Remember when Senator Santorum said that having the right to consensual gay sex was equivalent to a father having the right to rape his daughter? How about when best-selling author and frequent Fox News guest Ann Coulter expressed regret that Timothy McVeigh did not blow up the New York Times Building or when she urged America to invade Muslim nations, kill their leaders, and convert everyone to Christianity? I don’t think I have room to include all the vile diatribes that have spewed forth from Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, Michael Savage and the rest of the hate mongers who hold high political office or maintain widespread journalistic or religious influence.
It doesn’t matter what I think about the statements made about 9/11 victims in University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill’s essay, although I do think they are severely flawed logically, rationally and ethically. I also think that Churchill’s various writings, particularly those dealing with the struggles of indigenous peoples, for whom he has fought for as much as any activist, are highly sophisticated, insightful and inspiring.
But that doesn’t matter to most Americans and apparently neither does free speech. The backlash against Churchill has exceeded the appropriate criticisms and instead has threatened his professorship and his right to voice his opinion. Governor Pataki of New York, Governor Owens of Colorado, the Board of Regents and hordes of pundits have demanded that he be fired and have labeled him a terrorist supporter (if only he were the football coach at Colorado University who criticized the female player who made multiple rape allegations and who was involved in sex party recruitment scandals, then he’d have hundreds of parents and students defending him).
Professors and scholars at Wesleyan and in all academic institutions should be terrified of voicing unpopular opinions. Academic scholarship in this country takes a backseat to the party line and simplistic platitudes about “democracy,” “freedom,” and “liberty.” The corporate media, religious right, and political leaders seem to have a monopoly on hate speech – as long as it doesn’t sound “un-American,” it’s okay. The criticism appropriate for Churchill’s essay is nothing compared to the criticism that should fall on the hypocritical, anti-civil liberty crusaders who may not agree with what he says, and will fight to the death to deny his right to say it.
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