Please announce, sign, post, and forward the following petition in support of Professor Ward Churchill to everyone in your address book and any and all appropriate lists and organizations - including programmers, staff, writers and producers in all forms of alternative media.

You can view the petition at

www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm

The Leadership Council of the Colorado American Indian Movement has endorsed this petition.

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 Churchill's 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 Churchill's physical well being; others of us oppose the persecution of those whose "blood quantum" doesn't meet the standards of modern day eugenicists.

And, yes, some of us agree, even strongly agree, with Professor Churchill's 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

He's paid by the university to teach and do specific research. Everything else he writes is basically his own free time.

It's this off-the-clock activist work that got him the job in the first place. If he hadn't done it, he wouldn't be working there. What a paradox eh? If these right-wingers get their way, the only pro-government "yes-men" would get academic jobs. That's a sure-fire way to turn the universities into stale, intellectually dead, "knowledge" factories. (As if they aren't already...) You might as well turn them into fascist re-education camps.

Secondarily, as a taxpayer (though not in Colorado), I would want my money to go toward hiring people like Churchill. (I just wish he weren't paid so much compared to janitors.) So, don't start talking on behalf of all taxpayers, you anti-frreedom fascist.

There are a few professors that I wish my taxes in California weren't supporting, like Vincent Sarich, who is almost a eugenicist. But, he's hired to teach and do research, first and foremost. So, the people need to grant him freedom, particularly in things he does on his own time.

This smear campaign is a new McCarthyism.

All Churchill's done is write an inflammatory essay.

If you can't write an inflammatory essay on your free time, without suffering reprisals from work... what the fuck kind of freedom do we really have?

If you red-baiting fascists have your way, nobody critical of the government would be able to get work. I'm sure you think that's great, but, frankly, that's Un-American.

How about Kissinger's cushy job "teaching" at Harvard? I bet he doesn't have to grade any papers or show up for any 8 AM freshman level classes. He may not have to show up for anything except to meet potential donors to the University.

Harvard may in theory be a private university, but it receives tens of millions of dollars every year in Federal aid - perhaps a good deal more than that. Churchill hasn't killed anyone, yet this mass murderer Kissinger (Chile, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the backing of South Africa, the supply of arms to the vicious Indonesian dictatorship, and many other crimes) lives a life of ease. You won't see any right wingers calling for him to be removed from the Ivy League and placed in a prison cell.

How about Kissinger's cushy job "teaching" at Harvard? I bet he doesn't have to grade any papers or show up for any 8 AM freshman level classes. He may not have to show up for anything except to meet potential donors to the University.

Harvard may in theory be a private university, but it receives tens of millions of dollars every year in Federal aid - perhaps a good deal more than that. Churchill hasn't killed anyone, yet this mass murderer Kissinger (Chile, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the backing of South Africa, the supply of arms to the vicious Indonesian dictatorship, and many other crimes) lives a life of ease. You won't see any right wingers calling for him to be removed from the Ivy League and placed in a prison cell.

He's paid by the university to teach and do specific research. Everything else he writes is basically his own free time.

>>>> As you may know, when you accept certain jobs, you are also tying your image to the job itself and you ARE held accountable in your off hours.. How long do you think a cop would last if he was discovered putting KKK pamphlets on cars? (a wet dream scenario for leftists).

>>>> There are hundreds of people now who have been fired for writing about their places of employment on their own time, on their own dime. As a certain black radical once said, "EVERYTHING is political." And I'm afraid he was right.

It's this off-the-clock activist work that got him the job in the first place. If he hadn't done it, he wouldn't be working there. What a paradox eh?

>>>> As I understand it, he lied about being an Indian to become head of the Indian Studies Dept. or some nonsense to GET the job? We'll see...

If these right-wingers get their way, the only pro-government "yes-men" would get academic jobs. That's a sure-fire way to turn the universities into stale, intellectually dead, "knowledge" factories. (As if they aren't already...) You might as well turn them into fascist re-education camps.

>>>> Well the problem then isn't right or lef wing, is it? It's having GOVERNMENT control over universities through tax dollars, just like the gummint spreads propaganda thru the "public" schools. It beats me, a mere commoner, why the ivory tower nudniks of academia--almost liberal to the last one---are given gummint money for basically doing nothing.

Secondarily, as a taxpayer (though not in Colorado), I would want my money to go toward hiring people like Churchill. (I just wish he weren't paid so much compared to janitors.) So, don't start talking on behalf of all taxpayers, you anti-frreedom fascist.

>>>> There's a big difference between being opposed to the war (or any war) for cogent reasons and being a flaming ass. Churchill, the latter, is no better than a lunatic on a street corner. Why should Americans have to pay the salary (indeed it IS too much $$$) to some asshole who preaches that the murder of Americans, or that such murder is justified.



There are a few professors that I wish my taxes in California weren't supporting, like Vincent Sarich, who is almost a eugenicist. But, he's hired to teach and do research, first and foremost. So, the people need to grant him freedom, particularly in things he does on his own time.

This smear campaign is a new McCarthyism.

>>> Everything that liberals oppose is the "new McCarthyism."

All Churchill's done is write an inflammatory essay.

>>> And he rightly got his ass kicked, by other people ALSO using "mere words."

If you can't write an inflammatory essay on your free time, without suffering reprisals from work... what the fuck kind of freedom do we really have?

It's debatable, but if it was this guy's own time, it WASN'T also his OWN dime.

If you red-baiting fascists have your way, nobody critical of the government would be able to get work. I'm sure you think that's great, but, frankly, that's Un-American.

>>>> I feel the same way about the poilitically correct left and their "scientists" who lie their asses off about secondhand smoke and global warming.

As for Kissinger.......sounds like looney leftist rhetoric along the line of hating Israel.

>>> If Colorado U is smart, they'll dump this asshole as fast as possible. He's bringing anger at the university from all sides and they will lose money.

>>> Enough is enough.