Western Tribune Column and Art Announcement

On Saturday, October 25, 2008 at Avondale Park in Birmingham...Art in the Park. Ted Openshaw will have on display and for sale his work. About a hundred other artists. 10-4

Ok I forgot about posting my column from the Western Tribune the other day. Here it is.

********************************************************

“Mr. Ayers, I don't care about an old washed-up terrorist.”

Those were John McCain’s words in reference to former radical Bill Ayers during the final presidential debate.

If he doesn’t care, why did his campaign begin placing Robocalls, automated phone calls, the very next day that say the following?

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans."

Furthermore, during the debate, John McCain said he was not running a negative campaign.

This is the most deceitful presidential candidate I have ever seen, and I can’t believe anyone would vote for him.

Barack Obama was eight years old when Ayers committed his despicable acts. Since then, Ayers has become a distinguished professor and received man of the year awards.

As William Ibershof, the federal prosecutor of the Ayers case said, "I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child. Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen.”

A responsible citizen.

I am not sure I would even assign that label to John McCain, the way he is acting.

Then there is this. After Obama explained that he voted against a ban on a procedure because it did not include protections for the health of the mother, McCain mocked “health of the mother”, saying that was an “extreme” position. If my daughter was experiencing a difficult pregnancy that was going to kill her, I would not consider it extreme to lose the fetus to save her life.

A tragedy, yes. Extreme, no.

When this particular disregard for women is considered along with his stated position of being against equal pay for women, I am amazed that any female would vote for the man. To do so would be regarding themselves as second class citizens.