[NYTr] Churchill: Academic Freedom Petition Online
 
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:48:12 -0600 (CST)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 

The Colorado American Indian Movement Denver/Boulder Chapter has posted 
a petition defending academic freedom and Ward Churchill's right to 
freedom of speech and asking for public signatures. The petition is at:

http://www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm
 
The text of the petition appears below. 

[NOTE: while your e-mail address is not publicly visible, it is recorded by
the server on which the petition resides, a commercial site, and is also
available to the petition poster.

Read the privacy statement before signing and do not assume your e-mail
address or IP address are confidential or spam-safe. They merely aren't
public. Always read the privacy statement before signing any online
petition.- NY Transfer]

                             ***
 
Defend Ward Churchill and Protect Academic Freedom

To:  CU Board of Regents

To the Regents of the University of Colorado, Governor Bill Owens and 
the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Colorado:

We, the undersigned, vigorously oppose the efforts to fire, or otherwise 
remove, Professor Ward Churchill from the faculty of the University of 
Colorado.

The campaign to remove Churchill is an open call to persecute anyone who 
makes statements that some might consider anti-American, or who think 
thoughts deemed anti-American.

The media-driven frenzy to purge Churchill possesses all the hallmarks 
of a new McCarthyism, and represents a dangerous trend of intellectual 
intolerance across the nation and in the academy.

The moment is a reminder that many of our natural rights as enshrined in 
the Constitution of the United States are today in jeopardy under such 
onerous laws as the USA PATRIOT Act.

Now, the effort on the part of the CU Regents and the State of Colorado 
to remove Professor Churchill threatens to create the atmosphere for a 
new academic blacklist, which we find to be a chilling and wholly 
undemocratic development.

While the incidents of 9/11/01 are grave and to be taken seriously by 
all, the nation is by no means united as to their meaning. According to 
the Washington Post, a Zogby poll released late last summer said that 
49 percent of New York City residents believed that national leaders 
"knew in advance that attacks were planned ... and that they consciously 
failed to act." An even larger proportion of people of color in New York 
take this view.

We, the undersigned, say that neither New Yorkers nor Prof. Churchill 
should be labeled, harassed, or persecuted as traitors. The state and 
its representatives have no business purging academics for their beliefs 
and for the exercise of free speech.

Indeed, many of us concur with Professor Churchills views of the unjust 
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; others believe in freedom of speech, 
especially in the academy; others of us understand that the persecution, 
even the murder, of Native Americans and their most vocal defenders is a 
norm in American history, and feel grave concern for Professor 
Churchills physical well being; others of us oppose the persecution of 
those whose blood quantum doesnt meet the standards of modern day 
eugenicists.

And, yes, some of us agree, even strongly agree, with Professor 
Churchills analysis of US government acts of genocide against the 
children of Iraq, and with his assessments of technocrats in much of the 
U.S. corporate world.

Regardless of our motivations, all of the undersigned are united with a 
single voice in demanding an end to the persecution of Professor Ward 
Churchill. We insist that all efforts to remove him from the faculty of 
the University of Colorado cease immediately.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned
       
                                *
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