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.
I am so pissed off about this Churchill affair and all the leftists on our University campuses I'm ready to go back to teaching, when I retire. Hell, I'm 57, great private practice, I'll be retirable at 60 (mandatory retirement at 65, only 8 years). I have half a notion to go back and teach at a local University. The best choice would be near our cabin in Wisconsin (western).
Short story: I was an associate professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. It used to be the Harvard of the Midwest, that was years ago. My standard opening lecture of all my classes was as follows: I'm going to stand up here and tell you what you will need to know to be a doctor, you are going to listen and remember. You are in charge of learning, I'm in charge of teaching. One day we are going to unleash you on real sick people, they will trust you to make them well. You will be responsible to learn how to do that, I will be responsible to teach you how to do that. The equation goes thusly...you learn, I teach, patient gets well. If you can't take this treasure that has been given to your heart and soul, get out of your seat and leave this room. What you are about to embark on is an all consuming profession. If you are the least bit scared you need to go and find something else to do with the rest of your life. If you want lots of money, be a plastic surgeon, but don't darken my door. We learn to save lives here, and we are humble doing it.
I used to love to get into some very difficult aspects of my profession. You see your students with that DUH look on there face. That's when I went in high gear. The jacket came off, the tie got pulled down and I started to try anything. Preach, comedy, go back to the chalk board, always looking at those eyes. Then I hit on something, something that hit a nerve. I could see the light in their eyes. Some times one at a time, sometimes all at once. I would say to myself...I got you, you understand. Then I would go home and celebrate. They know, I taught them and they learned.
It's exhausting, but there is nothing else in the world (not even sex) that compares to that feeling.
If you think this was a worthless effort, consider this: I see my former students on a regular basis..medical meetings. They tell me that I gave them a passion for medicine and a passion that burns, and makes them a better doctor.
Ward Churchill is a charlatan and a communist propagandist, he is not, I repeat NOT, a professor. Fire him now.
A real professor teaches, and he teaches hard and long, and he leaves himself out of it. He gives knowledge, he doesn't inject his own ideology. That is against the rules. Churchill has violated that trust with reckless abandon. He's crossed the line. By crossing that line he has brought upon himself the wrath of the people that pay his salary, thus getting fired would be the least of his worries.
Thanks for the ping, Calpernia. BTW, while attending the UH as a returning vet, lib political science Profs used to ask me if I thought thermo-nuclear war was imminent. I always replied "Absolutely". Ahhh... the memories of the looks on their faces brings a smile.
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa - Feedback
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/feedback/
Churchill seems to be one of those guys that fried his brains on acid in the early '70's. The whole idea of a white guy pretending to be an indian for thirty years is bizarre. What's more bizarre is that a good many people bought the act for so long. People with real indian heritage must be repulsed by him.
I can already see the headline in tomorrow's Honolulu Advertiser/Star-Bulletin:
Towering Intellect to Lecture: Hawaii Dems to Honor
Excellent post .As a teacher I know JUST what you mean ..Thanx
Ok ..Ive had enought of this as*hole..What can we all here do to nail this guys ass to the wall?
Seems like no body minds that he's lied on his resume and job applications > Righ t? Why isn't he fired for that alone ? He's been milking the "Indain " thing for years..Scam artist..I know if I was found to have lied on my credentials where I teach I'd be in one shit load of trouble..Whats his deal? How does he get a pass on this ?
UH Manoa is chock full of leftists.
Thank God it *is* a part of the US.
It wouldn't be so bad if any of them were competent --
but that's going to cost us extra.
Then you best log off now. FR and it's owner are in Cali. So I guess according to you, you are participating on a forum that isn't American.
Did you see the latest on Churchill........
>>>Profs used to ask me if I thought thermo-nuclear war was imminent. I always replied "Absolutely".
LOL! You are a tease!
THAT look would be priceless!
Excellent post.
I hope you do go back to teaching, at least part time. I am sure you made a difference for many of your students,and helped them become better doctors, than they would have otherwise.
Native Indians in Hawaii? White male imperialists? May we please know your source(s) for this information? Thank you.
You might want to read up on US History - just a tad.
Polynesians in Hawaii. There were Natives, hence Native Americans. Technically, Mexicans are also native Americans.
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