Posted on 02/17/2005 9:05:19 PM PST by FairOpinion
University of Hawaii Professors Launch Aggressive Fundraising Effort to Sponsor Highly Controversial, Anti-American Speaker
Ward Churchill, Who Says 9-11 Victims are Not 'Innocent' and Terrorists are 'Combat Teams,' Being Invited to Main Manoa Campus; Not All Professors, Students are Pleased
University of Hawaii professors have organized an aggressive fundraising effort to bring Ward Churchill, a highly controversial professor based at the University of Colorado and activist in the American Indian Movement, to lecture at the University’s Manoa Campus, according to an internal memo obtained by Hawaii Reporter.
Churchill, who prides himself on publishing inflammatory anti-American propaganda, came into the national spotlight in recent weeks for his declaration in a recently published essay that the victims killed and injured in the 9-11 attack on America were not "innocent."
In Churchill’s essay "Some People Push Back; On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," he writes: "True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the 'mighty engine of profit' to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" – a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" – counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in – and in many cases excelling at – it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."
Churchill writes "terrorists" who slammed their planes into the World Trade Center killing 3,000 Americans, are not in fact terrorists, rather they are "combat teams." He claims Americans got what they deserved when Americans were murdered on American soil because America has killed 500,000 Iraqi children. He says the attacks on Sept. 11 were "a natural and inevitable consequence of what happens as a result of business as usual in the United States. Wake up."
See the full essay at: http://cryptome.org/ward-churchill.htm
Many of the families of victims in the 9-11 terrorist attack on America said his comments were hurtful. Matt Coppo, a sophomore whose father died in the World Trade Center attacks, told the mainland media: "His views are completely hurtful to the families of 3,000 people."
Jon Goldberg-Hiller, Ph.D., the chair of the University of Hawaii Political Science Department, says in a memo obtained by Hawaii Reporter that he is sure there will be controversy over Churchill’s visit.
Hiller says Churchill’s visit is being coordinated by "a number of his friends and colleagues across the university," and he asks the Department to help sponsor the speech by funding Churchill’s honorarium.
"As I am certain that Churchill's visit will provoke some community controversy, I am also certain that we will share some of this attention because of this donation. Whether you support Churchill or not, I do hope, when questioned, that you will speak to the issues of academic fairness, protection for controversial ideas and conservative attempts to limit the scope of political speech, indigenous rights, and identity politics that put this particular controversy in its broader context."
Hiller could not be reached for further comment.
University of Hawaii Political Science Professor Kate Zhou says she is upset that Churchill has received so much support from the University of Hawaii, when much more qualified and well respected academics and authors have been snubbed. Last year, Zhou says, she attempted to get a prominent Washington Post writer and Pulitzer Prize winner to Hawaii, but the faculty did not support this speaker, or many others who could share with students their valuable experiences. Many students also are upset about Churchill’s visit, Zhou says.
"Please ignore my nonsequitor post 199 -- I meant it as a post to another thread, I accidentally posted it in the wrong place."
Okay, but it was nice hearing from you.
At least you know I read your post. :)
Making friends again I see. Amazing knowledge of all cultures but the American one.
"At least you know I read your post. :)"
Even a "nonsequitor" can be pertinent. %}
"At least you know I read your post. :)"
Even a "nonsequitor" can be pertinent. %}
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