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Colorado Keeps Churchill, Dumps Christian
by Doug Payton
Originally posted to BNN 3/9/2005
Ward Churchill can lie about his background and call 9/11 victims Nazis, and keep his job, while at the same institution an award-winning teacher and one highly regarded by colleagues (even those who disagree with him) may lose his job.
Professor Phil Mitchell, who has a doctorate in American social history from the university, says he recently was informed his contract would not be renewed after this year because "his teaching was not up to the department standards," according to Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi.
Mitchell, winner in 1998 of the prestigious SOAR Award for teacher of the year, told the columnist he has wondered how long he would last.
"I've had enough. I am clearly being closed out for political or religious reasons," Mitchell says. "I am one of the top-rated professors in the history of the department."
A colleague, William Wei, described by Harsanyi as "hardly a conservative," said, "Phil is a great person, a good teacher and highly regarded by his students."
So what is Prof. Mitchell's firing offense?
Harsanyi said Mitchell, who has taught at the Hallett Diversity Program for 24 straight semesters, upset the head of the department by presenting a diverse opinion.
And heaven knows we can't have that on our college campuses. If you've been paying attention to what's been going on at most US campuses, you already know where on the political spectrum Mitchell stands.
After quoting respected black intellectual Thomas Sowell in a discussion about affirmative action, Mitchell was berated as a racist.
>gasp< Well, it's obvious he's a racist, since he's quoting a (black) conservative.
"That would have come as a surprise to my black children," said Mitchell, who has nine children, two of them adopted African-Americans.
Oh come on! Never mind the facts! Don't look at his actions! Insinuation of conservatism is the clearest indicator of racism, isn't it?
But wait, there's more. Something even more heinous.
Then, says Harsanyi, the professor used a book on liberal Protestantism in the late 19th century.
Harsanyi writes: "So repulsed by the word 'god' was one student, she complained, and the department chair fired him without a meeting."
Good heaven..er..good grief! The "G" word? That's obviously way out of line. Out he goes! The university will just have to weather the predictable cries of "censorship" that will come of this.
(Well, except they didn't.)
The columnist points out that unlike Churchill's case, there was no protest by faculty and students.
Mitchell later was reinstated, Harsanyi said, but never was able to teach in the history department again.
All sarcasm aside, welcome to liberal "diversity", which is only skin-deep and which ignores diverse ideas, something that college and university campuses are supposed to be bastions of. Are they controlled by liberals? Mitchell has his own thoughts on that.
"People say liberals run the university. I wish they did," Mitchell told the Denver columnist. "Most liberals understand the need for intellectual diversity. It's the radical left that kills you."
Mitchell may be using "liberal" in this sentence in the sense of those who are truly broad-minded as opposed to those on the left of the political spectrum. And the more I read about this sort of thing, the more I see that the truly liberal people are those on the conservative side of the spectrum.
Consider that.
Doug Payton blogs at Considerettes.
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