Responding to the Churchill Essay

So troublesome it is to find ourselves in a retro-McCarthyism over Churchill’s essay, Some People Push Back that the governor of Colorado has asked for Churchill’s dismissal; only recently did Churchill concede his chair position of the University’s ethnic studies program.

The fallout of the situation appears, to me, larger than that of Churchill’s opinions, in that heads of state and Colorado’s Board of Regents feel it so appropriate to censor the opinions of their faculty – attention paid solely to the response towards the opinion than of the opinion itself – the irony of which Churchill must agonize.

Contrary to the public fervor, Churchill’s opinion doesn’t scare me; I was raised in an era where descenting opinion and questioning authority were promising things. On the other hand, college boards and government officials whom take action to censor educated opinion terrifies.

If the opinions of one educator are to be silenced, what’s next: economic instructors compelled to instruct the benefits of enormous budget deficits and foreign trade imbalances because it grains against the fashionable? Poli-sci instructors frowned upon if they fail to construct neo-con ideology into their syllabus? At what point does patriotism blind and at what point will the electorate choose to do anything about it? I wonder when I’ll begin receiving guidelines on curriculum from the Department of Homeland Security?

Historians mull over the conditions in Germany following the ratification of Treaty of Versailles and the public opinion that roiled to bring Hitler to power – efforts taken by the Nazi’s to secure their hold on power were to round up intellectuals, burn books, and silence opinion. Too bad Bush continues to underfund No Child Left Behind… perhaps we wouldn’t be doomed to repeat history if our children were to learn something about it.

R

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.