Say Anything Blog

In 2004, Dickinson State University invited a self-proclaimed communist and admitted bomber of the anti-war Vietnam era to campus on the public dime. I was the Chairman of the campus College Republicans at the time.

This speaker, named Bill Ayers, was a member of The Weather Underground, a homegrown terrorist group that wanted to overthrow the American Government to end the Vietnam War, was paid for with student fees.

The 2004 College Republicans opposed this speaker (see press release text below) on the basis that it was a misallocation of student and public funds. We were accused by supporters of this man that we were opposing free speech. The fact is, that the Bill Ayers event in 2004 was not free speech - after all, it was paid speech, using student tuition dollars.

Which brings us to today, where the largest newspaper in the state of North Dakota has decided to attack those that are simply practicing true free speech and hurting no one in the process. The editorial is simply a parroting of the Democratic Talking Points.

So the lesson in all of this is that free speech is only good when it comes to one point of view, but not another.

Text of Opposition Press Release

FOR RELEASE: October 27, 2004

CONTACT: Dustin Gawrylow, Chairman - DSU College Republicans

DSU College Republicans Oppose Visit by Communist, Terrorist



Opposition to the Appearance of Bill Ayers on the DSU Campus



Use of student fees or public money. The use of student fees to promote the agenda of a man such as Bill Ayers is an affront to the students of DSU who are accumulating debt due to the rising cost of tuition and student fees. The students of DSU, or any other public institution must be able to trust those institutions for which are becoming indebted. The use of public money is a disservice toward teachers in general for whom we constantly hear are not paid enough for what they do. If there is enough public money to be spent to bring in self-proclaimed Communists who were involved in the most violent era our country has seen since the Civil War, then surely there can not be that large of a problem for education funding.

Morality of bringing an Self-Proclaimed Communist and admitted bomber to the DSU Campus .

Beyond the public funding issue, as you will find in the enclosed packet of articles retrieved from the internet, this man Bill Ayers is quoted on the record with the following:

“I don’t regret setting the bombs, I feel we didn’t do enough.”

“Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastard were finally going to get what was coming to them”

“We tried to sound a piercing alarm that was unruly, difficult and sometimes probably wrong...I describe what led some people in despair and anger to take some very extreme measures.”

“We had hoped that the bombs would have done some serious work beyond the blast, tearing through windows, walls, and yes, people too.”

“We’re against everything that’s good and decent in honky America. We will burn and loot and destroy.”

“There’s something about a good bomb. Big buildings and wide streets, cement and steel were no long permanent. They, too, were fragile and destructible. A torch, a bomb, and they too would become undone or knocked down.”

“We’d already bombed the Capital, we’d cased the White House. The Pentagon was leg two of the trifecta.”



DSU’s Image. Is it in the best interest of the school to have such a controversial person with a violently un-American history? Is it in the interest of the Alumni? Is it in the interest of the students that are attending DSU for the education opportunities? Is it a responsible way to spend public funds and student fees? These are the questions that should be asked before such a person is asked to speak.

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