Published: Thu, Oct. 16, 2008 12:30AM

Modified Thu, Oct. 16, 2008 02:23AM

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It reads in part, "The current characterizations of Professor Ayers -- 'unrepentant terrorist,' 'lunatic leftist' -- are unrecognizable to those who know or work with him. It's true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans. His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution -- including publishing 16 books -- to the field of education. The current attacks appear as part of a pattern of 'exposes' and assaults designed to intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."

'Selective indignation'

George Leef, director of research for the John William Pope Foundation for Education Policy, a conservative Raleigh think tank, said the petition's signers are conveniently ignoring key facts. Ayers was never charged with killing anyone, but people were killed by bombs linked to his organization.

A 1970 pipe bomb in San Francisco attributed to the group killed a police officer and hurt another, and an accidental 1970 explosion in a Greenwich Village basement killed three radicals. In 1981, two police officers and a security guard were killed in the robbery of an armored truck in New York that involved two Weather Underground members.

"There is a lot of selective indignation in America, and the academic world is as prone to that as anyone else," Leef said. "If Ayers at one point had expressed a favorable opinion of the Ku Klux Klan, I don't think he would have ever lived that down."

As of Wednesday afternoon, about a dozen UNC-CH professors had signed the petition, along with two from Duke, one from N.C. State and several from other universities across North Carolina.