Colorado Regents Weigh Ward Churchill's 9/11 Comments
DENVER - The University of Colorado's regents have scheduled a special meeting to consider a professor's essay that said victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks deserved to die because they were a willing part of "the mighty engine of profit." Colo. Regents Weigh Prof's 9/11 CommentsAP | January 30, 2005
DENVER - The University of Colorado's regents have scheduled a special meeting to consider a professor's essay that said victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks deserved to die because they were a willing part of "the mighty engine of profit."
The essay by Ward Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies department and a longtime Indian activist, was written in the aftermath of the attacks. Its contents became known when he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Syracuse, N.Y.
Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims have protested the college's decision to allow Churchill to speak on Thursday, the same day the Colorado regents will meet on the university's Fitzsimons campus.
CU Provost Phil DiStefano last week said Churchill's views do not represent the university, but he had a right to express them.
A critic, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., said that because Churchill is tenured he apparently is immune from any sanctions by the university but should apologize. There was no answer at Churchill's office phone Sunday, and his private phone is not listed.
Following the attacks, Churchill wrote an essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," that hailed the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.
He said although the victims were civilians they were not innocent. He went on to describe the World Trade Center victims as "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's plan to exterminate Europe's Jews.