Op ed on Infoshop

In my rash of recent posts, I never got around to putting a link up to my own op ed that I penned concerning Ward Churchill, freedom of speech, and attacks from the right-wing limiting that freedom.

Chuck and the good folks over at Infoshop picked up the op ed that I wrote and shopped to several left-leaning websites. With the subject of free speech front and center in the controversy swirling around Churchill, I would have thought a few more websites and bloggers would have had something to say about it. With Bill O'Reilly's nightly character assasinations against Churchill, I kept waiting for someone with a national forum, like Al Franken and Air America to take up his defense. Apparently, free speech that crosses whatever line Churchill was deemed to have crossed by the liberal arbiters of good taste, warrants shunning.

Bloggers like Atrios, Daily Kos, and even David Brock over at Media Matters had nothing to say about calls for censor and demands for Churchill's job at the University of Colorado. Even David Neiwert, who's written extensively on the rise of fascist tendencies in the U.S. was silent about this. Common Dreams, a newswire that carries a wide spectrum of progressive thought and opinion chose to run an op ed criticising Churchill. The obvious clamping down on dissent certainly warranted more commentary from the left. Lord knows it's been all over Free Republic and other right-leaning sites.

I have my own thoughts as to why this is, but I'll save it for a later post. I've spent a good part of the past three days writing, sending emails and making phone calls in support of Churchill. I need some time away from my keyboard. With the temperature in the 50's outside, the spring thaw up here in the Northeast is upon us. I think I'll get out and enjoy the sunshine and maybe put on the x-country skis and take a buzz through the pines.