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Ain't America great?
http://reuters.myway.com/article/200...ERSITY-DC.html
Scholar Defiant Amid Furor Over 9/11 Remarks
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Feb 9, 1:50 AM (ET)
By Keith Coffman
BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - A University of Colorado professor under fire for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal on Tuesday refused to apologize for his remarks.
"I am not backing off an inch," said Ward Churchill, drawing an ovation from a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,200 students and backers gathered in a ballroom. "I owe no one an apology."
Churchill, who filed a lawsuit earlier in the day after officials at the state-funded university had threatened to cancel his speech, said his central message was that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had been provoked by U.S. foreign policy.
"Naturally and inevitably, what you put out will blow back on you and that's what happened," Churchill said.
In his essay, "Some People Push Back," written shortly after Sept. 11, Churchill said the hijackers had mounted "counterattacks" in the face of hostile U.S. policy in the Middle East and a campaign of "genocide" against Iraq through the trade sanctions imposed after the first Gulf War.
In the essay, later revised for a book, Churchill also said that World Trade Center victims could not be seen as innocent, calling them "little Eichmanns," a reference to German World War II criminal Adolf Eichmann.
"True enough, they were civilians of a sort," he wrote. "But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire."
'I DON'T WORK FOR BILL OWENS'
Churchill, a veteran Native American activist, first attracted widespread notice last month after Hamilton College in New York canceled a scheduled appearance, citing threats against him and others who had been slated to appear.
The University of Colorado then launched an investigation, a first step toward possibly firing Churchill.
Scholars have rallied to the defense of what they see as the free-speech rights at stake in the case, saying the firing of a tenured professor over unpopular remarks would threaten academic freedoms.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, has called for Churchill to be dismissed and state lawmakers have passed resolutions denouncing him.
"I do not work for the taxpayers of Colorado, and I don't work for Bill Owens. I work for you," Churchill told the audience.
Churchill has resigned as chairman of the university's ethnic studies department but has threatened to sue the school if he is fired.
Churchill said he felt sorrow for "the firefighters, food service workers, broom pushers and passersby" who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But he added that he also felt sorrow for the 500,000 Iraqi children he said had died as a result of the sanctions imposed on that country after the first Gulf War.
And he said he thought his initial published remarks had been deliberately miscast by conservative pundits.
"Nowhere in there did I justify the killing of innocent people," he told Reuters. "Those words are not there."
University administrators reversed course on Tuesday, allowing Churchill's speech to take place after determining students who organized the speech had not received death threats, as one had earlier claimed.
Even so, Churchill's lawyer, Darold Killmer, asked U.S. District Judge Bob Blackburn to grant an injunction that would prevent the university from "further suppression" of Churchill's free speech rights.
Blackburn gave the university until Feb. 24 to respond to that pe ion.
Ain't America great?
Yes it is.
I think those are very poor remarks. It's his right nonetheless.
he is only 3/16ths Native American.. ing Native American activist.. whatever!
That's ok, you're only 15/16ths dumbass, and we let you keep the entire le.
and your ears are 15/16ths the wingspan of a 747!
I have to remember that one.
This guy is en led to his opionion as I am mine. And mine is that he is a few cards shy of a full deck.
So what is your take on his remarks Manny?
Without reading his remarks in context and entirety...
It's extremist and I don't agree with him. Some dude working at Meryl Lynch maybe be supporting bad foreign policy in a very extreme way, but in no way does that make him a non civillian.
I have a feeling he didn't put it that simply though. Remarks that generate this much furor are almost always taken out of context.
I based my opinion on what I just read ... and I honestly don't think there is any way, shape or form that he could convince me that those 9/11 victims were even remotely not innocent victims.
I don't need to read his book or watch him speak to believe that.
Seems like a publicity stunt for his book.
Yeah, I definetly agree with that, but what I think gets lost is his overall message that the commercial society that fuels our foreign policy which has led to the US being the target of terrorist attacks. He makes a reach of an association by saying that people working in that society are not innocent and it's one of a reach.
That's like saying, since I'm not a Muslim in the middle East, I am a target for terrorism.
So if someone takes public money do they lose their 1st amendment rights?
in another thread some of us stated... no, you don't lose your rights... but that doesn't mean you can't be fired for exercising your 1st amendment rights..
Nope. Just stating what I believe is the reasoning behind making such an inflammatory comment.
Uh oh, sig warfare!
but can you figure out which one he is?
Maybe he needs to post a pic of him and a couple Silver Dancers down at the local HEB when they were out in the community meeting with the peasants.
nah, you would mess my picture up!
chicken?
I'm not to worried about what Clad thinks I look like. If him saying I look like a monkey helps him cope with being a mental midget, then feel free.
The women have never had a problem with my big ears.
No it's that small penis!
Something to hold on to?
you and your woman look happy together.. I guess that is all that truly matters...
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