Back in the fall of 1993, the Denver Metro klavern of the Ku Klux Klan was casting about rather frantically for a means to redeem the humiliation of having been publicly routed by a surging mass of irate black teenagers amidst an attempt to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday on the steps of the Colorado Capitol.

Their solution, brilliant in its way, was to have Thom Robb, fundamentalist minister cum Grand Dragon of the Arkansas-based Knights of the KKK (subsequently retitled “Christian Concepts, Inc.”), to observe the 1994 Martin Luther King holiday by giving a speech in front of the old courthouse adorning Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall.

Predictably  –  at least it can be said with certainty that Robb predicted it – a host of the more purportedly enlightened denizens of the People’s Republic sallied forth at the designated time to denounce the pastor’s unabashed celebration of white supremacist values with chants and placards demanding the utmost “tolerance” of racial/ethnic “diversity.”

Unfortunately – or not, depending on one’s point of view – things didn’t go quite as those on the “antiracist” side of the confrontation anticipated.

Fixing his gaze upon the small sea of hecklers neatly ensconced behind rows of metal barriers erected by the ever-growing overburden of Boulder’s finest – this, it was claimed, was to “ensure his safety,” although it would’ve taken someone a lot less canny than Thom Robb to worry that whatever protestors might turn out in the veritable buckle of the granola belt would so much as sip a cup of herbal tea without first reciting the Pledge of Nonviolence – the pastor seemed downright amused.

Then, having to all appearances extracted a full measure of mirth from the spectacle, and making even fuller use of his PA system, he delivered an utterly devastating blow (albeit, sadly, I can only repeat it in paraphrase). “What’s all this yapping about ‘diversity’?” he wanted to know.

“The town we’re standing in is 94 percent white. That’s why I’m here. This place is exactly what [the Klan] is trying to duplicate all across the country. If it’s racial diversity you’re looking for, you might want to consider moving to Newark or Detroit. But, hey, you’re not about to do that, are you? Ever wonder why that might be?”

Sometimes the effects produced by a little dose of reality can be amazing.

A queasy silence settled over the crowd even before Robb’s verbal roundhouse was complete. People shifted from foot to foot, not-so-figuratively squirming in place, the message boards they’d been holding lowering steadily, as if the signs themselves were wilting.

By ones and twos, then in somewhat larger clots, they began, almost furtively, to slink away.

The rest.

Y’know, it’s not very often I cheer for the klan.

Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction. The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, estimated to be perhaps as much as 100,000 barrels a day, is part of our foolish death march. It is one more blow delivered by the corporate state, the trade of life for gold. But this time collapse, when it comes, will not be confined to the geography of a decayed civilization. It will be global.

Those who carry out this global genocide—men like BP’s Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who assures us that “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume’’—are, to steal a line from Ward Churchill, “little Eichmanns.” They serve Thanatos, the forces of death, the dark instinct Sigmund Freud identified within human beings that propels us to annihilate all living things, including ourselves. These deformed individuals lack the capacity for empathy. They are at once banal and dangerous. They possess the peculiar ability to organize vast, destructive bureaucracies and yet remain blind to the ramifications. The death they dispense, whether in the pollutants and carcinogens that have made cancer an epidemic, the dead zone rapidly being created in the Gulf of Mexico, the melting polar ice caps or the deaths last year of 45,000 Americans who could not afford proper medical care, is part of the cold and rational exchange of life for money.

The corporations, and those who run them, consume, pollute, oppress and kill. The little Eichmanns who manage them reside in a parallel universe of staggering wealth, luxury and splendid isolation that rivals that of the closed court of Versailles. The elite, sheltered and enriched, continue to prosper even as the rest of us and the natural world start to die. They are numb. They will drain the last drop of profit from us until there is nothing left. And our business schools and elite universities churn out tens of thousands of these deaf, dumb and blind systems managers who are endowed with sophisticated skills of management and the incapacity for common sense, compassion or remorse. These technocrats mistake the art of manipulation with knowledge.

“The longer one listened to him, the more obvious it became that his inability to speak was closely connected with an inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else,” Hannah Arendt wrote of “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” “No communication was possible with him, not because he lied but because he was surrounded by the most reliable of all safeguards against words and the presence of others, and hence against reality as such.”

The rest.

Wish granted, from the Denver Post:

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the University of Colorado has no authority to bar students or visitors from lawfully carrying guns on campus.

