Columns and articles about Ward

Columns and articles about Ward.

Controversial Colorado prof dropped from UO conference

EUGENE (AP) -- The University of Oregon canceled an appearance by a professor who has come under heavy criticism for an essay suggesting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists were justified.

Ward Churchill, an ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado, was scheduled to appear at an April 1 conference on race and immigration issues in the post-Sept. 11 era.

The university removed him from the list of speakers more than two weeks ago, shortly after his planned appearance at New York's Hamilton College pushed him into the national spotlight. Hamilton officials had to cancel his appearance after receiving thousands of protests, including threats of violence. Oregon's decision to follow suit is at least the fourth engagement struck from Churchill's calendar. full article

The following column comes from Jack McCarthy

Buchanan Does a Churchill

By JACK McCARTHY

The attack on the U.S. by al-Qaeda was a result of U.S. imperialism and interventionism in the Middle East.

And interventionism is the cause not the result of terrorism.

Another rhetorical fussilade from Ward Churchill?

No, that was Churchill nemesis Joe Scaraborough's frequent guest host Pat Buchanan speaking on Meet the Press a week after the media feeding frenzy over Churchill's essay.

On Meet the Press for February 13th Pat Buchanan debated former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky on U.S. policy in the Middle East.

The moderator was the unctous Tim Russert who sat passively as Patsy uttered his Churchillian--as in Ward--analysis of the events of 911. full article

A column by Ted Rall

CENSOR THIS COLUMN

Tue Feb 15, 6:40 PM ET
By Ted Rall

NEW YORK--Nothing should appear in a newspaper unless it has first been approved by a government censor, say half the high school students in a recent poll. So free-speechers are losing the never-ending war over freedom of expression. This is because censorship is being redefined.

The latest skirmish over the First Amendment concerns Ward Churchill, an ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which is a liberal enclave in a conservative state. Hamilton College in upstate New York, which had invited Professor Churchill to speak about American Indian activism, cancelled his appearance after someone Googled his name and found an essay he had written three years earlier--which appeared without a smidgen of attention at the time, much less controversy. full article

This is the statement from the Native American Cultural Awareness Association

Statement from the Native American Cultural Awareness Association
The student-run organization, the Native American Cultural Awareness
Association (NACAA), and the office of Native American Support Services
(NASS) at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater would like to take the
opportunity to carefully explain our position on the upcoming March 1st
Ward Churchill presentation, as a component of our annual Native Pride
Week event.

We certainly understand that Mr. Churchill’s comments regarding the 9/11
tragedy have offended a large number of people. However, we, along with
our co-sponsor the College of Letters and Sciences, support first
amendment rights and academic freedom. A great deal of students, faculty,
and staff would like to hear what Professor Churchill has to say, and we
support their right to hear him speak. We also support the rights of
students who do not wish to attend the lecture.

We contacted Mr. Churchill in July to give a lecture on the topic of
Racism Against the American Indian.� We selected Churchill on the
basis of his Native American scholarship and commitment to the cause, not
his ethnicity as a "real" Indian man. He is a past national spokesperson
for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and has served as a delegate to
the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. We selected
Churchill based on his long history of working with indigenous communities
and his expert understanding of Indian affairs.

To address some of the concerns of those offended by Mr. Churchill, we
will also be co-sponsoring another lecture to take place during this
spring semester. We intend to work with faculty to select a speaker that
can properly address some of the differing viewpoints. We certainly
welcome the dialogue, and hope that this effort demonstrates that we are
truly in support of academic freedom, having a genuine desire to hear all
points of view. Out of respect for those offended by Mr. Churchill’s
comments, his presentation will not be supported by state funds.

By continuing to host Mr. Churchill’s presentation we certainly do not
advocate hatred and certainly do not wish to perpetuate the image of the
>American Indian that hates all white people. In terms of our Native Pride
Week as a whole, we've done our best to present a fair and balanced
perspective of Indian issues. In particular, Jim Northrup, most certainly
a patriot, will be giving a lecture about the involvement of American
Indians in the Vietnam War.

This country needs a certain degree of “healing� in regard to race and
ethnic relations. The following are our goals in this year’s Native
Pride Week program:

We've asked Ada Deer to highlight some of the significant
contributions Indian women have made to this country.

We™ve asked Ward Churchill to articulate some of the painful racism
that really does exist in Indian country; many students do not have a
complete and accurate understanding of current Native American social
problems.

We™ve asked Jim Northrup to discuss the experiences of the Indian
people who have served in the military for this country.

And we especially look forward to Mr. Neil Hall’s conclusion of the
lecture series, teaching us how to find this healing we need through
prayer and ceremony.

We are confident in the ability of our campus community to behave in an
appropriate manner, even though Mr. Churchill may challenge their own
point of view. We are also committed to ensuring a safe learning
environment on the UW-Whitewater campus.

This Native Pride Week series was created to educate the campus community
about current Native American issues and our ultimate goal is to educate
and unite, not offend.

Sincerely,

NACAA/NASS
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater