Controversial CU prof resigns as department chair
But Churchill will retain teaching job
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 31, 2005 -
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, under fire for comparing victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack to Nazis, resigned today as chairman of CU's ethnic studies department but will continue on as a teacher.
CU Arts and Sciences dean Todd Gleeson accepted the resignation.
"I believe it is in the best interests of both the university and Professor Churchill that he step away from his administrative role in the department at this time," Gleeson said.
Churchill's term as department chair was to expire in June.
In his letter to Gleeson, Churchill said he is proud of his administrative accomplishments but the present political climate made him a liability in representing his department and the university.
In an essay entitled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," published shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, Churchill compared the World Trade Center victims to "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who managed the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews.
Earlier today, Churchill said in a statement issued through his wife, Natsu Saito, that he hadn't compared all of the World Trade Center victims to Nazis, just the "technicians" who died in the attacks.
"I have never characterized all the Sept. 11 victims as Nazis. What I said was that the 'technocrats of empire' working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of 'little Eichmanns.' Thus it was obviously not directed to the children, janitors, food service workers, firemen and random passers-by killed in the 9-1-1 attack," Churchill said.
Churchill said he isn't a "defender" of the Sept. 11 attacks, but meant to point out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, "we cannot feign innocence when some of the destruction is returned."
CHURCHILL'S ESSAY
Click here to see Ward Churchill's essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," as posted on a third-party website. Todd Gleeson, dean of the University of Colorado's College of Arts and Sciences, which oversees Churchill's department, has indicated to The Denver Post that this posting is an authentic copy of Churchill's essay.
In Churchill's essay, he said the Pentagon was a military target, "pure and simple."
"As to those in the World Trade Center ... Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire - the 'mighty engine of profit' to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved."
The essay attracted attention when Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College, about 40 miles east of Syracuse, N.Y. His appearance is scheduled for Thursday.
Hamilton President Joan Hinde sent an e-mail to faculty on Sunday, repeating the position that "however repugnant one might find Mr. Churchill's remarks," the college was committed to his right of free speech and would not rescind its invitation to speak.
Hundreds of relatives of Sept. 11 victims have protested Churchill's upcoming appearance. William Doyle of 9/11 Families for a Secure America said people in the New York City region may charter a bus to the event.
Administrators have moved Churchill's appearance to a building that can seat 2,000, instead of the originally planned 300.
Churchill today lashed out at media coverage of the controversy, saying it had resulted in death threats and defamation of his character.
His comments comparing the 9/11 victims have brought calls for apologies from members of Congress and demands from some that Churchill be fired.
Kathy Trant, the wife of victim Dan Trant, plans to confront Churchill when he speaks in New York Thursday. Dan Trant was an All-American basketball player in college and a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees in the World Trade Center attack.
"I want to ask him why he feels the way he does," Kathy Trant said today. "It is just hurtful and I think this man is looking for attention."
"People don't know how much it hurts. I lost my life that day. He was drafted by the (Boston) Celtics, he went to church, they named at gymnasium after him in our town. This was a good human being that loved all people. Why would he say this to hurt us?"
Richard Pecorella, whose fiancee Karen Juday was an administrative assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald, said he is outraged.
"I feel it is almost defamation of character of these people," Pecorella said today. "This is not an ethnic issue or freedom of speech issue. This is someone outright saying these people deserved to be murdered because they worked for corporate America. And he compares them to Nazis, that's outrageous."
Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said Churchill hadn't clarified much in his second statement.
"There were no legitimate targets for the 9/11 attacks. Thousands of innocent people were killed in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania. There is no way to rationalize those attacks," Pacheco said.
denverpost.com |
