| Being the child of left-wing domestic terrorists means never
having to say you're sorry.
Such is the case of young Chesa Boudin, hailed on the front page
of The New York Times this week for overcoming "striking challenges" and
lifelong suffering to win a prestigious Rhodes scholarship. In a lengthy
tear-jerker profile, Boudin is elevated to hero status as the article
details his childhood bouts with epilepsy, dyslexia and "temper tantrums,"
before going on to Yale, traveling the world and hitting the lecture circuit
to exploit his celebrity status.
Boudin is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, members of
the militant Weathermen. They're the 1960s group of rich-kid radicals who
bombed government buildings and corporate headquarters, aided convicted
felons in jail breaks, and participated in a 1981 Brink's armored car holdup
in Nyack, N.Y., that took the lives of three innocent Americans in the name
of "peace." Boudin's mother and father were convicted for their
participation in the Nyack murders and armed robbery, and remain
remorselessly in prison today.
Two of the holdup victims gunned down in the botched Brink's
robbery were police officers. One was a private security guard. All three
were veterans from working-class backgrounds. Neither the Times nor any
other media outlet that has breathlessly reported on Boudin's Rhodes
scholarship win has even seen fit to print the names of the Nyack victims:
Waverly Brown, Edward O'Grady and Peter Paige.
What about the "striking challenges" faced by these three
officers' children, who were robbed of their fathers forever and have never
enjoyed the privileged lifestyle of a radical son like Chesa Boudin? Brown,
who served in the Air Force after the Korean War, had two grown daughters
and a teenage son. O'Grady, who served in the Marines and did two tours of
duty in Vietnam, left behind a wife and three children -- ages 6, 2, and 6
months old. Paige, a Navy veteran, also left behind a wife and three kids --
ages 19, 16, and 9.
On the matter of their suffering and hardships, Chesa Boudin and
his fawning interviewers are silent.
Chesa Boudin's indifference to the victims of his parents'
ideological jihad was reinforced by his adoptive parents -- unrepentant
Weathermen colleagues Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Ayers celebrated
bombing the Pentagon in his recent radical memoir, "Fugitive Days," and now
teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Dohrn declared war on
"Amerikka," helped stage the "Days of Rage" in Chicago, when Weathermen blew
up a memorial statue to police officers and rioted violently, leaving 75
policemen wounded and one permanently injured in a wheelchair, and then
spent years as a fugitive from justice before settling into a comfy post as
director of the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center at
Northwestern University.
From both his biological and adoptive parents, Chesa Boudin has
learned to stew in the indignant self-pity of Marxist leftovers. "When I was
younger, I was angry," the 22-year-old told his sympathetic Times
interviewer. "Now I'm not angry. I'm sad that my parents have to suffer what
they have to suffer on a daily basis, that millions of other people have to
suffer as well."
Boudin is not talking about the families of victims who died as
a result of Weathermen-sponsored violence. No, Boudin is talking about
"urban misery in Bolivia, homelessness in Santiago and illiteracy in
Guatemala." Praised by the p.c.-infected Rhodes scholarship committee for
his "passion" and willingness to "fight the world's fight," Boudin stands by
the Weathermen's revolutionary agenda: "My parents were all dedicated to
fighting U.S. imperialism around the world. I'm dedicated to the same
thing."
Cecil Rhodes must be turning in his grave. So, too, Waverly
Brown, Edward O'Grady and Peter Paige. What to do? While the Rhodes trustees
lavish money on the red-diaper baby Boudin, there is a tiny fund to honor
the officers who died in the brutal crime involving Boudin's parents. The
O'Grady Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund helps deserving Rockland County,
N.Y., students pursuing careers of public service in law enforcement. Checks
can be made payable to: O'Grady-Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inc., P.O.
Box 1024, Nyack, NY 10960. Fight left-wing domestic terrorism. Send your
check today.
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