Posted on 01/26/2005 6:30:47 AM PST by jalisco555
A professor who likened victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann will headline a discussion at Hamilton College, a campus that has been a lightning rod for controversy in recent months.
Ward Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will be on the Clinton campus Feb. 3 to discuss his essay "Some people push back," a treatise written the day after the terrorist attacks.
"True enough, they were civilians of a sort," he writes of the victims. "But innocent? Gimme a break."
In the piece, the Native American rights activist argues that the 3,000 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks worked for "the mighty engine of profit," calling them "little Eichmanns," a reference to the man who implemented Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate Europe's Jews.
Art history professor Steven Goldberg said it is "morally outrageous" to bring Churchill to campus.
"What is it that they hope to accomplish by bringing him here?" he asked. "What is the investment in this negativity?" Added history professor Robert Paquette: "I regard bringing Ward Churchill here as an act of utter irresponsibility."
Churchill's panel discussion is part of a series sponsored by the Kirkland Project, a college-funded program that tried to bring 1960s radical Susan Rosenberg to Hamilton. Rosenberg, who was to teach a half-credit memoir-writing course, withdrew from the position in December, after weeks of debate and protest on and off campus.
Kirkland Project Director Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz said allowing discourse on a variety of positions is what academic institutions are supposed to do.
"There are people who are going to be very upset, and there are people who think they want to hear what he has to say," Rabinowitz said. "They are savvy enough to separate out what they agree with and what they don't."
Both sides emerged from their camps this week, with dueling posters plastering the campus, one denouncing the event, another advocating free speech.
Jessica Miraglia, 19, a sophomore from Reading, Pa., created the poster that reads: "You don't have to agree with them in order to learn from them."
"I'm excited at the opportunity to ask questions and ask him to clarify some things," the psychology major said. "He has alternative opinions; something you usually aren't exposed to."
But sophomore Matt Coppo, 21, lost his father, Joseph Coppo Jr., in the World Trade Center attacks. He said he might attend the speech to confront Churchill.
"Knowing thatI'm paying for a person to disrespect my father, it doesn't go over too well in my mind," the classical studies major said. "It's hard to claim that it's free speech when you're slandering people who have been dead for three years."
Hamilton College spokesman Michael DeBraggio said "to deny students the opportunity to encounter people outside the academic community is to fail to provide a liberal education."
Ping.
Thank God I was never in a classroom with one of these professors. I would have been very tempted to beat the crap out of such a professor.
Again, why do we have a proffessoriate that is in league with this antions enemies?
There are justifiable limits to freedom of thought, like, we citizens should not have to pay for it.
And private colleges should self-police.
How hard would it be to put up one of those light-up "laughter" signs like they have (had?) for sitcom audiences? Preferably located where this yahoo can't see it...
The only way private colleges are ever effectively punished is in the pocketbook. And the best way to do that is for the alumni to be so riled up they start witholding contributions.
Even worse is when major donors consider reneging on big pledges.
"Jessica Miraglia, 19, a sophomore from Reading, Pa., created the poster that reads: "You don't have to agree with them in order to learn from them."
I wonder if she understands that for any given situation, there are an infinite number of lies but only a single truth!
Let me guess - this Indian idiot is a member of AIM. Last time they were in the news, these Marxist morons were headed to Cuba to give Castro a war bonnet and make him a "big chief."
When these idiots show up at the local tribal reserve, I can assure you that inter-tribal warfare is alive and well.
Absolutely. When alumni start to withhold contributions administrations take notice. And the Colorado legislature should also look into what their taxpayers are paying for as well.
I'll bet this fool never held a job outside academia in his life.
C'mon, y'all, this guy is just plumb nuts! No sense this article even being in here, 'cept for entertainment value. There's nothing to say (IMO) except that this guy is just plumb nuts!
Kirkland Project Director Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz said allowing discourse on a variety of positions is what academic institutions are supposed to do.
Unless you support the President.
Ditto.
light up laughter signs...LOL! I like the way you think. That would be so suweeeet!
Well, the parents paying Hamilton tuition and the Colorado taxpayers paying this guy's salary might differ with you.
> light up laughter signs
Well, a cheaper and more effective way to accomplish the same goal would, instead of boycotting the thing... pack the audience. Have a few chosen "laff-leaders," people up front who can laugh *really* loudly at the right moment, then have the rest of the infiltrators follow along. Whenever DUfus at the podium makes one of his moronic statements, laugh at him. It's important to maintain discipline, of course. Don't laugh at *everything*, just the plainly *wrong* stuff.
These schmucks *thrive* on anger. Kinda like that anger-monster in the old Star Trek episode; you need to drive them away by laughing your ass off at them. They don't know how to handle ridicule.
Why do I think that these people would have a completely different idea of "free speech" if Thomas Sowell were scheduled to speak? Does Ward Churchill have any facts to back up his thesis? How can he get away with an emotional outburst instead of academic rigor? This is slander, not facts. This is not right.
I don't know, but it looks like you might be able to talk to him yourself if you were a member of the marxmail site.
In the piece, the Native American rights activist argues that the 3,000 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks worked for "the mighty engine of profit," calling them "little Eichmanns," a reference to the man who implemented Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate Europe's Jews.What on God's green earth is the connection between Eichmann planning to exterminate the Jews and people working to pay the rent and grocery bills?
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