Churchill Clarifies 9/11 Stance In Hawaii

Denver Channel 7 ^ | 02/23/05 | Denver Channel 7

[Pikamax]

Churchill Clarifies 9/11 Stance In Hawaii CU President Urges Caution In Churchill Investigation

POSTED: 6:43 am MST February 23, 2005

HONOLULU -- A University of Colorado professor who has been criticized for his comments likening some Sept. 11 victims to Nazis defended his position before an overflow crowd Tuesday night at the University of Hawaii.

Ward Churchill emphasized he did not advocate the attack on the World Trade Center, but insisted it was inevitable, given U.S. international and economic policies.

"One does not advocate the volcano," he said. "It requires no advocacy from mere mortals. One points to the volcano and attempts to make sense of it."

Churchill spoke of U.S. atrocities in Japan, the Philippines and in the United States against Native Hawaiians and Native Americans.

About 200 people, who were barred from entering the auditorium packed with a mostly supportive crowd of more than 400 people, listed to Churchill speak on an audio feed set up outside.

It was Churchill's first university speaking engagement outside Colorado since his essay comparing victims of the World Trade Center attacks to Nazis was discovered on a Web site late last month.

Churchill wrote that some "technocrats" killed in the World Trade Center were like Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking Nazi official who orchestrated the extermination of 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust.

Churchill reiterated his contention that people who function in investment and brokerage trading further economic policies in Third World countries that lead to mass misery and death.

Some 20 students, including members of the Hawaii College Republicans, protested outside the campus auditorium before the speech. One held a poster with photos of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks over the label "Churchill's Gallant Combat Team."

Kimberly Craven, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii College Republicans, a 12-member club that formed last week, said she was outraged that the university was welcoming someone like Churchill to speak.

"It's not a matter of free speech, it's a matter of common sense," the UH senior said. "We're in a war on terror and you shouldn't bring a supporter of terrorists here."

State Sen. Fred Hemmings also criticized Churchill's appearance.

"I think it's awfully sad Hawaii has to host a person such as this," Hemmings said.

The Windward Oahu Republican said the furor surrounding Churchill's statement is neither a partisan issue, nor a question of free speech.

"This is about fraud, deceit and hate speech," Hemmings said. "You can say anything you want, but not using the goodwill of our university as a cover."

Earlier, Hemmings said the school's decision could threaten grants and other funding to the university.

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie of Vermont, who was vacationing in Hawaii, was among those who turned out.

"I support and welcome free speech, but those are my friends (firefighters, police office and other victims) Churchill was referring to," Dubie said.

Perry Reghi flew in from Princeville, Kauai, to support Churchill.

"I think the reason Mr. Churchill is so controversial is because he hits on a nerve," Reghi said. When people hear the truth, some of them, it scares them."

"The quote the press is all up in arms about, that might have been a little bit extreme, but I think he made the point that America has committed acts of genocide in many different countries, and that's starting to come back on us," Reghi said.

About two dozen campus groups and departments expressed support for Churchill's appearance, including the Center for Hawaiian Studies and the William S. Richardson School of Law.

Hawaiian Studies professor Haunani-Kay Trask has called the University of Colorado's investigation into Churchill's teaching credentials a "witchhunt" and likened the probe to House Un-American Activities Committee hearings and communist fears propagated by Sen. Joe McCarthy about 50 years ago.

"I am urging public support of Professor Churchill's struggle as if it were our own, that is to say the native people of Hawaii," said Trask, also an outspoken Hawaiian activist.

University of Hawaii President David McClain opposes Churchill's views, but defended his appearance as an expression of free speech. McClain did not attend Churchill's talk, spokeswoman Carolyn Tanaka said.

Colorado lawmakers, including Gov. Bill Owens have urged the University of Colorado to remove the tenured professor of ethnic studies from his position and also have threatened to retract state funding from the university.

University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman told lawmakers on Tuesday that rushing to punish Churchill could land the university in court and make the embattled teacher "a very wealthy man at our expense."

Some members of Colorado's Board of Regents have suggested reviewing the university's policy of granting tenure, essentially a lifelong appointment.

Churchill's inflammatory essay, "Some People Push Back," attracted little notice until last month, after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College, a private liberal arts school.

