Posted on 02/24/2005 4:45:58 AM PST by Elkiejg
To the casual observer, now-infamous University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill—who labeled 9/11 victims “little Eichmanns”—would seem little more than an unfortunate speck on the fringe of the far left.
An investigestion by this journalist, however, uncovered substantial evidence suggesting otherwise.
The media was quick to describe Ward Churchill's 2002 essay—where he also wrote of the “gallant sacrifices” of the “combat teams” that killed almost 3,000 Americans—as “little noticed.” (USA Today, February 9) It was, however, noticed—and honored—by a liberal organization last year.
Churchill adapted his essay into a book, “On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,” which earned honorable mention for a human rights award from the Gustavus Myers Center in Boston—the third time the group had so honored the embattled professor.
At first blush, the Gustavus Myers Center could seem like a wacky, far-left ivory tower creation. Receiving honorable mention for its 2003 award, for example, was a picture book of “classic” gay erotica. Witness the group’s own description of the book: “Pencil, ink and chalk drawings claiming an erotic past as extremely important for notions of identity and community.”
Careful examination, however, reveals that the Myers Center is anything but fringe. Listed on its website as “sponsors” (a term that is not defined) are mainstream liberal organizations such as the NAACP, the Urban League, the Center for Democratic Renewal, and the United Church of Christ.
And the foundations that fund the Myers Center’s sponsors are key financial backers of the American left, such as George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation (which contributed to the anti-Bush America’s Coming Together).
The top funders of the Myers Center’s sponsors, and the amounts they gave in total since 2000, are:
· $650,000 from the Public Welfare Foundation, which has given over $5 million to “reproductive” causes and nearly $1.7 million to various gun control groups. It even gave $100,000 directly to the Blue Mountain abortion clinic in Montana, which has also received $50,000 from the (Ted) Turner Foundation.
· $1.3 million from the Open Society Institute
· almost $5 million from Lilly Endowments, which was founded by heirs of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune. Though not typically known as a left-wing foundation, it has given, for example, more than $700,000 to Planned Parenthood.
· over $12.1 million from the Ford Foundation, most of which came in the form of $10.4 million in grants to the NAACP
Despite being sponsored by prominent, mainstream liberal organizations, the Myers Center’s honoring of Ward Churchill’s screed does not appear to be out the group’s character.
Taking top honors for 2004, for example, is “Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims,” which, according to the Myers Center web site, is about the “relationship between accelerated repression of Muslims and Arabs domestically... and U.S. empire building abroad.” Rants from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) aside, there is scant evidence to suggest “accelerated repression of Muslims and Arabs” in America.
The center itself is led by a woman who seems to share a worldview similar to Prof. Churchill’s. The Myers Center’s director, Loretta Williams, wrote in the magazine Response (published by United Methodist Women) in June 2002 that President Bush’s rhetoric on the war on terror was “bloodthirsty and vengeful” and that it “dehumanizes... Muslims, immigrants, and those with darker skin.”
Williams hinted later in the same piece that the United States also perpetrates terrorism: “Terrorism can be used by the weak against the powerful or by the powerful against the weak.” She also opposed military action in Afghanistan after 9/11, praising “the courage” of communist sympathizer Barbara Lee (D-CA), the sole Congressional vote against that war.
Though the statements of Williams and Churchill would likely be patently offensive to most in the American electorate, they don’t seem that outside of a Democratic Party that embraces Michael Moore, the man who compared Iraqi terrorists to the “Minutemen” who helped win America’s independence.
Since news broke that Churchill’s “little Eichmanns” essay was honored by the Gustavus Myers Center, the group does not appear to have lost any of its sponsors. Still listed are all 12 sponsors listed previously, including, oddly enough, B’Nai Brith International. (B’Nai Brith did not immediately return a call seeking comment.)
It is not clear what role “sponsors” play in, or how much they donate to, the Myers Center, and calls seeking comment from the center were not returned. The Myers Center does not appear to file independent tax returns under its name, making it difficult to determine the group’s overall budget or the total amount of grants it has received.
