It was standing room only in the 1,300 person auditorium on C.U. campus with another 1,500 or more outside in the cold listening to Churchill’s speech last night. In a tone setting opening, American Indian Movement activist, Russel Means called C.U. Regents, “cowards who can’t stand up for their own professor.” Controlling his anger at being written off and labeled a radical supporter of terrorism, Ward Churchill finally had a chance to reply to attacks that he "called for the death of millions of Americans." Churchill drew attention to the overall message of his piece, "I did not justify, I pointed to the Natural and Inevitable...There was a lot of Karma due...When you put (violent policy) out it will blow back on you." From the civilian targets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the uncountable Iraqi men, women, and children labeled collateral damage, the professor detailed the documented history of the cultural cruelty inflicted by the American Government in the name of its’ people. He stated that he was pointing out the obvious moral of the sad tragedy of 9-11 that America need to remember “Do unto others as you would expect to have done unto you”

Far from righteous academic he has been called by mass media outlets, Churchill humbly admitted that despite his long activist history, he was no more innocent then the professionals killed in September because he also lives in this county and profits from its economic success. Churchill answered that we are all metaphysical “little Eichmanns” when we participate thoughtlessly in an unjust system. He also openly invited the media and the state politicians to allow him to defend his statements in person which he says have been twisted and taken out of context.

Students, faculty, and others from as far away as Laramie clapped and cheered as Churchill defended himself and turned the focus back on the key issue of his paper which he says answers the main question asked in America after 9-11; why do they hate us. He wondered at the politicians like Colorado Governor Bill Owens who focus on him and his language but not on the larger and brutal injustices in the world and stated “the question isn’t why I am angry, its why aren’t the governor and the C.U. Regents."

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