By Michelle Snider
I was 13 when I watched Anita Hill charge Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment during his Senate Judiciary Hearings as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
I remember coming to the conclusion that a woman’s place in our society is a helpless one. It is a place where our body, mind, and spirit have little-to-no value. Just the phrase, “a woman’s place,” reminds us of the boundaries that face people in female bodies.
I am a woman who has survived sexual assault on many occasions in many different ways, from high school to employment, I understand the current sentiment of fury. These last three years, watching Donald Trump’s rise to President of the United States, has pushed many people to a point that is beyond cynical, sarcastic outrage.
This man, who boasts about grabbing women and forcibly kissing them, is also a man who has echoed sentiments of white supremacy. This man now has the power to decide who has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, with the power to make the rules of our country for generations to come.
The next Supreme Court justice may have the deciding vote in such issues as women’s rights, voting rights, immigration, and the role religion plays in our justice system.
President Trump’s current Supreme Court pick is Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has lived in an Ivy League bubble of privilege and protection. A man who, as I write this, has had four women accuse him of sexual assault in the past. The first woman to come forward, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, did so in mid-September.
“What happens at Georgetown Prep, stays at Georgetown Prep,” Judge Kavanaugh said of his high school days in a speech in 2015. He has made it clear that he wants his past to stay hidden from the very public he seeks to serve.
The irony that Kavanaugh could be pushed through as a Supreme Court justice and decide the fate of all of us is astounding. This is a judge who passes judgment on others based on their actions. He is supposed to uphold laws that protect society, but that does not mean he will.
Our country has a history of putting men in power whose interests are protecting the most powerful at the expense of the general public’s safety, liberty and justice. Kavanaugh is a judge refusing to follow any sense of responsible recourse, yet he intends to force laws on us all. He is attempting to skate away without participating in an investigation that would clear his name if he truly was innocent of all accusations.
I refuse to ignore my past. This is part of being a responsible adult. Shadow boxing with your past mistakes and demons is all part of our lifelong learning experiences. The bare-minimum for the average adult should be taking responsibility for one’s errors and actions.
No one should be rewarded with the highest power in the land if they cannot even complete the bare minimum of responsibility.