Worth noting is that most of the uproar over Prof. Churchill’s venomous essay has come from family members of 9/11 victims, conservatives, and GOP politicians such as New York Gov. George Pataki and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the party of moveon.org and Michael Moore does not condemn loudly Prof. Churchill’s equating 9/11 victims to Nazis. But why haven’t the groups that sponsor the center that honored him for making that very comparison? And what about the funders who indirectly helped make such an honor possible?
More reasons to crush the Jackass Party.
Churchill's views are mainstream in academia, where middle class parents save for 20 years and pay annual state taxes to pay exhorbitant tuitions that support the salaries of people who cheer when we are killed by terrorists.
not a sustainable situation. Academia must be restructured, and we the consumers/taxpayers are the only ones with an interest in doing so.
Did anybody notice that Chief Churchill got mad at a Reporter yesterday and yelled at him that he was an associate member of a Tribe. That Tribe has stopped issuing associate memberships . This Clown is starting to come apart, he can dish it out, but.
He's not "starting to come apart", he's always been a hot-head.
He not only stood by while his ex-wife beat a woman,(who disagreed with him and his wife) knocking her to the ground and sending her to the hospital, he SPIT on the woman while she was on the ground.
He also threatened a woman faculty member who disagreed with him.
He promotes and advocates violence.
Shine the light of truth on these cockroaches and watch them scatter! Every conservative talk-show host worth his Reagan button ought to hop on this with both feet. Kudoes to Joel Mowbray for his investigative reporting!
George Soros founded the Open Society Institute if I recall correctly.
Yes !! Academe' is a major cancer....do not back off from their glib pomposity....The Emperor Has No Clothes applies directly to academe'
The light of truth and cutting off funds is what will excise this cancer
The emperor also has no responsibility and no accountability once they get tenure. Tenured professors (as a class, not every individual), must be the best profession in the world based on hours worked.
They teach a few classes a week, if that much.
Their paperwork is done by unpaid underlings who dream of getting on the same gravy train.
They have at least four months a year with no students around at all, and if their classes are unpopular enough they never have to teach, period.
They take a sabbatical one out of every five semesters.
And most of all, the consumers of their product - the parents who actually pay tuitions - never get to see what they are actually buying, which mostly consists of political indoctrination designed to desocialize their children and turn them against their hard working ancestors.
FOR 40 FREAKING GRAND A YEAR!
Where on earth did you get $40,000.....hell the Community Colleges pay far far far more than that....school teachers make more than that after start-up....don't forget, every committee, every asst. coach job, every play makes $$$$$$ on top...same for universities but 10X and in spades ...not counting grants and salary support from "research"
try $80,000 start ( fellows start at $74,000 day 1 plus whatever other stipends they can shake which is often +35,000 university then grant) to $1,000,000 .... with well in excess of $100,000 the norm and no big deal
I forgot taxpayer funded vacations for the four times a year "conferences'
no, i wrote it badly - $40,000 is what the college I actually went to COSTS per year now.
You're quite right that the SALARIES for tenured faculty are in the $150,000 range, and that's for the humanities. For the sciences, who admittedly actually have to know something, and actually have some information to impart, its a lot higher.
Keep pushing this topic the taxpayer is being screwed royally and the Republic subverted....I wish we could campaign and cut off funds to the Universities just until they have a regime change...ADMIN is pure hate America, subversive, put down white kids and those who dare disagree with the left, ultra-leftist Communist and Socialist embracing, destroyers of America....and we pay them royally for it....makes no sense...The Emperor Has No Clothes
Churchill is not a member in good standing of the global civil society. What he advocates is not civil but violent. He is closer to the terrorists including property terrorists than to the citizens of the world.
And Fraud??? It's OK Churchill is a fraud...It's OK he got his job without credentials or achievement ( typical minority scene) ...but he is a fraud!!! I know a vet in this town whose daddy invented ( fiber name omitted) a stretchy synthetic...well heeled....she is ultra left and somewhat of a dummy...slow learner....got her first high-paying job on Long Island by applying as a black...white as a sheet...and masqueraded as such by cavorting with the libs and blacks for years so it was OK... so fraud is OK with some groups...even applauded?
if not for blogs and free republic nobody would have these insights to kick around, and contact people at Lilly or Ford.
Eli Lilly Alert - Hoosier FReepers take note!
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