On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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I’ve got just one beef with the “New 7 Wonders of the World” annointed by 100 million online and telephoned votes from across the planet: The lone winner from the 20th century is a pretender.

Yes, the Christ Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro is massive, striking and beautiful. But it simply fails to evoke the speechless awe that a true world wonder should trigger.

Go see Chichen Itza, the Great Wall of China or Macchu Picchu (the three other winners I’ve visited) and you marvel that humans built them. The same is true of several finalists that didn’t make the cut, such as the Acropolis or even Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. No such stunned reaction accompanies a visit atop Corcovado mountain.

I’d have the same complaint, by the way, if the Statue of Liberty, another finalist in the balloting, had slipped into the winner’s circle. Lady Liberty is a great statue and an even better symbol, but hardly a world wonder.

A radical department

The Ward Churchill saga, which enters its final phase this month, is like an overwritten novel we thought would never end — 900 pages when it should have been 200, a host of plot lines when a handful would do.

When the University of Colorado Regents finally discuss whether to terminate the wayward professor two weeks from today, it will be 21/2 years since a furor erupted over his essay on 9/11 — prompting the scrutiny that led to his official exposure as an academic fraud.

I say “official,” because anyone who listened to Churchill or read his work before 2005 knew he was no scholar. They knew he was an intellectual bully, even if they were unaware of the extent of his contempt for historical truth. Which is why when Churchill is finally fired, we would do well to remember the most disturbing fact involving his downfall: He was chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, where his perspective was absolutely commonplace.

If your son or daughter is thinking of majoring in ethnic studies, you might want to check out its Web pages on the CU-Boulder site. Much of the content reads as if its authors are winking at us; you couldn’t write a better parody of radical gibberish if you tried.

“The Department of Ethnic Studies encourages participatory, experiential, student-centered learning and empowers students to move beyond existing social, cultural and political paradigms to more inclusive paradigms in which they are the subjects of their own reality. Consequently, all students are encouraged to examine and analyze their own inherited political/economic and social/cultural background and identities.”

Any questions?

“We stress critical thinking, the construction of grounded social theory, data gathering and comparative analysis. . . . We engage emergent epistemologies of racial/ethnic communities to critically question established disciplinary canons by encouraging our students to move beyond being objects of study toward being subjects of their own research.”

Whew!

As for their “primary areas” of research, they include “critical race theory with various strands of critical pedagogy, critical class theory, feminist theory, liberation theology, postmodernism, and postcolonial theory.”

This is a department that was content to have Churchill as its leader. The king is being deposed, but the kingdom looks about the same as always.

Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

READER COMMENTS

I've read that the average newspaper article is pitched at a fifth-grade reading level. Apparently Vince Carroll thinks that the college curriculum should not rise above that level either.

You'll notice he doesn't actually attempt to understand anything he found in his visit to the Ethnic Studies website. Nope, after doing some elementary-school level research (clicking on a website) he proceeds to criticize it at an elementary-school level (Garsh! Lookit them big words them perfessers use! "Epistemology"!?!?! That's just stoopid! Yuck! Yuck!).

How, exactly, does this piece of "criticism" advance our knowledge in any way?

If they're going to study "critical race theory," perhaps they could explain why a white man would pose as an Indian and why an ethnic studies department would tolerate such behavior.

Never, ever, believe anyone or anything that "Empowers" someone.
You cannot empower me, or anyone else. At best, you call allow me to empower myself..
That is because empowerment must come from within--it cannot be imposed. So for a University-level curriculum to profess that--well, they pretty much fail the advanced education criterion...

While some academics have increasingly moved away from the communities they purport to serve, and have done so joyfully, others continue to focus on society's real problems. Although I do not live in Colorado, I am well aware of the valuable work of Louis Swanson and other rural sociologists in the state who have shown a real commitment to understanding and improving the quality of their communities. Let's remember the many state college and university faculty who are engaged and caring professionals.

So Vinnie, are you calling for a swiftness of employee misconduct review and firing that got lead Churchill and former RMN reporter Charlie Brennan dismissed (from the story) for bias the minute his venal letters seeking insider info were published on the internet?

ummmmm,

If Charlie Brennan was dismissed from his position regarding Churchill and Churchill is still a prof... then yeah, I think his was pretty darned speedy... unlike what happened to the "Good" professor.

it is fascinating anyone, even a lib would defend Churchill....He has proven to be a total fraud. I can say that I am an Eskimo.... doesn't make it so without proof.

"empower... students to move beyond existing social, cultural and political paradigms to more inclusive paradigms in which they are the subjects of their own reality. "

I guess my old fashioned Master's Degree isn't quite enough education to allow me to wrap my head around the concept that students should be the" subjects of their own reality.

Sounds groovy though

When is Vincent Carroll going to quit stealing from the Pirate Ballerina Web site? That story on the Ethnic Studies department web site was done on that blog a week ago.

Some of Carroll's doubts about the Christ Redeemer statue meriting Wonder of the World status might be resolved if he read some of the critical American Indian studies works that have addressed the dogmatic and pervasive effects of Christianity.

If they get rid of Chief Whitey Fake-Em-Good, who'll be left to lead all those rich white kids in the war against the United States? Well?

Benjamin and I have found something we agree on -- a shared loathing for what passes for as mainstream media. And to think they criticize bloggers for not being true "journalists," while at the same time lifting original material from those same bloggers.

Carroll's ad-hominem style attack on the whole Ethnic Studies Department needs to be vigorously defended against by CU leaders like Hank Brown. Hank Brown has an affirmative duty to defend this CU department against this attack for the good of the University. Hank Brown has failed CU by not coming out firmly with a public statement condemning Carroll’s attack on this CU department.

It simply is not acceptable for Hank Brown to allow an entire CU department to be become collateral damage in the battle to remove Ward Churchill.

CU has issued statements in the past supporting the Ethnic Studies Department. CU's faculty should demand that Hank Brown respond to Carroll’s statements with a updated statement in defense of this department.

"while at the same time lifting original material from those same bloggers" sounds like something the left wing media does.

And how many times can you say "Hank Brown"?

The silliness that is "Ethnic Studies" lacks defenders because it is indefensible. It is not scholarship, its just neo-marxist prattle.

It is amusing that quoting from the department's own silly gobbledygook is "ad hominem".

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