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Announcement :: Civil & Human Rights : Education : International Relations : Protest Activity |
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Churchill Defense Petition from Colorado AIM |
Current rating: 0 |
by Leslie Radford repost from global IMC via Dose of Reality
(No verified email address) |
19 Feb 2005
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This is the best thing I've seen yet on the whole Ward Churchill controversy. While I remain somewhat skeptical of some aspects of Ward's background and his occasional cozying up to the extreme right, the principle of academic freedom must be defended, even if you don't wish to defend the man. |
The Colorado American Indian Movement has posted a petition defending Churchill's right to freedom of speech and asking for public endorsements.
http://www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm
Whatever one may think of Ward Churchill's now much-publicized remarks on 911, "patriotic" zealots have overwhelmingly endorsed stifling his freedom to speak. Churchill has been demoted, his job is being threatened by the Colorado Board of Regents, members of the Colorado State Legislature, and the Colorado governor. The efforts to publicly tarnish his reputation increase daily.
The threat to Professor Churchill, ostensibly under the protection of both Constitutional freedom of speech and academic freedom of speech, endangers not only the sanctity of ivory tower, but is an open assault on dissent in all forums. If it can happen within the academy, then the free speech of all workers is in jeopardy.
Today employers like the CO Board of Regents beard for the government where the government can not (yet) reach in to do the dirty work itself. And tomorrow? Already the Colorado governor and members of the legislature are calling for Churchill's dismissal. Political difference, dissent, and disagreement, whatever our cause, is in grave jeopardy.
Our nation's sharpest voices are under attack; our smaller voices must unite to defend them. The campaign to silence dissent begins with the chill of silencing a few: West, Churchill, Stewart, Baraka . . . and we have started down the short path to McCarthy-esque fascism.
To sign the petition, go to http://www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm . The independence to seek truth, wherever it may lie, is at stake.
TEXT OF THE PETITION
To: CU Board of Regents
To the Regents of the University of Colorado, Governor Bill Owens and the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Colorado:
We, the undersigned, vigorously oppose the efforts to fire, or otherwise remove, Professor Ward Churchill from the faculty of the University of Colorado.
The campaign to remove Churchill is an open call to persecute anyone who makes statements that some might consider anti-American, or who think thoughts deemed anti-American.
The media-driven frenzy to purge Churchill possesses all the hallmarks of a new McCarthyism, and represents a dangerous trend of intellectual intolerance across the nation and in the academy.
The moment is a reminder that many of our natural rights as enshrined in the Constitution of the United States are today in jeopardy under such onerous laws as the USA PATRIOT Act.
Now, the effort on the part of the CU Regents and the State of Colorado to remove Professor Churchill threatens to create the atmosphere for a new academic “blacklist,” which we find to be a chilling and wholly undemocratic development.
While the incidents of 9/11/01 are grave and to be taken seriously by all, the nation is by no means united as to their meaning. According to the Washington Post, a Zogby poll released late last summer said that “49 percent of New York City residents believed that national leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned . . . and that they consciously failed to act." An even larger proportion of people of color in New York take this view.
We, the undersigned, say that neither New Yorkers nor Prof. Churchill should be labeled, harassed, or persecuted as traitors. The state and its representatives have no business purging academics for their beliefs and for the exercise of free speech.
Indeed, many of us concur with Professor Churchill’s views of the unjust occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; others believe in freedom of speech, especially in the academy; others of us understand that the persecution, even the murder, of Native Americans and their most vocal defenders is a norm in American history, and feel grave concern for Professor Churchill’s physical well being; others of us oppose the persecution of those whose “blood quantum” doesn’t meet the standards of modern day eugenicists.
And, yes, some of us agree, even strongly agree, with Professor Churchill’s analysis of US government acts of genocide against the children of Iraq, and with his assessments of technocrats in much of the U.S. corporate world.
Regardless of our motivations, all of the undersigned are united with a single voice in demanding an end to the persecution of Professor Ward Churchill. We insist that all efforts to remove him from the faculty of the University of Colorado cease immediately.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
http://www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm |
See also:
http://www.coloradoaim.org/
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