Petition in Support of Professor Ward Churchill's Right to Free Expression

Professor Ward Churchill, professor and former chair of the Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been the recent target of slanderous attacks by members of the Colorado legislature, Colorados governor, Bill Owens, and family members of those who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. Churchills SomePeople Push Back: The Justice of Roosting Chickens, which was written over three years ago, became the center of a controversy at Hamilton College in New York at the end of January.

Churchill characterized some of the 9/11-WTC victims, "who were technocrats of empire" "as the equivalent of little Eichmanns," leading Hamilton Colleges administration to receive hundreds of complaints for scheduling Churchills appearance. Unable to ensure Churchills safety, Hamilton Collegedespite initially citing the importance of free expression and expressing a commitment to upholding academic freedomcanceled the event.

Professor Churchill, a dedicated human rights activist, world-renowned scholar, and a tireless advocate for those who have been the victims of colonialist violence, in subsequent remarks, has made clear that he was addressing the complicity of those who, at the heart of Americas global empire, died at the World Trade Centerpeople who callously chose to pursue high-paying careers in global finance and commerce which they knew (on some repressed levelor knew outright and didn't care) kept millions in poverty and sufferingnot children, passers-by, public servants, WTC janitors, WTC secretaries, and rescue workers who also died there.

Churchills remarks were aimed at those professional investment careerists who, directly or indirectly, promote the projects of international financial capital and neo-colonial globalization which are destructiveoften fatallyto vast numbers of people in the world, as well as to their environments. Recognizing that many U.S. citizens are shockingly ignorant of the massive violence the U.S. government exports overseas, and with the question "Why do they hate us?" hovering on everyones lips at the time, Churchill offered a hypothesis. The unfortunate result has been outrage about the bad taste of that hypothesis, rather than honest debate about its accuracy, which would involve investigation of its allegations and informed responses to its arguments.

We the undersigned are aware Churchill's remarks touched on a highly emotional matter, and we feel discussing such matters openly and reasonably is crucial to our freedom, our liberty, and our democracy. This means allowing freedom of speech and debate without fear of emotionally-charged persecution or loss of employment, academic or otherwise. We therefore affirm and uphold Professor Churchills right to free expression, and urge the Regents of the University of Colorado at Boulder to respect the principle of academic freedom, and to withdraw all investigative and disciplinary measures. The distinction between defending the content of a persons speech or writings and defending that persons right to express that content are crucial and must be respected within any society that purports to be a free one. We offer our signatures to that end: