Building a better Soapbox

Many many years ago, there was a practice of people gathering in the town square to speak to crowds. Anyone could do it. To raise themselves above those who came to hear them, often times speakers would stand on a box of soap; a very strong wooden box. They picked this because it was easy to get one - perhaps even free, and they were strong enough to hold someone on them for a longer period of time.

So, permit me if you will, to stand on my own Soapbox and speak. After all, Blogging is really the New Soapbox.

There is a controversy going on here in Wisconsin. Several years ago The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater had invited a man named Ward Churchill to come to the campus and speak about Native American rights and the problems faced by them. Shortly after September 11th Mr. Churchill wrote a paper and said

"that the terrorists were responding to U.S. atrocities in Iraq throughout
the 1990s, and that many of the victims in the World Trade Center were not
innocent.

Instead, he accused the stock brokers and money managers of being part of
the "mighty engine of profit" that dictates U.S. foreign policy, and he likened
them to Adolf Eichmann and German industrialists who assisted Hitler in his
plans to exterminate Jews from Europe during World War II.

Those comments drew little attention until last week, when objectors used
them to fuel a campaign that led to administrators at Hamilton College in New
York to cancel his scheduled talk on the upstate campus.

-Milwaukee Journal Sentinal - 2/11/2005

I first off want to say that I find his comment are disgust. His comparison is insensitive, uncaring and perhaps even fully wrong. Some good people died on September 11th. The Chancellor of the University, Jack Miller, agrees, calling the comments, "despicable" and "deeply hurtful." I could not agree more.

Here in Milwaukee there are two predominant talk stations. Both have a republican only bend to them. I've heard the comments of some of their 'Personalities' and the outrage they express. They have attempted to whip the people into a frenzy and put pressure on Mr. Miller to not allow Ward Churchill to speak at the campus. They Claim it is because taxpayer money was being used for it. Mr. Miller yesterday agreed the speech could be given, so long as no campus funding was used. Today, they continue to try to keep people in a frenzy. They claim Disgust at his words and that is demeaning the dead.

I feel the outrage goes beyond that of tax money being spent. I think that is a good vehicle for the fervor by which Mr. Charles Skyes and Mr. Jeff Wagner and others on the station to vent their complaint.

I feel their comments are based on a simple fact stated by President Bush in the days following that tragic event. "You are either with us, or you are against us."

These same two people and others on the station have been promoting the return of troops from Iraq and support for the war. The claim that it is all about freedom and that we need to support the president and the troops while the fight for our freedom. These are the same people who promoted a rally held across the street or near by a John Kerry Rally, so that he would hear them complain about him. These are the same people who played the "Scream" of Howard Dean over and over again and made fun of him. And they have a right to do that.

(As an aside. The airwaves are owned by the public and the stations are permitted to use them for the good of the public (in the public trust is the term on the license). These stations do not present any other on-air voices but those who are GOP positive, pro-war and against any Democrat or Democrat idea except for people who call in, and then they are on only so they may be ridiculed for their beliefs. They are not really service the pubic trust, but that's a different blog entry.)

What I find so disgusting about their type of outrage is that it is one sided and anti-Patriotic. If Ward Churchill had made comments like that about Iraq citizens, I would imagine they would be promoting his appearance. If he had said something about citizens who oppose the war not being patriotic, they would promote the speech.

The challenge of Freedom, as I understand it and believe is when it is not easy to defend it. When someone says something so hateful you are repulsed and sickened by it, yet you can defend that persons right to say it, then Freedom as it was expressed by the founders of this country will have been fulfilled.

I abhor every word that any of the KKK utters. Yet, I believe they have a right to speak.

I disagree with most things said by members of the Christian Right. Yet, I believe they have a right to speak.

I would defend the right for both of them to protest, to speak and to be uncensored in public.

We have thousands of very brave soldiers who are doing their job, in what they belief is a fight to keep freedom alive. If that is true, then we need to not have people working to silence those whose' words they oppose. Instead, those same people should be working to let them be heard. Let them speak. Let there be a public forum for their words to be heard and accepted or rejected by each person as they choose to.

After all, Freedom is also about what you choose to accept or reject as true. But that is a very different type of freedom, the freedom of the human being.

Let Mr. Ward speak. Let his viewpoint be heard, however unpopular. Then the blood spilled by those who fought to preserve will not have been done in vain. Otherwise, they are dis-honored.

And now.. My feet touch the ground again...


UPDATE... This just in...

FRIDAY, Feb. 18, 2005, 3:48 p.m.
Resolution seeks to halt Churchill visit

The Assembly will vote Tuesday on a resolution condemning an upcoming speech by controversial professor Ward Churchill, slated for March 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Steve Nass (R-Palmyra), condemns “anti-American” comments made by Churchill and calls on the university to cancel his appearance. Churchill’s talk is titled “Racism Against the American Indian” and is to be part of the school’s Native Pride week.Churchill is a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado and a longtime activist on American Indian issues. An essay he wrote shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, that likened the financiers killed in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, a key figure in the Nazi’s Jewish extermination machine, has generated national attention and criticism.Interest in the speech is high; according to the university’s Web site, the 400 tickets available for the speech have all been distributed.

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I am dismayed that now we really have government stepping in to try to limit free speech. Welcome to our own little USSR.