Would You Like To Meet The Man The Weather Underground Paralyzed?
By Uppity Woman on April 20, 2008 at 9:55 PM in Barack Obama, Weather Underground, William Ayers
Like Barry Obama says, he was 8 years old when Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn led the group of pond scum that wreaked havoc upon America with their bombs and Guerrilla warfare. So I guess the fact that they caused countless strife and pain and fear into the hearts of America doesn’t count because Barry was 8 years old. He sees no reason not to hang around with them. After all, they aren’t bombing anything right now, right? Well of course Ayers has already stated that he didn’ t think they did enough, and he hasn’t ruled out another crack at it. But Barry still thinks that’s nothing.
I would like to introduce you to the Honorable Richard Elrod, the man who was paralyzed by the Weather Underground. I don’t have information on the cop they killed yet, but I will.
In 1969, Brian Flanagan and the radical antiwar group Weatherman unleashed mayhem on the streets of Chicago. Richard Elrod, an ambitious lawyer, worked for the city to stop the chaos. As the Days of Rage climaxed, the two men had a violent encounter that forever altered their lives-and produced an indelible image that reverberates still.
The man, 72 now, lifts the photograph with a grip light as a soft pinch and draws it toward his eyes like a jeweler holding up an exquisite but slightly flawed stone. He is natty in a gray pinstriped suit with a pink pocket square and a pale pink tie. His crutches lie on the floor just behind his immaculately ordered desk. Through the window of his 25th-floor judge’s chamber a gray sky pulls a cheerless curtain across the late afternoon.
“He is there, in the photo, sprawled on the ground, an arm flung over his head, mouth open, paralyzed on a downtown Chicago sidewalk. A step or two away, in a manner equally suggestive of violence, his adversary lies torso-twisted into the entrance of a doorway, hovered over by three men, one bearing a club. There is something intimate about the image, as if the two men were victims of the same assailant rather than ideological enemies whose bodies-and fates-had just collided. Only later would they realize how much that was true.”
In the photo above, you are looking at Judge Elrod on the left as a young man, on his back on the ground, with a broken neck. The piece of crap Flanagan is on the ground to the right. He would later be charged with attempted murder.
“To this day, the men offer conflicting accounts of what happened that afternoon.”
But of course. When in doubt, believe the Weather Underground. Barry would. As we all know, they were such fine upstanding citizens of Peace.
Like Elrod, Flanagan has been asked his impressions of the photograph. Unlike his long-ago adversary, however, Flanagan scarcely hesitates before giving them. “It’s all right there,” he says. “There’s Elrod,” he says. “There’s me. . . . He’s crippled for life; I’m about to be hauled off to jail, and you’ve got a bunch of horrible wretched cops who are about to lie about the whole thing.”
He shrugs and offers a wry smile.
What else would a scumball do but smile, right? You can see Flanagan’s mug if you click on the story link. As for me, I didn’t think I wanted his mug to filthy up my blog.
So Barry, say hi to Bill for all of us. We know you like him a lot, and we admit that he fits in really well with many of the rest of your friends who are supporting your run for the most powerful person in the world.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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