Hamilton and several other colleges and universities have since canceled Churchill's appearances.

His next university engagement is scheduled for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Assembly voted to condemn Churchill's comments and urged the university to cancel the speech.

[Huck]

before an overflow crowd

This has been a real boon for him.

[b4its2late]

Clear as mud.

[Imaverygooddriver]

"One does not advocate the volcano," he said. "It requires no advocacy from mere mortals. One points to the volcano and attempts to make sense of it."

How dare we mere mortals try to prevent the mighty ones from attacking us again.

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

And for the forces of good also. The more he puts his mug up on the TV the more it reminds America what the left stands for.

[nikos1121]

This guy is a joke. A big joke. Anyone who pays money or spends more than two minutes listening to him is nuts. He reminds me of those hippie type professors in the 60s who would come on campuses and be nothing but academic losers, hitting on college girls because it was fashionable to criticize the war and the milatary and anyone conservative.
This guy has had his 15 minutes, we've exposed him...let's shut down anymore coverage of the pos.

[kellynla]

the clown is a lying fraudulent lowlife POS!
nothing more need be said!

[WoodstockCat]

I sincerely hope Mr. Churchill takes a tour of the Hawaii Valcano National Park and gets a bit too close.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

"One does not advocate the volcano," he said. "It requires no advocacy from mere mortals. One points to the volcano and attempts to make sense of it." - Drugs!

[Snapple]

I read his essay on Chickens Coming home to roost and he did compliment the hijackers and said they should do what they did again. So now he is lying about what he said.

He used the word "should" as in they should kill us.

He was advocating terrorism. He is a disgusting criminal like Bin Laden.

[kellynla]

and the University of Hawaii and it's alumni should be ashamed to have invited this traitor!

Can you imagine the University of Hawaii inviting someone to it's campus in 1944 who would have said that those who died on December 7, 1941 "deserved to die!"

I guess there are those in Hawaii who have verrrrrry short memories!!!

[cake_crumb]

"One does not advocate the volcano," he said. "It requires no advocacy from mere mortals. One points to the volcano and attempts to make sense of it."

The rest of us get the hell out of the way of the lava.

[Spyder]

I saw Joe Moore and Chi Cunningham (KHON) report on this last night, comparing notes. Joe was comparing and contrasting a couple of things he said and asking how one jived with the other. They both ended up just shaking their heads in an "I really don't get it or him" body language.

[West Coast Conservative]

He is a traitor.

[Robe]

Diploma mill blow hard

[BenLurkin]

I hope the FBI is running lots of video-tape on the people who show up to cheer this bozo.

[texson66]

Well, IF they do attack an airliner again, I hope he is the only other passenger on board, and the crew parachutes to safety to leave that POS with his islamofacists "buddies"!

He might think differently then....

[Guillermo]

The only way the Left will turn against this nut is if he proclaims that "Men and women are not the same" or "Homosexual behavior is dangerous."

They'll immediately forget their "free speech" arguments.

[Robert DeLong]

For those like me who have no clue who Ward Churchill is:

Ward Churchill From a Native Son: Conquest and Colonization in the Americas

Ward Churchill (Keetoowah Band Cherokee) is one of the most outspoken of Native American activists and scholars in North America and a leading analyst of indigenous issues. He is a Professor of Ethnic Studies and Coordinator of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado. Churchill serves as Associate Director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America at the institution. He is also co-director of the Colorado chapter of the American Indian Movement and vice chair of the American Indian Anti-Defamation Council.

Churchill’s many books include Marxism and Native Americans, Fantasies of the Master Race, Struggle for the Land, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, From A Native Son, Critical Issues in Native North America, The COINTELPRO Papers, Indians R Us?, Agents of Repression, Since Predator Came, and A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas.

In his lectures and numerous published works, Churchill explores the themes of genocide in the Americas, racism, historical and legal (re)interpretation of conquest and colonization, environmental destruction of Indian lands, government repression of political movements, literary and cinematic criticism, and indigenist alternatives to the status quo.

Churchill is also a past national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, has served as a delegate to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (as a Justice/Rapporteur for the for the 1993 International People's Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians), and as an advocate/prosecutor of the First Nations International Tribunal for the Chiefs of Ontario.

[Fast1]

Just why is this buffoon still around??