After all the fervor over the "little Eichmanns" quote from Ward Churchill's
essay "Some People Push Back," I decided, unlike most critics, to read the essay
in full ("UW-Whitewater expected to decide today on permitting speech /
University fields calls, e-mails on professor, Feb. 10").
I thought it was
impassioned, flawed and poorly reasoned, much like the "rationale" given for
going to war, for the unlawful holding of human beings in Guantanamo Bay and for
the so-called Patriot Act. But the essay was certainly not without
merit.
Anyone who has any knowledge of Nazi trials knows that Adolf Eichmann
was convicted not of being a mass murderer but of enabling the Nazi war machine
to run smoothly and so contributing to the deaths of millions. Which was the job
of some who worked at the Twin Towers; to help a system run smoothly that was
responsible for the deaths of so many innocents across the ocean.
I do not
feel those people got what they deserved. They deserved a job that provided for
their families without having to worry about the utter lack of any ethics or
compassion or humanity of the company they worked for. But because of the sick
society we live in, not many people get what they deserve.Kim Johnson
Milwaukee
Kim, I too read the essay, and found it absurdly simplified and have since found it oddly defended. Churchill himself has said he wasn't talking about the broom pushers and cafeteria workers. This puzzles me. Aren't they "part of the machine?" Would those evil stock brokers and numbers crunchers have been able to perfrom their jobs with such efficiency if not for those individuals? What about the firefighters and policemen that Mr. Churchill, the fraudulent Indian, so kindly absolves from any Nazi refrence? Would these men and women who were massacred in the WTC have been able to even have a place of work if not for the protection given by those brave men and women of the NYPD/FD? Isn't it those very heroes that allow men and women to leave their children in the hands of others, because of the laws the police enforce and the amount of protection provided by their services?
Kim's logic is as flawed as that Churchill fraud. "Anyone who has any knowledge of Nazi trials knows that Adolf Eichmann was convicted not of being a mass murderer but of enabling the Nazi war machine to run smoothly and so contributing to the deaths of millions. Which was the job of some who worked at the Twin Towers; to help a system run smoothly that was responsible for the deaths of so many innocents across the ocean." In essence, because they were part of the machine, they are a valid target. Who then, isn't a valid target? To begin with, our teachers empart the knowledge that allows these men and women to function as machinery cogs. Our service workers allow the men and women time and energy to perform these evil tasks that allow our nation to brutalize people across oceans. Obviously politicians are evil. Any consumer I suppose is equally as culpable according to Ms. Johnson, after all, they feed the fire of capitalism.
In short, every one of us is "part of the machine" that Ms. Johnson and Mr. Churchill so desperately despise. No wonder I don't find it difficult to find Mr. Churchill and like minded individuals so contemptable.
