Ward Churchill Should Try to Get a Teaching Job at Liberty University!

...if the promising opportunity at Casa Bonita doesn't pan-out!

Commenters are posting their opinions about Ward Churchill following ACTA President Anne Neal's 6-19-07 article in Inside Higher Education. [I already wrote about Neal's article here.]

A poster named "Ken" complained that ACTA has a double standard because they supposedly attacked the free speech of the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill for his 9-11 article "Some People Push Back" but didn't go after Jerry Falwell of Liberty University when Falwell blamed America for 9-11.

According to Ken, Falwell said:

The abortionists have got to bear some burden for [9-11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'

Ken is not arguing logically at all.

Ken demands one set of rules for Jerry Falwell and another set of rules for Ward Churchill. ACTA has to have one standard for both.

Ward Churchill is not being investigated by C. U. for his idiotic 9-11 article "Some People Push Back" where he characterized the victims of 9-11 as "little Eichmanns."

[People should note, however, that Churchill is such a foolish person that he made the amazing comment in "Some People Push Back" that Madeleine Albright "responded" (in 1996) to the 1998 remarks of a U.N. official.]

Ken asks why ACTA didn't target Jerry Falwell for his stupid analysis of 9-11. The answer is because ACTA believes in free speech.

ACTA can't have a double standard--one for Ward Churchill and another for Jerry Falwell.

ACTA defended Ward Churchill's right to free speech when he made his stupid 9-11 remarks; hence, ACTA can't go after Jerry Falwell for his free speech if they don't go after Ward Churchill for his free speech.

Here is the text of ACTA's defense of Churchill's right to his opinions about 9-11.

Look, Ken! Look! ACTA said Churchill's remarks are NOT grounds for firing him:

GROUP DEFENDS COLORADO PROFESSOR:
Calling 9-11 Victims “Eichmanns” Is Not Grounds for Firing

WASHINGTON, DC (February 11, 2005) – The American Council of Trustees and Alumni today came to the defense of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill who is under investigation after publishing a commentary claiming America got what it deserved on September 11.

According to Churchill, “on the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens—along with some half-million dead Iraqi children—came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York’s world trade center. Well, actually a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well.” Claiming that destruction of the twin towers resulted from America’s own actions, Churchill called victims of the attack “little Eichmanns.”

A number of legislators and political leaders have called for Churchill’s firing in the wake of his controversial comments. The Colorado Board of Regents has demanded that university administrators undertake a study to determine whether Churchill should be fired for “professional incompetence.”

“Professor Churchill’s claims that the victims of 9-11 were ‘little Eichmanns,’ is simply outrageous, totally absurd, mean, hateful and perverse. Even so, he should not be fired in the absence of academic due process,” said ACTA President Anne D. Neal [full text].

I think commenter Ken is really trying to make a false analogy here to confuse people.

The ACTA defended Churchill's free speech. Churchill's dishonest research is a separate issue.

I think Falwell's remarks were ignorant, cruel, opportunistic, and un-Christian; and he was harshly criticized for them in 2001. Still, they were his opinion and protected by free speech.

Liberty University never accused Jerry Falwell of what Ward Churchill's employer accused him of---research misconduct. Had Falwell been accused by Liberty University of research misconduct, this clergyman ran a private religious institution that may have operated under different rules for research misconduct.

Ward Churchill doesn't work for Liberty College. He works for the University of Colorado, a public university. He has to follow the rules about research conduct of his own institution, just like other professors at C.U. and despite the fact that he is a celebrity revolutionary. I believe that these rules are basically the same rules for research that the Federal Government requires scholars to follow when it gives grant money.

Perhaps Ward Churchill would be more comfortable preaching at Liberty University where they share his tinfoil perspective about who is at fault for 9-11.