In the past 30 minutes I have received four e-mail messages about
Professor Ward Churchill.  Here is the first one, I will forward the
other three in the next few minutes.                Joe

>>> <[log in to unmask]> 02/09/05 11:08AM >>>
Colo. Professor Issues Defiant Speech

By ERIN GARTNER
.c The Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - An embattled University of Colorado professor who

likened Sept. 11 victims to Nazis got a standing ovation when he told a
campus
audience of more than 1,000 people that ``I'm not backing up an
inch.''

Ward Churchill, who had filed a lawsuit after the state-funded
university
threatened to cancel his address, was interrupted several times by
thunderous
applause.

Churchill has resigned as chairman of the university's ethnic studies
department. Gov. Bill Owens has called for Churchill to be fired, and
the
university's Board of Regents is investigating whether the tenured
professor can be
removed.

``I don't answer to Bill Owens. I do not answer to the Board of Regents
in
the way they think I do. The regents should do their job and let me do
mine,''
Churchill said to thunderous clapping. ``I'm not backing up an inch. I
owe no
one an apology.''

In an essay, Churchill wrote that workers in the World Trade Center
were the
equivalent of ``little Eichmanns,'' a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who
ensured
the smooth running of the Nazi system. Churchill also spoke of the
``gallant
sacrifices'' of the ``combat teams'' that struck America.

The ethnic studies professor said Tuesday his essay was referring to
``technocrats'' who participate in what he calls repressive American
policies around
the world.

A longtime American Indian Movement activist, he said he is also
culpable
because his efforts to change the system haven't succeeded. ``I could
do more.
I'm complicit. I'm not innocent,'' he said.

The Boulder Faculty Assembly, which represents professors at the
Boulder
campus, has said Churchill's comments were ``controversial, offensive
and odious''
but supports his right to say them based on the principle of academic
freedom.

During his 35-minute speech, Churchill said the essay was not referring
to
children, firefighters, janitors or people passing by the World Trade
Center who
were killed during the attacks.

The essay and follow-up book attracted little attention until Churchill
was
invited to speak last month at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., which
later
canceled his talk out of security concerns.

University of Colorado officials cited those same concerns but backed
off
after Churchill filed a lawsuit earlier Tuesday asking a judge to force
the
school to let him speak.

The crowd Tuesday night was loud and orderly as Churchill spoke: ``I do
not
work for the taxpayers of the state of Colorado. I do not work for Bill
Owens.
I work for you,'' he said.

About two dozen police officers were scattered inside and around the
ballroom
where the speech was given. Most of those attending supported
Churchill.

``I've read some of Ward's work,'' said 26-year-old Vinita Laroia, an
environmental studies major. ``I think what he has to say is true and
interesting. I
wanted to hear his actual voice say what he's thinking.''

The ACLU issued a statement defending Churchill's right to speak out
and
called on regents, legislators and the governor ``to stop threatening
Mr.
Churchill's job because of the content of his opinions.''

David Horowitz, a champion of conservative causes who has long accused

American universities of overstocking their faculties with leftists,
has said firing
Churchill would violate his First Amendment rights and set a bad
precedent.

He called instead for an inquiry into the university's hiring and
promotion
procedures to see how Churchill managed to rise to the chairmanship of
the
school's ethnic studies department.

02/09/05 09:20 EST