn, Hazel Rochman, Bill Watkins, Simmie Baer, Steve Saltzman, Susan Gzesch, Beth Richie, Kevin Coval, Fred Klonsky, Bruce Boyer, Hymie Rochman, Mike Klonsky, Carol Lee, Haki Madhubuti, Pat Handlin, Jennifer Richardson, Camille Odeh, Cathy Cohen, Jan Susler, Elena Sznajder, Dima Khalidi, Lynette Jackson, Flint Taylor, Daniel Tucker, Monica Murphy, Jamie Kalven, Ann Klonsky, Patsy Evans, Quentin Young, Michelle Lugalia, Iasha Sznajder, Joey Mogul, Julie Biehl, Yoko Noge, Mary Scott Boria, Cynthia Estes, Randolph Stone, Ryan Hollon, Marv Hoffman, Adam Kuranishi, Janise Hurtig, Isabel Nunez, Rosellen Brown, Crystal Laura, Janice Misurell, Bill Schubert, and many others.
In writing this book I’ve benefited from all kinds of help, including from friends and family who read bits and pieces of the narrative in its various incarnations. Knowing that it was being constructed on nothing more than the chimera of chaos and confusion called memory—scandalously fly-by-night, sketchy, and undependable—each nonetheless took his or her precious time to offer advice and helpful perspectives: Malik Dohrn, Chesa Boudin, Lisa Freccero, Eleanor Stein (twice!), Mona Khalidi, Jeff Jones, B. J. Richards, and Kathy Boudin. I’m indebted to each of you. Bernardine Dohrn read every word again and again, caught and corrected each tendency of mine to lurch instinctively toward the ultra-left or, on the other hand, to collapse into the seductive and welcoming arms of the liberal-right, and kept me focused always on the bigger picture. Rick Ayers has been a tireless editor, coconspirator, and sometimes coauthor forever, and his judgments at several turning points were invaluable. Zayd Dohrn has cheerfully read my attempts to write for close to twenty years, and his perceptive reading, consistent encouragement, and astute interventions were once again indispensable, and Rachel DeWoskin generously weighed in with her incisive comments and brilliant intuition at just the right moment leading to a complete overhaul and reorganization. Of course, none of them is responsible for the deficiencies, gaps, and foolishness herein—those belong to me alone.
I am again grateful to Helene Atwan, as fine an editor as there is anywhere, whose vision and support made this book possible in the first place, and whose shrewd interferences—knowing when to indulge my ramblings and when to cut the crap and get to work—improved the book immeasurably. My awe and appreciation is boundless, and it extends to the dazzling team she leads at Beacon Press, starting with my first editor there, Andy Hrcyna, and including the brilliant Pam MacColl, the mighty Tom Hallock, and the wondrous magic-maker, Crystal Paul.
And I need to say again how thankful I am for Bernardine, a gift to the world and for forty-three years my partner in crime (I can hear her now: “Please stop saying that, darling”); I am, as always, overwhelmed by my dumb luck. Thanks to our three incomparable sons, Zayd, Malik, and Chesa; to our magnificent-good-fortune daughters-in-law, Rachel and Lisa; and to the coming whirlwinds, Dalin and Lightie and Jacai.
Perhaps the passionate choices, everyday experiences, and consequential errors of our fighting past can help illuminate a way forward. In any case, I’ve never been more hopeful for young activists the world around. For humanity and for the future, we must change ourselves; we can change the world.
Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2013 by William Ayers
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO specifications for permanence as revised in 1992.
Text design and composition by Kim Arney
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ayers, William.
Public enemy : confessions of an American dissident / Bill Ayers.
pages cm
eISBN: 978-0-8070-3293-0
ISBN 978-0-8070-3276-3 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-8070-3293-0 (ebook)
1. Ayers, William. 2. Left-wing extremists—United States—Biography. 3. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Protest movements—United States. 4. Radicalism—United States—History—20th century. 5. United States—Social conditions—1960-1980. I. Title.
HN90.R3A96 2013
320.53092—dc23
[B]
2013023310