Proud of his association with William Ayers

GUILT BY association is a time-honored tactic of some politicians when they see a slide in the polls. I would have expected that John McCain would not stoop to such tactics. The latest attack by the McCain campaign on Barack Obama's association with former Weatherman William Ayers of Chicago is not worthy of a presidential candidate.

From 1990 to 1997, I was a senior staff member of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. In that capacity, I worked with the Chicago school system as a resource for the establishment of a grant to bring better education and a brighter future to the children of that city. Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois, was one of the leaders in the effort to improve educational opportunities for all of Chicago's children. My association with Ayers was the same type of "association" that the McCain campaign is using to smear the character of Obama.

Obama was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weather Underground were active. Nothing has been found to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved during the 1990s.

During the Annenberg work in Chicago, the group was aware of Ayers's past and, like Obama, found the acts of the Weathermen 40 years ago reprehensible. However, our goal was to help Chicago's teachers and children, and Ayers, who has spent his adult life pursuing the same goal, was an important resource and collaborator. We should judge a person by his entire life's work, not convenient sections. McCain should know that.

BOB McCARTHY
Grantham, N.H.
The writer was the headmaster of Brookline High School from 1981 to 1987.