Ok, I get the animosity toward Churchill. I saw him on CNN when he gave
the UofC talk-tirade and thought that he was alienating, and that his
arguments suffered from coherence. But when you put him side by side
with the likes of Bush & Cheney & that cold nazi Rumsfeld how can he
possibly come out on the short end? I think that he can be faulted for
his delivery, for his "uncontrolled" anger - it's so unacademic - for
his antagonistic and egocentric demeanor but if this fellow is going to
be crucified by the right and by the left, then the status of any
academic in the US of A is in a fragile state. Someone earlier pointed
to the Campus Watch group - they aren't some fresh new collection - they
have been around for years and their consolidation of influence is
becoming visible now because of the spotlight onWard Churchill. I'm on
the outskirts of academia for sure and perhaps that makes me oblivious
to whatever pressures to comform exist but still, it worries me that
there's such a rabid reaction to Churchill because he blemishes the name
of academia, and such apathy when it comes to the really frightening
people of this world and really frightening measures such as those
written into the Patriot Act.

Ann


Kenneth Wolman wrote:

> [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> Just sat through the streaming video of Ward Churchill's speech at the
>> U. of Colo. I have mixed feelings about this person. He has a point
>> about American policy and about Native Americans, but his manner of
>> delivery--the hysteria and the lack of reasoning behind his words, as
>> well as his open advocacy of violence--doesn't belong in a classroom.
>> He'll do well on the speaker's circuit, plus the buy-out that's
>> coming up from the U. of Colorado will keep him going. It's obvious to
>> me that he's another wannabe who grew up watching Billy Jack movies.
>> (I have more Cherokee blood in my right fist than he does in his whole
>> body.) A paper of his is up for view at his official University
>> web-page and it's not very impressive. On top of that more information
>> keep coming out on his plagiarisms and other more sinsiter practices.
>> Too bad that the Red Power movement has embraced this one. Jesse
>>
>>
> This morning I read all of Churchill's comments that I could endure,
> including the arrogant, sarcastic, and not-so-slightly authoritarian
> injunctions to his questioners to basically shut up. I wonder what this
> man is like in a classroom. He's already cost the President of UoC her
> job. The idea he stated, that he doesn't answer to anyone, is what I
> would expect from a fucked-up 15-year-old in a school for troubled
> adolescents, not the comment of a grown man.
>
> To turn around The Godfather, this is not just business, it's personal.
> I did not know anyone who died in the Trade Center, but I know two men
> who worked in it and were fortunately elsewhere that day: one went
> surfing, the other was at a seminar in New Jersey. They both were in
> the investment banking business. One works for Cantor Fitzgerald, the
> other for Marsh McClennan. I suppose that makes them Little Eichmanns
> in Churchill's roster of shameful people. On September 11, 2001 I was
> working at Merrill Lynch, 1/2 mile due north of Tower One, ironically
> writing disaster recovery procedures that would keep yet another
> financial joint in business. Is this where I say "Sieg heil" or throw
> "The Ride of the Valkyries" on the tape deck while I strafe a Vietnamese
> village?
>
> I have no doubt that the Bush White House had a pretty good idea of what
> was about to happen, in much the same way the sainted FDR allowed Pearl
> Harbor to happen as a pretext to get us into WW2, and just as the
> British allowed Coventry to be bombed lest they betray to the Germans
> that they'd cracked their code. Complicity starts at a far higher level
> than with some trader on the phone at Cantor at 8:46 that morning. If
> Dr. Churchill is so fucking in love with his beloved kitchen help and
> porters in such buildings, my fondest hope is that he goes to work
> alongside them.
>
> Ken
>
> --
> ---------------
> Kenneth Wolman www.kenwolman.com kenwolman.blogspot.com
> If you want patience, go to medical school.
>

--
"The sweetest of all sounds is praise."
        -Xenophon

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