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| Judge Kavanaugh testifying before congress |
There is little doubt in my mind that the vast majority of
people that report sexual misconduct are telling the truth. There is also
little doubt that until recently most of it went unreported. It is also true
that there is a variety of behavior that can be classified as sexual misconduct.
All of which should never be done. All of which victimizes the people that it
is done to. But there is also little doubt in my mind about the culture we live
in that makes so much of it seem trivial if not downright OK. What defines
sexual misconduct.
Where does one cross the line between an innocent remark or
innocent touch into what can be defined as misconduct? I’m not even sure how to
answer that. Obviously we know that rape clearly and egregiously crosses that
line. Less certain is a comment that will compliment the way a woman looks.
Does telling a woman she looks beautiful qualify as sexual misconduct? Or is it
the opposite – just a flattering comment?
I don’t think that there is a clear answer to that. Perhaps it
is in the way you say it or it is in the context it is given. I think that the bottom
line is that if it makes a woman uncomfortable, it qualifies as harassment. But
I hasten to add that it is quite possibly not intended that way when it is
given. Perhaps the tone of the complement might tell you whether it is harassment
or not. Or maybe the compliment itself is off base. Should such an instance be
seen as harassment or not? I can’t really answer the question.
The #MeToo movement has freed up a lot of women to tell
their stories of harassment of one form or another. Some of them are horror stories
that have traumatized them ever since they happened. Some of them are simply
annoying and degrading comments that they have had to put up with just to be
let into the ‘boys club’ of the business world for example.
This is a good thing since it changes the culture of how men
behave towards women. Where in the past a variety of sexual misconduct (especially
of the verbal kind) was the way of the world and women just learned to shrug it
off, that is no longer the case. That is as it should be. Treating women with
the dignity they deserve instead of sex objects is long overdue. I’m not sure it
will disappear completely. But it will surely reduce the amount of times it
happens.
But I am beginning to suspect that this movement has been
tweaked by politics/ What I mean is that because of the world’s new
sensitivity to this issue. It can be sued as a weapon. One that might not have
been used otherwise.
In this case I believe that politics may be more of a
motivator than the harassment issue itself.
I have no way of knowing whether Supreme Court nominee Brett
Kavanaugh is guilty of the things he is now being accused of over 35 years ago.
The latest of which allegedly happened when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale. I
am not going to repeat the details of this latest accusation. Suffice it to
say it is disgusting if true.
But is it true? Kavanaugh denies it. As he has all other
such accusations. If it is true, he should not be confirmed. The Supreme Court
should have the highest standard of ethics and not allow anyone with a history
of sex abuse he is being accused of to serve.
Here’s the problem with this particular situation. Kavanaugh
is hated by the left. They have made it their mission to destroy his chances of
becoming the next Supreme Court Justice. They have been very open about this.
As they have about the low chances of defeating him in a Republican controlled
congress.
Now they can. They have
succeeded in ‘finding dirt on him’. Enough to sabotage his candidacy. In the current
climate, his denials are far less believable that the accusers accusations. That’s the world we now live in. It gives any accusation of sexual misconduct the
upper hand of belief while denials are completely disregarded.
To say that there are unscrupulous people on the left that
would do anything to keep this political conservative off the court is an understatement.
Which for me thrusts a air of doubt about just how true these accusations are. It is just a bit too convenient that at the last moment, they have all
surfaced. The latest one is an example of just how questionable that truth of
that allegation is. From the New Yorker:
(The accuser) was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers.
Is it not evident that it is far from a certainty that this
ever happened? She consulted with a lawyer and now she remembers what she could
not remember before?! Does that not tell you how political this has become?
This is the danger of when a good thing goes too far. Something
that has brought a certain degree of justice to so many women is now being used as a weapon to
torpedo a highly qualified jurist from serving on the Supreme Court because of
his political philosophy.
I therefore question the motives of the accusers as well as
the veracity of their accusations. I do not automatically believe the accusers
in this case. His wife and children as well as the entire community that knows
this man would tell you that these accusations are so out of character with the
man they know - that they are absurd.
This does not mean that they didn’t happen. People are
sometimes Jekylls and Hydes. It is also possible that he was a reckless teenager
who reformed his ways. (Not that this would excuse his past actions - if true.)
The
only thing I am certain of is that I am not certain of his guilt. In this case
the accusers do not get the benefit of the doubt. Politics are involved and
that muddies up the picture. The only people that are ‘certain’ that the
accusations are true are those who oppose him on political grounds.
I don’t know if these accusations are true. But if they are
not proved to be true to a virtual certainly, I believe he should be confirmed.
