Good gosh almighty, let him speak.
Contemptible and hurtful as his words are. Ridiculous as his ideas may be.
If nothing else, it lets us all know some of the crazy things being taught on our college campuses.
What I’m talking about is a University of Colorado professor named Ward Churchill who’s got almost everyone this side of the International Date Line up in arms just now.
Right after 9/11, Professor Churchill wrote an essay regarding the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In that essay, he stated (among other interesting things) that some of the victims were a bunch of “little Eichmanns” – Adolf Eichmann being one of the architects of The Holocaust – and that the folks who flew the planes into the buildings were not terrorists.
When this and several of his other essays recently came to light, the wheels well and truly came off of Professor Churchill’s wagon. He now faces the possibility of being fired from his position at the university.
Professor Churchill has since “explained” what he really meant to say, but it’s still a pretty reprehensible piece of work.
Do I disagree with him?
Vehemently.
Do I think that Professor Churchill might actually be about a half-bubble off?
Absolutely.
Do I think he should be fired for what he said?
Sorry, no.
See that “let him speak” sentence at the start of this piece.
We have to. It’s the price we pay to keep this thing we call “freedom of speech.”
Because of the First Amendment, we Americans get to say pretty much what we want to say. In fact, we get to say what we want to say even if it “offends” others. The tradeoff, though, is that others get to say what they want to say, even if it “offends” us.
As an aside, there’s a whole discussion we, as a country, need to have on this “offensiveness” issue. That discussion would center on just when being “offensive” became a crime.
In a free society, people like Professor Churchill are allowed to be offensive. Such people are referred to as boorish, sorry, wrongheaded and a whole bunch of other things.
Others are allowed to listen to what such individuals say and, then, pay them no heed whatsoever. Such people are called responsible adults.
But we can’t just fire someone like Professor Churchill for making such statements.
That’s a road that we never even want to think about going down. It leads to things like censorship and suppression.
Governments, businesses and individuals of all stripes would dearly love to be able to censor and suppress. It gives them the tools to keep things from us when they: (a) royally screw up; (b) plan to do things we might not like; or (c) decide there are ideas and theories we really don’t need to bother ourselves with.
Fact is, if there’s any one place in this nation where ideas of any and all kinds should be presented, that place is a college campus.
Good ideas, bad ideas, crazy ideas, vile ideas, any and all kinds of ideas. Get them out and let’s have at them.
If there’s any one place in this nation where, after being presented, such ideas should be debated and accepted or debunked and demolished, that place is a college campus.
No. If we fire Professor Churchill for presenting ideas – offensive and insane as they are – we are, in fact, traveling that road to censorship and repression. And there’s already too much of that showing up on college campuses what with speech codes, political correctness, shouting down invited speakers and acceptance of the concept that “giving offense” somehow trumps speaking the plain truth.
What should worry us even more, though, are the results of a recent survey of high school students’ attitudes about freedom of speech and the First Amendment.
According to an Associated Press story about the survey, “more than one in three high school students said it (the First Amendment) goes ‘too far’ in the rights it guarantees.” Many also believed that newspapers should have to get government approval of stories before publishing them.
Goes too far? Governmental approval of stories?
Makes you wonder if civics is still being taught anywhere at all in this country.
As offensive (there’s that word again) as Professor Churchill’s ideas are, if he’s fired, it should be for incompetence, dishonesty or lack of integrity.
Given that he’s now brought some major attention upon himself, he may soon regret that he ever claimed his 15 minutes of fame.
Which, for many of us, already seems about 14 minutes and 50 seconds too long.
Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Comments can be sent to larrysim@att.net.
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