Open Letter to the Chancellor

Note: The Richard Gage/AE911truth event referenced in this letter has been moved to Room 1310, Sterling Hall, 475 N. Charter St., just south-east of the intersection of Linden and Charter. (Time: 7 pm Thursday, April 7th). The reason for the move is that the previously-assigned room actually holds fewer than 150 people -- not 200 as the organizers were told, much less the 500 capacity originally requested. 1310 Sterling has a capacity of 262.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Dear Chancellor Martin, and All Faculty of the University of Wisconsin:

The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 were used as an excuse to increase U.S. aggression abroad and erode our civil liberties and Constitutional rights at home. Every day the "war on terror" is used to justify continued assaults on the U.S. Constitution and foreign wars which have caused the deaths of countless innocent people. This perpetual "war on terror" has enabled blatant abuses of power at the highest levels of government, yet few people question the validity of the purported threats to our security.

After nearly a decade of reviewing all publicly available forensic evidence, 1450 Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth are formally questioning the government's official story about what destroyed the three high rises at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and calling for a new, independent investigation. Their concerns, echoed by hundreds of scientists, professors, senior government officials, aviation professionals and others, are based on strong evidence for explosive controlled demolition of the buildings. (See www.PatriotsQuestion911.com.) These brave people, whose love of country is greater than their fear of ridicule, risk their reputations, their jobs, and their livelihoods in attempting to bring this evidence to light.

There is a plaque at Bascom Hall which reads:

"Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."

Yet this esteemed institution did trammel inquiry when a political opportunist, Wisconsin Assemblyman Steven Nass (R), assailed the credentials of Dr. Kevin Barrett, an instructor of Islamic Studies, and called for his removal from the U.W. Dr. Barrett's political views on 9/11 were the focus of this personal attack and ensuing media attention, which featured mischaracterization of his actual course curriculum. In spite of being a highly qualified and competent instructor, he was refused re-hire and apparently blacklisted with no debate. Not one academic from the U.W. accepted the History Club's request to debate Dr. Barrett. Lost in this debacle was the concern for truth and academic freedom necessary for the survival of a healthy democracy.

This is an urgent plea to the UW faculty to research and debate these issues. Please attend the presentation by architect Richard Gage on April 7th to see evidence which has been ignored by mainstream sources. And please continue dialogue by sponsoring a series of debates to critically analyse this information. Additionally, please investigate whether there was unjust discrimination involved in any hiring decisions. It's time for the University to take its rightful place as a bulwark defender of academic freedom, this "fearless sifting and winnowing" on which we pride ourselves. Show us that the plaque at Bascom Hall is more than a wall covering, or please take it down.

This plea is dedicated to all those with the intellectual honesty and moral courage to continue searching for truth, no matter how that inquiry challenges their fundamental beliefs.

Sincerely,

Mark Wollum, 1987 U.W. Graduate, 2008 Candidate for Congress, Wisconsin's 6th CD;
special dedications to my dear late twin brother Scott Wollum, a U.W graduate who had a brilliant mind for mathematics, valued intellectual honesty and moral integrity above popularity and material gain, always had more cajones than I did, and who remains my inspiration;
and to the late Mark Wolfert of Lone Rock, a Fearless Sifter and Winnower.

Co-signatories:

Lynn Margulis

Distinguished University Professor
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
MS Zoology&Genetics University of Wisconsin, 1960

Joel Hirschhorn
Professor of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1965 - 1978.
Senior Staff Member, Congressional Office of Technology Assessment 1978 - 1990.

William B. Willers
Emeritus Professor of Biology, UW-Oshkosh

Howard Ross
Former Dean of L&S, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Kevin MacDonald
Professor of Psychology, Cal State - Long Beach
UW-Madison B.A. Philosophy, 1966

Robert Bowman
Ph.D., Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, Cal Tech; former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force

Paul Craig Roberts
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy,
Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, former Wall St. Journal columnist

John Perkins
Activist, former economic hit man, economist, and NYT bestselling author

John Cobb
Founder, Center for Process Studies, Claremont School of Theology

Niels Harrit, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Chemistry
University of Copenhagen, Denmark

William Pepper
Attorney for Martin Luther King Jr. family; author, Act of State

David Ray Griffin
Professor of Philosophy of Religion & Theology
Claremont School of Theology & Claremont Graduate University
Author of 37 books, one of which was Publishers Weekly's "Pick of the Week"

Anthony J. Hall
Professor of Globalization Studies, University of Lethbridge

Alan Sabrosky
Ph.D. University of Michigan, former Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College

A. K. Dewdney,
Computer scientist and science author,
University of Western Ontario

Graeme McQueen
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, McMaster University (ret.)

William Cook
Professor of English, University of La Verne

Davidson Loehr
Ph.D., Philosophy of Religion, University of Chicago

Allen Roland
Ph.D. psychotherapist, pundit

James Fetzer
Distinguished McNight Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota-Duluth

Four Arrows (Don Jacobs)
Doctoral Faculty, School of Educational Leadership and Change
Fielding University

Rev. Dr. Richard Curtis, PhD
Educator and Author

Henry Makow
Ph.D., University of Toronto

Anab Whitehouse
Ph.D., University of Toronto

Susan Lindauer
Former CIA asset, 9/11 whistleblower
Author, Extreme Prejudice

Barbara Honegger
Senior Military Affairs Journalist
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey

Michael Keefer
Professor, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph.

Shelton F. Lankford
LtCol. USMC (Ret.)

Gordon Duff
Senior Editor, Veterans Today

Eric Beeth, M.D.

Joshua Blakeney
Graduate Student, University of Lethbridge

Matthew Orr
Biology faculty, University of Oregon

Dorion Sagan
DS, Award-Winning Writer, Co-Director Sciencewriters Books, Chelsea Green Publishing.

Enver Masud
Former Engineering Management Consultant
World Bank, USAID

Tom Spellman
Architect; alumnus, UW-Milwaukee; Board Member, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth

John McMurtry
Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada

Kaukab Siddique
Professor of English and Journalism, Lincoln University, PA

Dwain Deets,
Former Director for Research Engineering
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

Michael D. Rectenwald, Ph.D.
Professor of Global Liberal Studies
New York University

University of Wisconsin-Madison Sifting and Winnowing Club

You are invited to join the U.W.-Madison SIFTING AND WINNOWING CLUB! You don't have to be a student - anyone interested in helping the University live up to its "sifting and winnowing" mission can join.

Mission Statement

The University of Wisconsin-Madison SIFTING AND WINNOWING CLUB aims to foster research, dialogue and debate on the most significant controversial issues. We are students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the University community who oppose all forms of censorship, whether tacit or explicit; support academic freedom in its broadest form; and wish to see the University of Wisconsin live up to its motto: "Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great State University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."

Membership is free. No commitment necessary. By joining, all you are doing is saying that you support the mission statement. Note that we may contact you from time to time with event information; if you ever decide you do not wish to be contacted, just say "leave me alone!" and we will.

To join, simply send an email to UWsifting(at)gmail(dot)com telling us you want to join, or cut and paste from the coupon below:


_____ YES! I SUPPORT FEARLESS SIFTING AND WINNOWING AND WANT TO JOIN.

_____ NO, I THINK SIFTING AND WINNOWING IS TOO DANGEROUS, AND THAT IF IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, IT SHOULD BE DONE FEARFULLY, FURTIVELY AND FECKLESSLY.


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