LUCY PEMONI / STAR-BULLETIN Protesters made their opinions known last night outside the entrance of the auditorium where University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill delivered his speech on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. Posted on 02/23/2005 1:28:51 PM PST by leaning_libertarian
Starbulletin.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
"I never wanted to be a poster boy for academic freedom. You can't give an inch. If you let this one down, you've lost it all."
Ward Churchill Visiting University of Colorado professor
LUCY PEMONI / STAR-BULLETIN Protesters made their opinions known last night outside the entrance of the auditorium where University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill delivered his speech on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus.
Churchill attacks essay’s critics University of Colorado president calls for calm
By Craig Gima cgima@starbulletin.com
Ward Churchill, the outspoken Colorado professor who created a national uproar by comparing 9/11 victims to Nazis, told an overflow crowd at the University of Hawaii last night that he is the target of a right-wing strategy to attack academia.
"I was targeted because they thought I would be an easy target," Churchill told the crowd of about 800. "That was a mistake.
"It's not just an attempt to purge me," he said. "It's a purge of the academy."
The crowd was mostly sympathetic to Churchill, a University of Colorado ethnic studies professor. He was applauded more than a dozen times and was greeted at least three times with standing ovations.
Before the speech began, about a dozen members of a UH college Republican group protested.
"I never wanted to be a poster boy for academic freedom," Churchill said. "You can't give an inch. If you let this one down, you've lost it all."
Much of Churchill's speech was devoted to explaining and expanding on his essay written on Sept. 11, 2001, that called 9/11 victims "little Eichmanns."
LUCY PEMONI / STAR-BULLETIN University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill drew about 800 people to his speech at UH-Manoa last night -- plus a dozen protesters like these.
He said the theme of his essay and a later book was that the United States has been involved in violating international law and killing innocents and should not be surprised that some people would want to kill Americans -- the "chickens coming home to roost," as his essay is titled.
He argued that the World Trade Center could be considered a legitimate target because it is a symbol of the financial power that allows the United States to flex its military might.
He said if you read his essay, he called the "technicians" in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who actually did not kill any Jews but made it possible for the trains to run on time and for the Holocaust to take place.
It's obvious, Churchill said, that he did not mean to say children, janitors, firefighters and innocent bystanders were part of that group. Instead, he said, he was referring to investment bankers and others who make the killing of innocents by the U.S. military and U.S. policy possible.
Churchill did address the issue of his ethnicity, admitting that he is not Native American.
"Is he an Indian? Do we really care?" he said, quoting those he called his "white Republican" critics.
"Let's cut to the chase; I am not," he said.
His pedigree is "not important," Churchill said: "The issue is the substance of what is said."
He went on to explain that the issue of whether he is Native American has been blown up by sloppy reporting and reporters quoting other reporters.
His speech drew mostly positive reaction from those who attended. But Tyrone Hogenauer said he was disappointed.
"I thought he was going to talk on free speech," Hogenauer said.
Instead, Churchill talked about himself and attacked his critics the way they are attacking him, Hogenauer said: "It's a sad thing."
UH student Kirsten Chong said her professors assigned her to listen to the speech.
"He was humorous and he certainly didn't pull any punches," she said, adding that because she is native Hawaiian, she agrees with much of what he said.
University of Hawaii www.hawaii.edu BACK TO TOP | University leader urges calm in professor decision By Steven K. Paulson Associated Press
DENVER » University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman warned lawmakers yesterday against rushing to punish a professor who likened some Sept. 11, 2001, victims to Nazis, saying a misstep could land the university in court and make the embattled teacher "a very wealthy man at our expense."
Furious lawmakers threatened to take state funding away from the university over an essay by Ward Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, who wrote that some "technocrats" killed in the World Trade Center were like Adolf Eichman, who orchestrated the Nazi holocaust.
Gov. Bill Owens has said Churchill should be fired, but Hoffman told a caucus of Republican legislators that the professor's future has to be handled the right way.
"If we approach this issue wrong, not only will every regent be sued personally, but every administrator will be sued personally and professor Churchill will win his lawsuit with triple damages and be back on the faculty, a very wealthy man at our expense," Hoffman said.
