Letters the week of 2/17/05

Editor's note: Not surprisingly, last week's interview with University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, titled "American dissident," garnered a landslide of letters to the editor, far more than we can accommodate. Columns by Wayne Laugesen and Ari Armstrong regarding Churchill also generated lots of responses. We'll run as many as we can. Some letters have been edited for length.

Speaking his truth

(Re: "American dissident," cover story, Feb. 10.) Thank you for your interview with Ward Churchill. Until I heard his explanation of his essay and actually read it, I was tempted to write him off as another Native American wannabe using his credentials as a member of a minority to advance his career.

However, I find his thoughts consistent with that of Native Americans in that he holds that the lives of all humans are of equal worth. We sometimes forget that the concept of equality was a gift from the aboriginal population of the North American continent to the European immigrants, and too many Americans forget that the Europeans were not here first. They think that hemisphere was empty until Columbus came.

Mr. Churchill has dared to speak truth to power, and for that we must be grateful. Why don't more people have his courage?

Joe Walker/via Internet

Many appreciate you allowing Ward to give the interview through Boulder Weekly.

Teresa Kurtzhall/UnitedNativeAmerica.com

Thank you, Boulder Weekly and Pamela White, for giving Ward Churchill an open forum to let us see the real him. You gave him an opportunity to duck, juke, spin and put his best face forward. As a Jew in Boulder who has suffered through years of his lies and insults regarding our land, our people and the Holocaust, it is a blessing that the rest of the world now knows what we Jews have had to endure from this tenured instructor. The man spewed hate and unsupported jihadist philosophy as though it is natural law of some sort.

Unlike the thoughtful, reasoned speech and writing of most professors under whom I've had the privilege to learn (U. of Pennsylvania and George Washington University), he curses like a drunken sailor (no disrespect to our fine navy personnel intended). In a moment of his version of lucidity, he states, "I want the whole g-damned process to stop, you know... I didn't judge Eichmann. I didn't impose the death penalty. [The Jews in Israel did and hanged him.] You can adduce that if Eichmann is worthy of death because of what he had done in arranging train schedules and such, then these other Eichmanns are worthy of death."

Arranging train schedules and such! There Ward goes again, denying the Holocaust and causing me and other Jews a substantial amount of pain, as there is no doubt among those who are intellectually honest and sane that Eichmann spent the better part of a decade designing the SS killing machine to fulfill Hitler's wish to kill all the Jews in Europe. (They ran out of gas, so to speak, at six million).

What a source of pride this man is to CU. I don't want to deny him the right to vomit this vile filth; I just refuse to have him teaching in my state university on my nickel. He must go!

Matthew S. Finberg/Chairman, The Jewish Defense League

The Churchill interview was one of the best I've ever read or heard. It cleared up a lot of my questions and issues with the statements Ward made. My respect for the man and his methods has increased. My respect for the Boulder Weekly, too, has increased. I greatly appreciate the fact that someone finally asked Ward the important questions and gave him the time to respond.

Jon Orlando/via Internet

Regarding your Ward Churchill problem at CU-Boulder, I believe the university should allow him to remain. Also, I think that any college that so desires should invite him to speak at every turn. Why should one silence moronic speech because one doesn't agree (even though Churchill's idiotic rants have no foundation whatever in history)? As John Stewart Mill would say, "Fight bad speech with more speech."

As one of a few conservatives at Georgetown, I can say I support Churchill's continued tenure at CU. When the American people continue hearing him, and the ilk on the left that support/agree with him, the revulsion will be a boon to the GOP. The free market place of ideas is where this battle is and should remain. So, I say, let 'im speak!

Michael Allen Leach/via Internet

Thanks for putting Professor Churchill on the cover of your Feb. 10-16 issue. I was perusing this issue while sitting on the john. I realized I was running short of toilet tissue, and the cover spread came in quite handy. I'll pick up a stack of your papers for future use.

On the other hand, I applaud you for running Ari Armstrong's fine editorial, "CU comforts terrorists." I do not deny Churchill's right to say and think (in that order, probably) what he wants. However, the issue is about what we teach our children. Never once in business school, where I suppose that I did learn to be a fairly competent technocrat, was I taught that the murder of innocents was a legitimate business or capitalistic strategy. On the other hand, Mr. Churchill openly advocates the murder of innocents as a just strategy to protest the "evils" of capitalism and economic freedom. I don't care what human excrement the likes of him says or thinks. But the fact that our university system allows him to teach it is abhorrent.

We've heard many times that the war on terrorism is as much a war of ideas and wills as it is a war in the conventional sense. If this is true, then it is true that Churchill, in spreading this bile, is as much a terrorist as those that hijacked the planes. It's the ultimate double-edged sword that his kind of terrorism is protected by our free society.

Rusty Staff/Boulder

Let Churchill speak

(Re: "Call me Sitting Bull," Wayne's Word, and "CU comforts terrorists," Liberty Beat, Feb. 10.) What the heck are Wayne Laugesen and Ari Armstrong doing? Do I agree with Ward Churchill? Not really. But do I think he has a right to say what he wants to say? Absolutely.

Wayne's article was funny, but sort of dumb if you think about it. Who cares if Churchill is an Indian?

Ari, on the other hand, seems to have taken the entire affair personally. Does he deny his own right to say the things he said? Would he condemn someone for attacking him for his views? I doubt it. He would say, "I have a right to my opinion."

This isn't about what Churchill said. It's about his right to say it. Let him talk, and tell Ari to quit supporting the people trying to kill free speech.

Elijah Blue/via Internet

Qualified by blood

(Re: "Call me Sitting Bull," Wayne's Word, Feb. 10.) You go, guy! I'm English, Irish, Dutch, German, French and Indian. The Indian came into the family line around 1880, the Irish and English started off around 1600 or so, and the rest wandered in as they got up the cash to buy a boat ticket. So I'm just as qualified as Churchill? Cool.

JD Bell/via Internet

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