What would Wayne Morse, were the former Oregon law school dean with us today, say about Professor Ward Churchill being denied the opportunity to speak at the University has he had been promised? It would be consistent with the angry, outspoken way Morse responded to so many other things during the mid-20th Century when he was known as the gadfly of American politics. How — he’d ask with indignation — could the center under his name at the University Law School justify turning away an invited speaker, depriving him of something always vital to Morse: freedom of expression?
At question is the decision by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics to un-invite University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, who was to share with his wife, Colorado Professor Natsu Taylor Saito, a luncheon address at a conference co-sponsored by the Center. The March 31 to April 1 event, also sponsored by the University Center on Diversity and Community, is called “Homeland ‘In’Security: Race, Immigration and Labor in Post-9/11 North America.”
Churchill, an Ethnic Studies professor with Native American identity, became the center of national controversy after an essay surfaced in which he describes some victims in the World Trade Center as “technocrats” and “little Adolph Eichmans.” At issue is Churchill’s written statement: “On the morning of 9/11, a few more chickens — along with some half-million dead Iraqi children — came home to roost in a big way at the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center.” Churchill said he does not defend the Sept. 11 attacks, but pointed out: “If U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned.”
The University’s decision to remove him from the Morse program followed action by Hamilton College to cancel his appearance there. Other reactionary institutions have also denied him a forum. However, Morse would have been encouraged to know one school that welcomes Churchill to speak is in Morse’s home state: the University of Wisconsin.
Ironically, Churchill was un-invited to the University exactly a month to the day before the scheduled reopening of the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza at the Lane County building in downtown Eugene. On March 15, the remodeled plaza will be opened with the unveiling of a life-size statue of Morse, Oregon’s most famous senator. As a member of the Morse Corporation Board, I’ve seen the statue; it has the senator gesturing vigorously with a forefinger.
From what I know of the man, today he would be pointing that finger directly at the center that bears his name. Many were the times when citizens — including those in Morse’s home state — did not want to hear what he had to say. But he had the courage to say it. Over and over again he was proved right, no matter how unpopular his stand at the outset — for example, his early opposition to the war in Vietnam, as one of only two U.S. senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that illegally expanded the war.
Valid or not, Churchill’s essay stirred anger among closed-minded people like those who once could not abide by Morse’s statements that went counter to government policy. Morse might have used different words, but his willingness to speak the unpopular when it needed to be heard would have resulted in his saying the same thing. Even if he disagreed with Churchill, Morse still would have insisted on his right to express his views. If Professor Churchill ever makes it to Eugene, there’s at least one venue where he could freely speak: the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza.
George Beres lives in Eugene
