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MORE CHATTER THAT DOESN'T MATTER

I am a victim of the Kavenaugh dilemma.  I sat glued to the television set (and I am not a TV aficionado) during the recent hearings.  I was mesmerized by Judge Kavanaugh’s in depth answers to the questions of legal precedent, his   knowledge of the law and his communication skills in expressing that knowledge in a clear, concise and distinct manner that even I could understand.  I  saw for the first time that the decision of a Judge is not (or should not be) his decision but his ability to understand the words of the law, the interpretations of others in similar cases, and after careful analysis, render a decision in the case before him on the basis of existing law, analysis, review and with the insight of precedent.  

Perhaps I am naive but it seems to me that our laws,  and the challenges they address, might be compared to the framework of a great building. Our Constitution is the foundation on which a framework of legal decisions either strengthens and enhances its strength to withstand society's  earthquakes and tsunamis of time or falls as rubble into the abyss.  I have watched (perhaps not always with the same intensity) many inquiries in the Senate nomination process from glimmers of the Bork nomination, the Clarence Thomas spectacle and more recently that  of  Justices Roberts, Alito, Kaden, Sodermeyer and Gorsuch.  They were at the mercy of men and women (many of whom were obviously inferior intellectually, morally and judicially)  who would, in their advise and consent role,  influence, if not determine,  their fate.  I have been awed by an awareness that those Judicial nominees represent the best of our country’s thoughtful and intellectual giants .  While I have been impressed and overwhelmed with the extent of wisdom, knowledge and intellect that each articulated, none impressed me more than Judge Kavanaugh.

If politics is a validating factor in the Judicial process we have invalidated the process.   Politics were exercised when we voted for the President whose responsibility it is to appoint our Judges. That is a responsibility that we are affixing  when we vote for a President.  Representatives are appointed by the ranking member of each party in the Congress to serve on a committee to advise and consent to those Presidential appointments. When politics becomes more important than merit in a judicial review, the process is compromised, in my view.  Politics restrains our liberty by depriving us of the assurance that our laws will be judged in an enlightened, fair,  unbiased manner unstained by preconceived political views.

 

In the case of Judge Kavanaugh,  we have not only permitted politics to disgrace that liberty,  we are engaged in ruining a lifetime of achievement,  discounting a great intellect and destroying a man and his family because, as a youth, it is alleged that he engaged in youthful, immature acts of sexual misconduct that are both unproven and uncorroborated.  Furthermore, in what I truly believes has been a partisan effort to thwart this nomination by the Democratic party, two people’s lives and that of their family have been inexcusably forever  affected.  Does our stupidity have no bounds?

I want to make it clear. As President Trump has said, and I think we all agree, (perhaps even the Trump haters who have made this nomination process so obscene) Dr. Ford’s testimony was heart wrenching and credible.  Judge Kavanaugh’s  testimony was just as riveting and soul searching.  I cried with heartfelt sympathy and compassion for both.  I personally (like I believe a large percentage of women in our country today) also suffered sexual misconduct.  I understand her agony.  However, I look back on those years when young boys had more arms and legs than a centipede and thank goodness I escaped the humility of permitting satisfaction to their raging hormones. I hold those boys no ill will today and in fact, enjoy visiting with them and their family on my infrequent visits to my home town. They were guilty of engaging in acts that could ruin their life by today’s “me too” outcry.  Yes – there was and is a problem. However, any model that  might actually be an instrument in our effort to provide guidelines for awareness, respect, moral values and behavior continues its downhill decline and  is deemed offensive in both political correctness and secularism.

 If Judge Kavanaugh is innocent as he claims, should he pay the price for Dr. Ford’s years of anguish?  Isn’t that what we will be saying if the charges cannot be substantiated and Judge Kavanaugh is denied this appointment for which he is uniquely qualified?  What about “Innocent until proven guilty”? Could Dr. Ford have relived a very bad dream so long that she now believes it happened and her dislike for Judge Kavanaugh, the President and the party that spearheaded his nomination, now be the face to which she has affixed to the perpetrator in that dream?

 

I welcome this last effort by the President to conclusively seek verification that Judge Kavanaugh did or did not engage in the alleged acts. But in fact, I do question whether we as a nation should deprive ourselves of the benefits of a great mind because of the acts of an errant teenager who has  proven himself to be a model citizen,  husband,  father  and exceptional in intellectual  and Judicial prudence on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations amid political misrepresentation and attitudes?

Let us not, in our rush to Judgment, further diminish the promises guaranteed under our Constitution. We should all hold sacred our one great liberty under the Constitution.

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.