When William Ayers visited RB three months ago, many community members criticized the school for allowing someone with such extremely liberal views to speak in front of students. His political views, however, were not the primary reason why he had been asked to speak.

During the presidential election, many people tried to use the fact that Obama and Ayers served on an anti-poverty board together to denigrate Obama. Throughout the election, Obama’s relationship with Ayers became an important subject for the media.

Throughout this time, Ayers chose to remain silent and not refute any of the comments made about his relationship with Obama. After the election, Ayers clarified his relationship with Obama in an Op-Ed and criticized the McCain-Palin campaign for its use of guilt by association tactics.

It was because Ayers was such an important figure during the presidential election that he was asked to speak in front of RB students by Forum Club. Forum Club aims to get students to talk about controversial and timely issues, and that is exactly why having Ayers speak at RB was an appropriate choice for them.

When Ayers spoke at RB, he clarified his relationship with Obama and talked about his current career as an educator. He also talked about his radical past and about education reform.

After Ayers spoke at RB, many people were upset and demanded that school administration invite someone with extremely conservative views to speak. As a result, conservative pundit Mike Gallagher was invited to speak.

I see the need to present both sides of the political spectrum, but Gallagher has not done anything timely or relevant enough to merit a school-wide discussion. The only thing that has gained him nationwide news coverage was his publicity stunt in which he slaughtered a cow while on air for his radio show in order to protest PETA.

It was not Ayer’s political views that made Forum Club invite him to speak; it was because his relationship with Obama had been an important topic in the presidential election.

By inviting Gallagher to speak at RB, the school tacitly sent the message that Forum Club is a liberally biased organization and asked Ayers to speak solely to promote his political views.

I do not think that is true.

--Submitted by Rigo Reyes, Entertainment Manager