Super-radical Campus Fights To Outdo Others

Leon's Fringe Hotbed

CSUMB Invites Ward Churchill, Former Black Panther


(Major Updates- 3 May- Accounts and GOP Response)


Leon Panetta's dream of a respectable, viable college campus for the former Fort Ord grounds in Marina, California has instead deteriorated into yet another fringe radical dumping ground.

California State University- Monterey Bay, after a decade, is now just another place for rogue "academic" characters to visit and spout hatred. Quickly derided as "Sea Scum" by locals, it hasn't taken actions since that inspire much confidence.

Is "Sea Scum" attempting to out-radical the nearby UC-Santa Cruz campus?

Here's Exhibit A:


(Santa Cruz Sentinel- 24 April 2005- Staff Report)

You may have heard about him, and now here’s a chance to meet him. Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who described the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as "little Eichmanns," will speak at Cal State Monterey Bay on May 2.

His talk, 7 p.m. at the University Center ballroom, is free. It’s sponsored by the student Event Workgroup as part of a week of events promoting Chicano culture.

Churchill has been in the spotlight since January, following reports on an article containing his reference to Eichmann, the Nazi bureaucrat who carried out Hitler’s program to exterminate Jews.

He compared Americans who fail to resist U.S.-sponsored violence to the "good Germans" who professed ignorance of Nazi death camps.

The Monterey campus will also host two prominent speakers Thursday.

Environmental champion Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, will speak at 6:30 p.m. at the new Alumni & Visitors Center.

She will give the second annual Rote Lecture, named for the professor who founded the Earth Systems Science and Policy Institute.

Former Black Panther Bill Jennings will speak at 6:30 p.m. at the Music Hall, Building 30, on 6th Avenue.

Some of the photos he collected of the black leaders in the ’60s movement will be on display.

First, what does Churchill have to do with "Chicano" culture? Did we ever determine his real ethnic heritage?

And how do Churchill's views on 9-11 victims promote "Chicano" culture, anyway?

Why would Julie Packard want her name in the same news release as someone who thinks terrorism victims got what they deserved? If I were her, I'd make a quick phone call to the university's PR department.

And what more needs to be said about the Black Panthers?

Thanks, Leon, for this taxpayer-funded "academic" mess.


May 3 Update: Republicans held a candlelight vigil to counter the pro-Churchill mob and Freeper Greenpees has an account here:

I just returned from California State University at Monterey Bay where the University is hosting Ward Churchill this evening. The Young Republicans on campus held a very nice candlelight vigil, attended by about 50-60 people. Three young ladies read the names of every 9/11 victim to remember them as people, not as the "Little Eichmans" that the left, and Mr Churchill have labeled them.

It was a very nice event. That is, as nice as it could be against the backdrop of about 150 of the great unwashed, chanting anti-Bush slogans throughout the reading of each name.

Update: Victor Calderon of the Salinas Californian, a Gannett daily newspaper, has many new details:

Bearing American flags, members of the Monterey County Republican Party joined with students and veterans for a vigil outside the University Ballroom where Churchill spoke to read aloud the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Meanwhile, the free-speech/anti-war crowd shouted “Why are you here?” to those at the vigil.

In his essay, Churchill said the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., were the result of ongoing American foreign policy that led to countless killings of innocent civilians around the world.

In his speech, Churchill recapped a history of atrocities that he attributed to unlawful American policy, which, he said, led to the 9/11 attacks.

He said his essay on 9/11 was “a gut response … when all I could think about was Malcolm X’s response to the assassination of John Kennedy — ‘it’s a case of the chickens coming home to roost.’

Outside, before the speech, Kelly Bland, a CSUMB senior and the president of the school’s College Republicans organization, said she came to honor the 9/11 victims and would not listen to Churchill’s speech.

“I pay student fees like everyone else, and I don’t think they should have been used on someone with his message,” she said.

Eric Gruss, a former Marine from Salinas who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he also came “to perpetuate the memory of the victims.”

The counter-protesters, mostly CSUMB students, held signs detailing the number of Americans and Iraqis killed since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Others shouted “Who invited you? This is our school.”

The Monterey County Herald reports Churchill received $4000 in student fees for the speech. Apparently bashing helpless victims can be rewarding.

Notice, also, the "free speech" crowd shouted at Republicans to leave!

(Monterey Herald- 3 May 2005-Clarissa Aljantera and Joe Livernois)

Caitlin Manning had heard Churchill's information and was eager to see the literature that was given out before the lecture began. The flier urged Churchill to go back to his ''tee pee'' and said anyone on his side was with the terrorists.

"I'm actually one of the few people who read his quotes and looked at what he said," said Manning, a faculty member at the university. "I thought there was some truth to it. It was the racist stuff what brought me here."

Although the flier looked as if it was circulated by the CSUMB College Republicans, members of the organization said they didn't create it.

Churchill's appearance was partly sponsored by CSUMB's MEChA organization.

Zoilo Avila, 23, co-chairman of the campus group, said MEChA has been trying to lure Churchill to the campus for years, even before Churchill became the subject of the heated debate. Avila also said he welcomed the protest outside.

Will there be an investigation into who cooked up the phony racist flyers to smear Republicans? Do the culprits realize conservatives know Churchill isn't a Native American, so the "tee-pee" comment gives Churchill's supporters away?

It shows how little radical leftists know about their enemies.

Will anyone call on Leon Panetta to admit his dream campus is just another radical hotbed, possibly more extreme than UC-Santa Cruz?