In 1970, Bill Ayers said "enough was enough" and joined 10 other people to declare war against the U.S. government.

Ayers spoke on campus Monday about his transition from a member of the radical group the Weatherman, to his current position as a professor of education at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Ayers was a co-founder of the revolutionary group, which is best known for staging violent protests during the 1970s.

Protests included bombing the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon.

Ayers said the group's anger was based on the injustices members saw in the United States and in the Vietnam War.

"Those that opposed the war had to think of what to do," Ayers said. "Some of us wanted to create conditions where we could fight back against our government."

Ayers had joined the then nonviolent Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, in 1965 on the campus of the University of Michigan.

By 1970, Ayers, along with 10 other activists, decided to take more direct action against the U.S. government through bombings and violent protests.

The group broke from SDS to form the Weatherman, which was named after a line from the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

The song lyrics stated, "You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows," Ayers said.

Ayers said the need for activism in the United States is greater today than ever.

"Are there inequities in the world? Are they structural?" Ayers said. "We must rise up and act in a thoughtful manner."

MSU sociology Professor Stan Kaplowitz also was a member of SDS at U-M in the 1960s.

Kaplowitz said he left the group in 1966 when he saw the movement shifting toward a more revolutionary agenda.

"(The Weatherman) were a group which felt peaceful democratic process would never work," Kaplowitz said.

He said the movement did little in the way of creating positive change in America.

"The successes of the anti-war movement were a result of the involvement of moderate, middle-America," Kaplowitz said. "All the Weatherman succeeded in doing was to further polarize the nation."

First-year MSU College of Law student Jeffrey Holst said the appearance of Ayers on campus sent the wrong message to students.

"Students shouldn't look up to people who bombed the Pentagon," Holst said. "We shouldn't put this guy on a pedestal and say, 'Listen to his story.'"

Holst said it is bad enough when student groups bring "radical" speakers to campus.

But he said it is more disturbing when the university does it.

Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures Professor Arthur Versluis, who helped bring Ayers to campus, said the decision was made because of the American Studies Program.

"This university has one of the largest collections of literature about American radicalism in the country," Versluis said. "We brought Ayers so graduate students who are studying this period of American history can interview him - can learn firsthand."

Ayers, who holds a doctorate in education from the Teachers College at Columbia University, said his history of activism had nothing to do with his current profession.

"I earned my position through my academics - not my politics," Ayers said.

Ayers said it would be a sad day when the college campus was no longer a place where someone with an unpopular belief could be heard.

"It is an essential demand of the time we live in to open our eyes and see the world around us for what it is," Ayers said.