Ward Churchill, a University of Colorado professor who is scheduled to speak Thursday at Hamilton College in New York, recently released an essay entitled \Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens."" In it, he contends, among other things, that the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center were not completely innocent and that the hijackers were not terrorists but ""combat teams.""
Many in the Hamilton community have protested Churchill's appearance, which will be an open forum so students can challenge him. However, as appalling as his remarks were, it is imperative that he is allowed to appear. UW-Madison was involved in similar controversy when David Horowitz, a conservative activist, came to speak against paying reparations to African Americans in December 2001. There was concern he would be forced off stage by angry students, yet when Horowitz spoke, UW students loudly protested his remarks and made it clear that his message was at odds with their own values.
Hearing Churchill speak might be painful to some students. However, as horrible as his remarks might be, Hamilton's letting him speak while allowing students to question him in an open forum is a far better way to show an extremist such as Churchill that his views are unwelcome than denying him an appearance.
