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/
Oh, man, you're in trouble now with the PC gestapo.
I watched the news link in post #17. The reporterette showed the sign indicating the capacity of 300 and she indicated there were in excess of 400 inside the auditorium. It's a wonder there was no cite by the Fire Marshall for the egregious violation. Those standing outside the fire exits, listening, were likely in violation as they were blocking emergency exits. Has anyone lodged a complaint against the University's for its representative's callous disregard for the safety of its students?
Atta Boy!! Great Job!
You mentioned mathematics - what of science? What if a science refutes creationisim and teaches evolution? Slippery slope.
Welcome to FR.
So far, it has been PROVEN that CHRUCHILL is a liar and a fraud.
Churchill lied about his being "Indian".
He lied about his military service.
He lied about his academic credentials.
He has lied about many people.
He hasn't taken his oath as required by Colorado law to teach.
You can't regulate opinion - Not trying to regulate 'opinion.' We simply do not want employees of a government controlled entity to use their position as a platform for activities we deem inappropriate or strongly disagree with. Would you prefer the governor not be able to fire a spokesman who disagrees with his policies? Lunacy.
Also what the professor says or writes on his free time is not the State's concern. Why not? There is no basis for that assertion. It would probably save me (taxpayer) money if the state refused to hirer people who smoked on their own time or got a lot of speeding tickets as they could use those restrictions to bargain for lower insurance rates.
Then don't fund them at all - once you fund a school you can not tell people how to think in them. Why not? That somehow calling an institution a "school" gives it special protection you wouldn't find elsewhere is untenable. Paul O'Neil would still be Sec. of Treasury if someone called it "Treasury University" instead. If there is to be one penny of state funding, then the democratic representatives are entitled to set guidelines.
Here's another thought - if your university doesn't want to deal with these guidelines - STOP taking public funds.
You mentioned mathematics - what of science? What if a science refutes creationisim and teaches evolution? Slippery slop. No, that's called Democracy. I would rally supporters to change the policy and work to elect officials who agreed that evolution is at best a flawed, fraud-ridden theory and almost noone articulates a reasonable alternative to it.
Again, the ideal is for the gov'ment not to fund schools at all.
With all due respect, I think you are wrong. Ignring them is what we have been doing for the past several decades. This has been allowing them to churn out a generation of mind numbed robots. Mind numbed and dangerous. They need to be neutralized or we will lose the war.
The man has admitted to being a dyed in the wool "fraud".
BTTT
Good effort. Welcome to FR! Now lean Republican and convert to Catholicism if not Catholic yet -then you will be set... ;)
"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.This girl gets my nomination for Ignoramus College Student of the Year.
She bases her support for a lying white leftist who admits now he lied about his Native American ancestry on the fact that she is native Hawaiian.
What a mental midget this "student" is.
Ignore this person.I disagree. Look at student in the article who said she was given the assignment of listening to this stuff. The Left has taken over the universities of America, lock, stock and barrel.
Ward Churchill -- the Homer Simpson of the Left --- is bringing the whole rotten bunch of them out in the open.
You are so wrong to want to ignore him.
Shine the light on him. Shine it bright. And watch leftist cockroaches from all the corners of academia run around in mad chaos.
bttt
So what? I was made to read the Koran - I am not pointing my ass up in the air praying to a rock in Mecca now am I?
You know what the sucky thing about defending a right to speak is people will think you support the speaker. Where the frig did you read that I endorse this ass' views?
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.
Ah, I see now. Moving capital around the globe -- allowing economies to grow, providing jobs, developing nations, etc -- is equivalent to shipping Jews to death camps in cattle cars.
And putatively educated people applauded this venal crap? Appalling.
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