Be sure to wear dead babies in your hair

The Rocky's Vince Carroll notes Ward Churchill pal and Colorado AIMster Glenn Morris's threat of "conflict" during this year's Columbus Day Parade in Denver:

How invigorating to see professor Glenn Morris back in the news, warning us once again to brace ourselves for “conflict.” Morris wants the public to know that the governor and legislature’s failure to repeal Colorado’s Columbus Day holiday “has set the stage for additional conflict.”

Morris should know, since he’ll be a chief instigator of any future unpleasantness surrounding the holiday. Why, without conflict, he’d be merely an obscure academic nursing Churchillian views (Ward’s, not Winston’s) when he wasn’t decompressing from the intense burdens of an intellectual career with a much-deserved sabbatical.

“We will never allow another Columbus Day Parade in this city,” Morris infamously declared in 1992 after he and others who disdain constitutional rights frightened Denver parade participants, who had lined up and were ready to go, into calling off the event. This feat represents perhaps the summit of Morris’ résumé, although it is by no means the only time he’s sought to trample on First Amendment freedom, including much more recently, too.

As Morris has explained, “the continuing celebration of Columbus and his colonial legacy was sufficiently offensive and inciteful to American Indians as to justify our reaction to the parade.” . . .

Whether Colorado should preserve its official holiday for Columbus is actually an interesting question, with good arguments available on either side. But the sight of Morris heading the opposition is as jarring as seeing Al Sharpton lead the chorus that demanded Don Imus’ firing.

Activists who ignore the rights of others have no standing to lecture the public about which words and symbols are beyond the pale.

Being a cube-top hegemonist lackey, Carroll doesn't mention that, according to Morris and Churchill, the Columbus Day Parade itself is a "denial of fundamental human dignity" not protected by the First Amendment. So there.

He also doesn't mention that Morris called Gov. Ritter and the legislature "political cowards" for not getting rid of the Columbus Day holiday. The American Indian Movement blog goes a little further, calling them "cowards, who prefer to support anti-Indian racism"--that is, racists themselves. The blog post (which may well have been written by Morris) concludes:

So, the legislature and the governor have spoken (by quashing debate), and we are putting out the call for EVERYONE to plan to come to Denver in October for the 100th anniversary of the racist Columbus Day holiday. We will be posting a schedule of events for September and October, soon. Please visit this site frequently for updates. PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR NOW --THIS OCTOBER, IN DENVER!

Oh boy. More Morris and Columbus Day (including dead babies) here, here and here.