Jim asked me to forward this letter sent to the U. of Colorado.
Dear Ms. Schwartz:
Dissent, disagreement and holding contrary views do not constitute reasonable cause for dismissing Professor Ward Churchill. Not only are they parts of free speech and its exercise, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, but I feel are a duty for any decent academic institution to encourage and support. It is regrettable that a local reactionary element has made its home in Boulder, Colorado, but a voice crying out ion the wilderness must be protected.
Ironically, both Professor Churchill and I both served as soldiers in the supposed defense of the United States. We both took oaths swearing to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic." The last time I read the Constitution, the First Amendment was still in effect. Now you want to dismiss Professor Churchill for freely exercising his right of free speech? Something is seriously amiss. I am really sick and tired of reactionaries spouting and spewing their poisonous rhetoric and crying foul anytime someone impinges on their free speech, yet attempt to muzzle at every turn views that don't agree with theirs.
If we carefully and completely read Ward Churchill's words, he is making comparisons that would be highly distasteful only to those who can't seem to understand that contrary perspectives, views and perspectives exist. Mr. Churchill would appear to be the word of reason here.
Don't assume that I am considering the victims of the World Trade Center as anonymous statistics. Two of the deceased are people I attended college with. One was a classmate and the other graduated two years ahead of me. A single undeserved death is a tragedy and thousands of deaths are too tragic to fathom. But one must also consider them in the context of hundreds of thousands of deaths due to foreign policy mistakes and misapprehensions of the United States and the global corporations that contribute to them. From what I remember, I. G. Farben Chemicals, Krupps Werke, Mitsubishi and Mitsui were held to be as culpable for war crimes at Nuremberg and Tokyo as the leaders of the Nazi party and the military clique around Tojo after World War Two.
Dismissing Ward Churchill will not solve anything and will only appease the extremists on the right and will be a blemish on your institution's legacy to a free and open forum for informed discourse. Unlike the coterie of chickenhawks who never put their own pampered rears on the line, Ward Churchill and I put ourselves in harm's way by serving in the US Army. Has anyone thought about that? Or will you just be marionettes with your strings being pulled by the radical reactionary right wing?
Sincerely,
Daniel Youngtae Cheung
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