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| The Ward Churchill brouhaha | | Date Created: Feb 09, 2005, 10:49 PM |
 Perhaps you haven't heard. The University of Colorado has a tenured professor of Ethnic Studies that teaches that the United States got what it deserves on 9/11 and that includes the "technocrats" who died in the World Trade Center. It's big news here in Denver and the People's Republic of Boulder. If you haven't heard of it, here's a recent update. For a nice little blog post (other than this one), go here.
Briefly, the Governor of the State of Colorado, some other critics, and the media made a case out of Professor Churchill speaking at an out of state venue after his essay on 9/11 that compared at least some of the victims to Adolf Eichmann, the nazi death camp bureaucrat. His point, apparently, was that the activities of the United States and its "technocrats" that work at the World Trade Center are just as banal and evil as the organization and running of the nazi death camps and therefore we got what we deserved on 9/11. The offer to speak was rescinded and Churchill resigned as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Dept. -- a meaningless gesture usually. He was then going to speak on campus but the University reportedly called it off because of security concerns. Well, that wouldn't do, so Churchill organized his native american drum corps (literally -- he's supported by a retinue of native americans in full culture dress) and marched into the hall to explain himself. The Board of Regents of CU has launched an inquiry into what to do about Churchill and the Governor is still calling for his resignation. Churchill, of course, won't apologize or budge and inch.
CU brouhaha's are nothing new. Like the witch-hunting that went on with the athletic department recruiting, the media gets ahold of something for some reason and blows it out of all proportion. The national media seems to still love Boulder enough after the Jon Benet Ramsey case to follow along and report it. But what are we talking about here?
A tenured professor, particularly one in a PC department like ethnic studies, that hates the US and all it does or stands for? That ain't news. That's SOP. This essay came out years ago and it's nothing new. This professor and many others across the country have been saying stuff like this all along. They control most of the departments in most of the universities in the US. What else is new? They preach diversity and speech codes and are against "hate speech" but only if it's someone else's speech and god forbid a faculty member that's not a far left liberal, marxist, or socialist.
So why is the Governor having a snit fit and the media jumping all over this? The problem is tenure and the political control of the University. But again, this is the way it is at most universities in the country. The anti-war protesters and revolutionaries of the 60's couldn't hack it in the business world or the hard sciences, so they took over the rest of the university and are now sheltered in their tenured positions living off the wealth of state support and/or absurd levels of tuition. You can't touch them. And they decide who gets in the club, who gets the awards, who is given an academic platform to speak from. Disagree with them? Forget it. They'll claim freedom of speech (and behind your back call you an ignorant right wing radical). How dare you question their authority? Where are your academic credentials? Or as Churchill put it, "Governor Owens, now do you get it?"
But still, what's the point? If you fire Churchill for hate speech, bogus arguments, and lack of any creditable teaching value, you'd have to fire half the faculty. That's not going to happen. Singling out Churchill will do little good. He'll just become a martyr to the anti-American, leftist cause. Our only hope is in the college kids of today who are starting to rebel as we did in the 60's, but this time it's against the dogma and establishment of the 60's radicals. It's time to open it up and shut it down. Power to the people! Right On!
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