Over 240 years, this nation has endured a lot. Wars, assassinations, terrorist attacks, storms, slavery, riots… a long and terrible list. And yet, though no one will die, I think this week deserves a place on that list. Something precious is dying.
I don’t know what Mr. Kavanaugh was doing 36 years ago and you don’t either. How could we? And yet we are called upon to know, to take sides, to strengthen this tornado of opinion that swirls around a vacuum of information.
And that is death, to choose without knowing, to choose anything above simple justice. There is a time to not know, a time to wait and listen, and this is such a time. Of course, we all have our instincts and intuition. I hope the story is not true. Perhaps you hope it is. But, if we are to share this nation, we must agree on this: Whoever has won our sympathy, we must give our loyalty to truth.
No man or woman is too high to answer for their offenses. No man or woman should be considered guilty just because they’ve been accused. That’s a fundamental idea of America, a nation established by “We the People… in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, [and] insure domestic Tranquility…” Without justice, there can be no union, no peace, no protection for any of us against those who would attack or accuse.
We need men and women of good character to serve as judges. If the accusation is shown to be truthful, I’ll be thankful to see Mr. Kavanaugh rejected. If not, I’ll hope that he and his family can somehow recover the innocence stolen from them. In either case, it’s clear that the confirmation process has been weaponized and manipulated to gain political power, and that’s an attack on all of us.