The university has launched a review of Churchill's writings and speeches to see if he overstepped academic freedom and should be dismissed. But Hoffman said public debate about firing him only clouds the issue.
"The more talk there is about the need to fire him, the more difficult it becomes for us to do that, if that's what we decide to do," she said.
Republican Sen. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, who introduced a resolution last week urging the university to fire Churchill, did not return a message.
Lamborn said he had been meeting with regents to discuss the resolution because he wanted to avoid any "unintended consequences."
Hoffman said the law protects public employees' right to free speech, "no matter how odious it might be."
Some members of the Board of Regents have suggested reviewing the university's policy of granting tenure, essentially a lifelong appointment. Owens has said lawmakers might want to consider setting statewide standards for when tenure is granted, instead of leaving it to universities.
Hoffman told lawmakers that tampering with tenure would be a mistake that could drive away other faculty members and make it difficult to hire new ones.
"They need to know we have not engaged in a witch hunt," Hoffman said. "We're taking a careful and measured approach."
University of Colorado www.colorado.edu/
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"-Hillary Clinton
(Yes, she really said that
Peggy Noonan
The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)
That is all I have to say - every time I respond it bumps this nonesense to the top and makes this guy even more famous.
LOL -so stop responding as if you have to -like free speech, postings by posters to other posters does not imply required reading or responding by posters a poster posts to.
The notion that ignoring the corruption of the universities will make it go away is quaint but has no connection with reality. Your mistaken view of the importance of keeping wrongdoing from being exposed to a mass audience is simply wrong. Please keep your word and don't say any more. The decision on Ward Churchill will be made, he will be fired for valid reasons and it will inspire others to get rid of similar frauds elsewhere. It will be as a result of "new media."
Who says what is wrong or right? The State? State sponsorship is the problem - if it was private - then the market would decide.
Nice Freep!
We, the people, as the Constitution directs. Who said anything about the State. It is the State, and the worship of it, that has created the problem.
The State funds these schools is my point. If this ass worked in a private institution then protesting him would be a waste of time - the only protest that would count would be in the market place - less students attending that school.
Leaning - You da man!
.
And airing Ward's dirty linen in public,is making a lot of people not only angry,but ready to take on the world of academe.You're dead wrong about just ignoring Ward.
You got my point wrong - I am not saying ignore all on the left that are in error - Go after lefties that count - this guy was a nobody lefty now made into a somebody. In some cases some need to be confronted - the well known can't get any more famous - and some ignored and left to be forgotten like Ward.
Actually,he wasn't a "nobody" before this all came to light;many colleges across this nation had already signed him up to speak. Just because we never heard of him before,doesn't mean that many in IVORY TOWERLAND had never heard of him.And THAT is my point.
Well now he is uber famous and comanding more money per appearance.
Like the first line of the poem says...: "Gather ye rosebuds whilst ye may..."
You make my point. Why should the State fund fraud and the teaching of that which is not so? Prior to the decentralization of communications we could not get rid of the teaching of that which is not so because the centralized command media had a vested interest in protecting the teaching that which is not so because they themselves were busy trying to inculcate the public with the same "progressive" falsehoods. We can now bypass that blockade and insist that taxpayer funded universities begin to teach the truth.
Nothing funded by taxpayers will approach truth. Since everyone's tax money is spent who is to say what crackpot can or can not speak? The majority? What of minority views? If it was funded by private miney then you take out the political equation - what survives does so because of the market - i.e. - students pay money to learn. That way you and I would and everyone else thankfully have zero to say in regards to such things.
In other words, good men should do nothing and let evil triumph. We have now the ability to longer accept this state of affairs. Falsehood is not a minority right. A charlatan like Ward Churchill is measurable as such by objective standards that are not mere opinion and such judgment suppresses no legitimate minority right. If we pay the bill we have the right to speak out against such fraud. Your view of these things is quite distorted and irrational in that it in essence is that we are powerless to correct falsehood now that we can know of it. That was only true when the Dan Rather's of the world had the power to keep us from knowing of the falsehood. It is true no longer.
good job!!!! congratulations for representing all of us!!
Evil? I don't like Taliban like pronouncments on speech. The best defense in the war of ideas is a good counter argument.
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