The Cost of Free Speech
The People of Colorado vs. Ward Churchill. Does a professor have the right to say whatever he wants?
As anyone who has been watching the news lately probably knows, we have a professor here in state, Ward Churchill, whose Chickens Come Home To Roost paper, written on 9/12/01 made the unfortunate reference to those who died in the 9-11 attacks as “little Eichman’s” (since a fair number were Jewish, one does get a bad feeling about the choice of phrase).
The question now before us in the state of Colorado is whether or not academic freedom means that he should be allowed to keep his job as professor of Ethnic Studies at CU (my alma mater). No one, I hope, doubts his right to say such things. That is what is great about America – people can say the stupidest things and not worry about living the rest of their years in a gulag. The question is whether Mr. Churchill deserves to keep his job.
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