My brother is having problems with TypePad and can’t post comments (if anyone else experiencing this, please email me), so here are his thoughts:
My comments as a Professional Academic *hrumph hrumph* ??:
First, what happens to the New World aboriginal inhabitants is a tragedy, but alas, it is unavoidable. ??As I point out to my students, any time you have an isolated population, you run the risk that eventually a circumstance can arise that can devastate the population because isolation decreases the ability to adapt over time. ??In this case, an Old World pathogen (or pathogens – smallpox wasn’t the only disease that killed Native Americans, there were also documented cases of bubonic plague as well) was introduced and wreaked havoc. ??By 1700, the native population of the Western Hemisphere had decreased from as high as 110 million (estimate; not all authorities agree) to between 2 and 3 million. ??This is just not possible if the Europeans themselves are the only vector or vector-driving agents. ??Consider: there was almost no sustained European contact in New England before 1620, but a smallpox epidemic pretty much depopulated the area around Plymouth just before the Pilgrims arrived (a stroke of Providence, the Pilgrims would later argue). ??The fact is that once the vector is introduced, it’s only a matter of time before the entire population is at risk. ??We can blame Columbus, we can blame Leif Erickson, we can blame a lot of people, but it’s just like blaming Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow: the circumstances were there that allowed this to happen (no resistance, no knowledge of transmission factors). ??By the way, we gave them smallpox, they gave us syphilis 😛
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Second, Ward Churchill’s tenure process was no doubt reviewed and researched, and his credentials established. ??This in no way makes him an authority on the subject over which he now lays claim. ??Consider that Noam Chomsky’s real field is linguistics, but that doesn’t stop him from spewing ad nauseum on everything else. ??Very often PhD actually does mean ???piled higher and deeper.??? ??Ward Churchill is proving that to us even now.
Third, peers such as Dr. Thomas from Lamar are part of the great check-and-balance system that is supposed to be a part of academic inquiry. ??This would not be the first case where scrutiny brought about truth and come-uppance. ??You may recall the historian Michael Bellesiles a few years ago wrote a book attempting to prove that the Founding Fathers had never meant for individuals to freely own guns, and thus the Second Amendment should be narrowly interpreted. ??Such as it happened, he completely and totally created primary source narratives, and his work has been discredited. ??This, too, shall happen to Dr. Churchill.
Fourth, despite the deserved disapprobation to which Dr. Churchill has made himself open, we still need to be careful. ??Academic freedom is important, no matter how odious it may seem. ??The free and vigorous marketplace of ideas must be encouraged, and while not every attempt to limit speech is a bad idea, a good many of them end up that way. ??I could easily recite a litany of campus speech codes that are still in place to restrict ???hate speech??? that stifle the free exchange of ideas; most of these are on campuses that could arguably be classifed as ???leftist???. ??The Left has a bad track record on free speech on campus. ??If the rest of us are not careful, we can find ourselves in the same indefensible position regarding speech.
Fifth: give a man enough rope, and he will hang himself with it. ??:)
