Choice of speaker ignites protests again at Hamilton College (says victims are "little Eichmanns")

Newsday ^ | 1/26/05

[freespirited]

CLINTON, N.Y. -- An outspoken professor who's drawn widespread criticism for comparing the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center to Nazis has ignited protests on a college campus where he's been invited to speak.

Ward Churchill, an expert on indigenous issues and chairman of the ethnic studies program at the University of Colorado-Boulder, will take part in a panel discussion Feb. 3 at Hamilton College, a liberal arts school in upstate New York that's been a lightning rod for controversy in recent years.

In a treatise titled, "Some People Push Back," written after the attacks, Churchill asserted the 3,000 people killed at the World Trade Center worked for "the mighty engine of profit" but chose to ignore their role.

"True enough, they were civilians of a sort," he wrote. "But innocent? Gimme a break."

Churchill went on to describe the World Trade Center victims as "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate Europe's Jews during World War II.

[freespirited]

This is a much more detailed version of a story posted earlier today.

[Peach]

OMG. To people like this actually earn speaking fees? What a national disgrace.

[Tench_Coxe]

Perhaps we should bus a large number of family who lost loved ones on Sept. 11th to attend this panel.

[silent_jonny]

The only shocking part of this story is that it comes from Clinton, NY--Bill and Hillary must be mighty proud.

[26lemoncharlie]

Then what are the Families that were supporting the Dummo's?!!

[freespirited]

The following is posted on the Hamilton College website in response to the controversy.

---

College Issues Statement Concerning Churchill Visit
Kirkland Project Speaker To Appear Feb. 3
Contact: Mike Debraggio
Phone: (315) 859-4680
January 26, 2005


In the days and weeks immediately following September 11th, Hamilton joined with the world community in denouncing the terrorist acts of that tragic morning. We all share deeply in the pain of the families who lost loved ones. Many people view Ward Churchill's comments concerning 9/11 as repugnant and disparaging indiscriminately the 3,000 people killed that day, including three Hamilton alumni and the father of a current Hamilton student.

Hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial. The opportunity to encounter and respond to people from outside the college community in their intensity and their immediacy is among the key attributes of a liberal education. The views of speakers are their own. We expect, as a matter of civil discourse, that the members of this academic community, as well as visitors, respect the dignity of reasoned and principled debate. It is in this setting that the substance and credibility of a speaker's views are established as being worthy of support, or not.

We expect that many of those who strongly disagree with Mr. Churchill's comments will attend his talk and make their views known. This is the process of both academic freedom and freedom of speech.

[ccmay]

We expect, as a matter of civil discourse, that the members of this academic community, as well as visitors, respect the dignity of reasoned and principled debate.

Oh yes, like the dignity that college lefties show to speakers like David Horowitz and Ann Coulter.

This man deserves rotten tomatoes, tar and feathers. Actually he deserves much worse but I don;t want to stoop to his level.

-ccm

[LS]

Universities still don't get it: there are ideas worth discussion---i.e., they have the potential to be true---and ideas that simply aren't, because they are so groundless as to be ridiculous. We don't have ANY major advocates of "flat earth" any more. It's a shame that there isn't a similar attitude toward Marxism---the "flat earth" of economic/social "theories"---and toward people like this jackass.

[popdonnelly]

A fine example of some of the idiots who are teaching on our college campuses. I grind my teeth when I think of the parents who are spending their hard-earned money (not to mention their tax dollars), so that their children can be exposed to this garbage.

[popdonnelly]

What exactly are this man's academic credentials? He refers to innocent victims of 9/11 as "little Eichmanns"? He must be a complete idiot, devoid of any intellectual or historical perspective.

[squarebarb]

He must live in one of those little closed-in social circles where nobody disagrees and they jut all egg each other on.

[Unam Sanctam]

Ward Churchill, an expert on indigenous issues and chairman of the ethnic studies program at the University of Colorado-Boulder

That the academy would give this person the time of day, let alone give him a position, speaks volumes about its bankruptcy.

[tom h]

I was thinking, "This guy sounds like a major-league d-ckhead."

Then I saw his picture (below) and confirmed that not only IS he a d-ckhead, but he looks like a d-ckhead, too.

He's an embarrassment to the good name Churchill.

A good Freeping might be in order. Here's his contact information:

Ward L Churchill

Ethnic Studies

University of Colorado at Boulder

339 UCB

Boulder, CO 80309-0339

Ward.Churchill@Colorado.EDU

Office: 303-492-8852

[kellynla]

I guess Hamilton College would have invited the Nazis too!

I hope the Hamilton College Alumni will express their outrage!

Semper Fi,
Kelly