Ward Churchill is hopping mad that he's being fired from his tenured faculty position at the University of Colorado. He says he is not leaving. He has announced his decision to sue. The whole procedure, he insists, was a "farce" and a "fraud." Only in America, he believes, could he be treated in this way. I'm not sure why Churchill is so indignant. According to the logic of his original argument, he deserves his penalty--and worse. By his own account, he had it coming.
Let's review the main thesis of Churchill's notorious essay On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. He called the civilians working on September 11, 2001 in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns." In short, they were "a cadre of faceless bureaucrats and technical experts who had willingly and profitably harnessed themselves to the task of making America's genocidal world order hum with maximal efficiency." So they deserved it. Indeed we all deserve it. Churchill wrote that for U.S. crimes stretching back two centuries, compensatory justice "would require a lethal reduction in the U.S. population...of between 96 and 99 percent." Basically no one in America deserves to live.
In a footnote to the essay, however, Churchill acknowledged that this indictment of America's citizens applies also to him. For one, he enjoys privileges that are a fruit of conquest. "I am a citizen only by virtue of the U.S. impostion of itself upon my people," he wrote. (Churchill fancies himself to be part native American, a claim that has been questioned by his critics.) Despite his criticism of U.S. foreign policy, Churchill says he didn't do enough to block the U.S. war machine. "I am nonetheless here, in the belly of the beast, still alive and at liberty, and have thus done less than I could have. Hence I share in the political guilt of all Americans. It follows that had I been aboard one of the fatal aircraft on 9/11 or should I be similarly extinguished in the future, as is entirely possible under present circumstances, I will have no more basis for complaint than any other American."
Now the chickens are coming home to roost for Ward Churchill. Should he be surprised? Yes, but only at how leniently he is being treated. If America were really the ruthless war machine that he alleges, America would turn him over to Al Qaeda. The radical Muslims would then do their worst, which Churchill himself admits would be perfectly understandable and just. But America has attempted nothing of the sort. Instead, the U.S. war machine's Colorado representatives have decided merely to relieve Ward Churchill of his job. So what is the guy snivelling about? Could it be that he knows he's been playing the victim card for years and getting away with it, and now he expects to put on his American Indian outfit and cry some more, and hope that some politically correct jury falls for it and awards him a big sum of money? Churchill is right about one thing: only in America!
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 4)
16. Liberal,Liberal,Liberal,Liberal,Liberal,Liberal,Liberal. Geez you guys need to find a different scapegoat. With 70+% now being called Liberal,anyone whos different than you xenophobes is now liberal.
Hell,I even heard Bob Novak call bush a liberal. Let me tell you, he's yours, we want nothing to do with him.
DenCuddy at 7:06AM on Jul 26th 2007
17. Churchill might have freedom of speech, but he's still a total dick... and the University of Colorado still has the freedom to fire its employees.
Let's stop talking about this douchebag and forget him.
Tony Messinger at 8:26AM on Jul 26th 2007
18. What about Bush and Cheney? Now those are a couple of guys who should be in jail. Also,don't let the truth of Churchill's statements interfer with your sleep. God forbid if you begin to question the maddness.
gshort3011 at 8:31AM on Jul 26th 2007
19. ref # 11
We have free speech, but everything has limitations. As a professor he should know how to express opinion without stating out and out lies as fact. When any of us accept a job we all know that that job has some sort of standards. As a professor at UC he knew he was a representative of the school and they held him to certain standards.
Maybe University of California at Berserkly will hire him, they like nutty far left professors.
Mackie at 8:33AM on Jul 26th 2007
20. It was truly a good day when I read this story. This so called purveyor of higher learning did nothing to improve the standing of liberal teachings. He couldn't even write his own beliefs down and then expected everyone else to believe in what he wrote. Freedom of speech isn't free. It was paid for by the many lives that were given in times of war and even in times of protest. We tend to forget that sometimes. I often disagree with what many of the liberal elite have to say but I will gladly don a uniform again to fight for their right to say it. Their responsibility lies in making sure that they are truthful and that they hold everyone,regardless of party affiliation, to the same standard of conduct. WC claiming to be part Native is very funny. I saw a t-shirt this past week-end worn by a identifiable Native that said,"I'm part white but I can't prove it"
nativenurse at 9:38AM on Jul 26th 2007
21. for Nativenurse LOL, I love Tee shirts and bumper stickers at Pow Wow.
I had a sticker on my car, said,,,,, sure you can trust the government, ask an Indian.