The appeals court said an El Paso County district judge was wrong to dismiss a challenge filed by a group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and three students from the University of Colorado.

The rest.

[Churchill] wrote: “I can think of no one who better reflects the principles and integrity of Colorado Republicans than Tom Lucero,” adding, “Who knows? He might even have what it takes to be the next Dick Cheney.”

Well said. But I’m not even sure Lucero’s got what it takes to be the next Sarah Palin.

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An Evening of Solidarity for Mutulu Shakur

Presented by Denver and Aurora CopWatch, Sisters of Color United for Education, and Denver ABC

Saturday, November 28th

Sisters of Color, 2895 8th Ave, Denver CO (8th and Federal across the street from the bus yard.)

7:30-12ish

Sliding scale 1-5$ (if you ain’t got it don’t let it stop you from coming)

Teach-in by Professor Ward Churchill

Live Music by Mike Wird, Ietef and Debajito (of Debajo Del Agua)

Hosted by Shareef Aleem

More on Mutulu Shakur.

In Colorado, if there’s a case where the government and the Constitution clash, Lane is often the attorney at the flashpoint. Whether it’s a teacher on a classroom tirade against George W. Bush or the Rainbow Family’s members fighting to get into a court hearing or the Hells Angels angry about being roused out of their clubhouse — or even the “Balloon Boy” — Lane is often the man in the middle.

And of all the controversial clients he has ever represented, none has been quite like Churchill, fired by CU after questions were raised about his scholarship. But those questions first arose after the emergence of an essay in which Churchill referred to some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as “little Eichmanns.”

For Lane, it was a clear-cut First Amendment issue — he believed Churchill was fired not for plagiarism or fabrication, as CU leaders claimed, but for his speech.

And Lane won, sort of, when a jury sided with him, although the judge later issued a ruling tossing out the verdict. That case is still on appeal, and things may change.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the way Lane has been attacked for representing Churchill. Like the day he sat with a client, in prison for second-degree murder and facing a first-degree murder charge for a slaying behind bars.

“This guy’s doing second-degree murder time, facing the death penalty, and he says, ‘Can I ask you a personal question?’ ” Lane recalled. “I said, ‘Sure.’ He said, ‘No offense, but how do you represent a scumbag like Ward Churchill?’ “

The rest.

Bethany Newill, in an affidavit accompanying a motion Churchill filed with the court late Tuesday asking the judge to amend his ruling earlier this month, wrote that her time on the jury was “wasted” as the result of Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves’ July 7 decision to vacate the verdict.

Updates coming.

Update: I also noticed this in the comments to the above Daily Camera article, posted by one John Q Public.

I’ve heard that pulling cases away from juries is pretty common for Judge Naves. He seems to prefer deciding the facts himself over allowing a jury’s decision to stand. Apparently, he did it again last week in another, separate case, basically removing the jury, making a decision, and forcing a settlement.

Interesting.

Update II: You can read Bethany Newill’s complete affadavit here. You can also read Ward Churchill complete motion to amend Naves’ ruling here.

Update III: You can read a comparison between Judge Naves’ ruling and CU’s pleadings here.

Tolerance for politically unpopular views is not always evident on campuses, any more than it is in the world at large, but the university bears a special responsibility to protect freedom of thought and expression. The right to speak, write and think independently is at the core of higher education. It is up to members of the academy to convey this critical message not only to their students but to a larger community. This goal can be advanced if, in the future, similar controversies are addressed in a more deliberative fashion, with regard for all the interests and values at stake(…) (J. Bertin – NCAC)

And this from an article entitled Ward Churchill Redux:

It is virtually inevitable that holders of unconventional or controversial views will be attacked on professional grounds. The consequent chilling effect on professors’ freedom to express political views is likewise predictable.  To prevent this damaging sequence of events, universities and scholars should always defend colleagues’ right to hold and express controversial views as a matter ofa principle, regardless of whether they agree with them or respect their scholarship.

We should have liked to believe that the American legal system was a part of the Good America, that it would at least redress the balance and allow Churchill to speak without penalty. Instead it ruled that Churchill could indeed be investigated, disciplined, and punished for his speech and that, shockingly, he did not even have a right to legal appeal. Churchill’s experience teaches him, and us, to be very skeptical about the America to which we really belong.