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Jewish World Review Feb. 7, 2005 / 28 Shevat, 5765
Bill O'Reilly
What's left for American universities?
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
There are so many nutty professors around this country, Jerry
Lewis could sue all day long. The Ward Churchill controversy is just the
headline the real story is the radicalization of the nation's college
faculties.
Churchill, as you may know, is the University of Colorado
"Ethnic Studies" teacher who wrote an essay saying that those Americans
killed inside the World Trade Center on 9-11 were not actually civilians,
they were "little Eichmanns" (as in the Nazi Adolf) people who hurt
innocents because they worked for large corporations. Churchill went on to
call the 9-11 killers legitimate "soldiers."
Seeing merit in Churchill's ravings, a Hamilton College
literature teacher named Nancy Rabinowitz invited him to speak at the
upstate New York school and agreed to pay the man $3,500. Previously,
Rabinowitz tried to hire 1960s radical Susan Rosenberg to be an
"activist-in-residence" at Hamilton College.
The problem was that Rosenberg had spent 16 years in prison for
possessing explosives. When the alumni at Hamilton found out about that,
some short fuses were lit. Rosenberg got the boot.
And so, eventually, did Churchill, but not before major angst.
When some journalists exposed Churchill and questioned the appropriateness
of giving him a platform, the administration at Hamilton vowed it would not
be swayed the man would appear at the college in defense of free speech!
Less than a day later, Hamilton President Joan Hinde Stewart canned him,
after a nationwide outcry against her foolish position.
So what exactly is going on here? To understand the craziness on
campus, you have to first look at the stats. According to a survey done by
UCLA, 48 percent of college faculty members and administrators identify
themselves as either liberal or far left. Just 18 percent say they are
conservative or far right. So the prevailing wisdom on campus is decidedly
progressive and aggressively politically correct.
If you challenge the leftist orthodoxy, watch out. Harvard
President Lawrence Summers is still bruised after saying some women might
not be as good as men in math and science. Well, I did the math on this one.
The women who complained defeated Summers 800 to 0, or something like that.
But at Northeastern University, across the river from Harvard in
Boston, Economics Professor Shahid Alam opined that the 9-11 killers were
similar to the Founding Fathers. According to Alam, the Al Qaeda thugs died
so "their people might live free, and in dignity." In response, the faculty
at Northeastern has said nothing. No doubt distracted by the women-math
deal.
All over the country, far-left ravings on campus are acceptable
and sometimes even embraced by fanatical faculty. Legitimate dissent has
degenerated into hate speech and vile descriptions of America. Many of these
so-called teachers, like Ward Churchill, have tenure, a dastardly con that
protects teachers for life. They know they can't be fired, so they become
little Ayatollahs. And if you call them on their irresponsibility, you are a
fascist or a racist.
One more example. That rascal Michael Moore ran around the
United States before the presidential election, speaking at more than 50
colleges. Moore said he was trying to rally the campus troops to vote
against Bush, as if they needed rallying. But what Moore really rallied was
his bank account. Conservative estimates put Moore's take for his bloviating
at more than a million bucks, much of it paid for by student union fees.
America, it's a great country. Especially if you don't like it.
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