Mackie at 9:56AM on Jul 26th 2007
22. Compare the ivory tower and media's treatment of Ward Churchill to Christian DeJohn's (you can Google him) free speech case at Temple University. Apparently, if a decorated, disabled veteran (DeJohn) exercises his First Amendment rights, he's denied his day in court and most fundamental Constitutional rights...but if a wacko like Churchill spouts off, the ivory towers and media rush to defend him and cite his "free speech..." What's wrong with this picture? Why isn;t DeJohn's story in the major media?
C. M. DeJohn at 10:06AM on Jul 26th 2007
23. Certainly Ward Chrurchill should lose his job, but I am surprised to not hear the Left rushing to his defense.
Apparently he even went to far for their taste.
Ken Berg at 10:24AM on Jul 26th 2007
24. Is this what D'souza and conservative punditry has been reduced to, scouring the nation looking for left wing wackos to wag their fingers at? Let's keep focused on the most important story: the right wing conservative wackos who are currently running the government. They have done irreparable harm to this country and its interest around the world and committed the worst strategic blunder in the history of our nation. Outside of corrupting a few tender minds at the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill's faults pale in comparison.
randy at 10:45AM on Jul 26th 2007
25. I hate to throw a wet blanket on the first 10 posts deriding WC's membership in the "Cherokee"...
But to be honest - I'm not sure the Cherokee are "Indian" anymore.
Think maybe it time for Congress to take a real hard look at that.
Insofar as WC's "chickens"...
Seems to be a lot of "homeless" chickens out there on the right. Now that a Democratic Congress has begun to provide free GPS systems...
Things should be regularly amusing.
BT at 11:07AM on Jul 26th 2007
26. I looked at looksbooks54's website link. The first two paragraphs read like a 6th grade creative writing project. Partly because of that I only took the first link, which in-of-itself provided enough information as to the investigative methods used.
Not only are the assertions about the Israeli's baseless, coming from their evidence, but it's obvious this person didn't read the article they linked to! Perhaps this is why their assertions are baseless?
Even if I was to assume they were correct. I couldn't do it from this information.
Finally, looksbooks54, Not all Zionists are Jews, not all Jews are Zionists. You need to take a serious look at the scientific method and logic as far as these accusations are concerned.
oneblood at 11:10AM on Jul 26th 2007
27. If this is still "America"!!I would hope that our centres of learning and the country at large, would agree that the right to an opinion is still a RIGHT and not a privilage to the selected.A Pied Piper mantality would not be healthy as we have wittnesed lately."Let the people speak"
Kevin at 11:40AM on Jul 26th 2007
28. Although I don't agree with WC regarding the "little Eichmanns", he has a point. Mr. D'Souza, you have once again shown your extremely poor journalism skills. America is, in fact, a ruthless war machine. Anyone who doesn't believe it needs to grow up and read some history.
As for professors, they receive tenure for a reason. It is to allow them the leeway to say things that might be unpopular. This happens to be one of those cases. I have read WC's other works and found very little factual errors. I find that most people who respond to these articles only know what FOX or CNN tells them to think.
People who contribute to the war machine/military-industrial complex, etc. should share some blame. After all, isn't that why we hanged so many NAZI's after WWII?
matt at 11:55AM on Jul 26th 2007
29. No, as a Democrat and college prof, I can attest that I never did like WC's antics. UC was too slow to act. University aculty need to respect their role as public employees, and they need to read their handbooks every so often. D'Souza, it is true, is looking for left-wing wackos and holding them up as an example of the current Democratic Party. That's absurd. I understand the frustration of the far right, having lost Congress, having no strong Presidential candidates, and no good news from either unfinished war, or from the barrage of scandal emanating from Washington. This is a truly lousy time to be a Republican, especially a professional neo-con pundit. But hey, Republicans, you could still try to be decent Americans, or at least decent people, couldn't you?
D'Souza's tactics, in skirting the real issues and constantly looking for weak scapegoats like Churchhill and Sheehan--these are desperate, transparent, and dumb maneuvers which fool no one.
mw
reallybigironmike at 12:18PM on Jul 26th 2007
30. I am definately a conservative and would NOT have fired Churchill for his 9/11 comments. Neither would I have signed up for any of his classes. The university system in the United States is indisputably in the hands of the political left. If the political right has Big Oil, the left has Big Education. The University of Colorado is a tolerent environment for anti-capitalism and the deconstruction of Western civilization. For the ruling elite of that Garden of Eden to fire Churchill 8-1 simply means that the smell of his plaigerism, false scholarship and deceit was even to pungent for them to bear.
John at 12:19PM on Jul 26th 2007