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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (6269)	8/29/2003 4:46:25 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793597

This article resonated with me. I remember being outraged by the "Weathermen" in the 60s. REVIEW & OUTLOOK His Mother's Son For Chesa Boudin murder is still "activism." Friday, August 29, 2003 12:01 a.m. As far as we know, Chesa Boudin (Yale '03) has never met Edward O'Grady III (Annapolis '97). Let's just say that they have a connection through their folks. Mr. Boudin's mother, Kathy Boudin, has been doing time for her role in the 1981 Brinks robbery in Nanuet, N.Y., that killed Lt. O'Grady's policeman-father, along with another Nyack cop and a Brink's security guard. Normally a new college grad who was 14 months old when his mother was locked up merits some latitude. But young Mr. Boudin is not exactly shunning the limelight. A Rhodes Scholar frequently described as a "second generation activist" (as if murder and armed robbery constituted activism rather than criminality), Mr. Boudin has been profiled in People and is back in the news now that his mother has been granted parole. In these media moments, Mr. Boudin freely dispenses instruction about what's best for the families of the three fine men murdered in the Brinks job: Sgt. Edward O'Grady, Officer Waverly Brown and security officer Peter Paige. With CNN's Paula Zahn, he said he and his mother hope that her release "can move this healing process, the reconciliation process, forward because that's ultimately the best thing for everybody." That was no stray comment. "Bitterness and anger can really consume us," he told the suburban New York paper the Journal News. "Reconciliation and forgiveness can actually help all of us move on in a healthier, happier way." But he saved the best for the New York Times, where he likened his plight to that of the nine children left fatherless in the Brinks robbery-murders. "I also was a victim of that crime. I know how important it was for me to forgive." Mr. Boudin has said he remains committed to the ideals (minus the violence) that motivated his parents. But his remarks unwittingly reveal the hallmark of that ethos: narcissism dressed up as compassion. Surely he comes by it honestly. With his biological parents in prison, Mr. Boudin was raised by one of their fellow Weathercouples: Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Mr. Ayers, you might recall, had the ill fortune of having his flip crack about his fugitive past--"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough"--carried in the New York Times the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. For her part, Kathy Boudin explains that it was her guilt over her privileged life and her affinity for black America that led her to that robbery. How ironic, then, that Waverly Brown, one of the two slain officers, was the first African-American on the Nyack police force. And Ms. Boudin's embarrassment about being to the manor born didn't stop her from letting her wealthy lawyer-father help arrange a clever plea bargain that today enables her to realize her freedom while others remain in prison. Her son, meanwhile, urges those who are forever denied the kind of reunion that he will soon enjoy with his mother to "move on." But he's the one hitting the lecture circuit as an expert on parental separation. Meanwhile, the late Sgt. O'Grady's son serves his nation as a naval officer; Officer Brown's son is a captain in law enforcement and his two daughters served in the Air Force; and the other O'Gradys, Browns and Paiges live as productive members of society who decline to parade their causes or charitable works in public. In all worlds but the one Mr. Boudin apparently inhabits, simple decency would mean--especially in the wake of his mother's parole victory--leaving these people in peace. opinionjournal.com