There is a New Supreme Court Justice in Place – What Have We Learned and Where Do We Go Now?

So here is my alternate reality. Judge Brett Kavanaugh is up to be a Supreme Court Justice. The country is terribly fractured due to poor examples of acting like an adult that are coming from the seat of the Executive Branch of our government, unfortunately. Scream, call people names, bully anyone and everyone who challenges you and so on …. By the way, Melania, didn’t you say you wanted to address bullying? Where are you when we need just that?

Anyway, so there is a judge that is being questioned and it gets difficult as evidence is uncovered of less than seemly, even horrible, behavior of this same person in his teen years and apparently into his twenties. Let’s imagine that this information comes to light and the judge who should have an even and appropriate temperament insists calmly that he has no memory of certain aspects of that time, while admitting to behavior that he is not proud of and regrets. A woman makes a very difficult statement about what happened to her and Kavanaugh’s involvement. She insists it happened; he insists it did not. There is an impasse. And then the statement I would hope could be made might go something like this. “Dr. Ford, I am sincerely sorry for what happened to you. That is truly horrible. I honestly do not have any memory of it. Yes, I did act like so many kids and did things I am not proud of and do definitely regret. If there is any chance that in fact I was involved as you say, Dr. Ford, I humbly apologize and in doing so would ask all of us to consider how foolish and inappropriate behaviors on any of our parts cold result in horrific memories and impact on others. I am truly sorry for anything I may have done that hurt anyone in such a profound way. That being said, I ask that all look at my record during the past twenty-five years. Yes, I am a conservative, but as you can see, I have voted with my conscience, not always adhering to one or the other ideology. I listen, I consider and I try to do what is right. I ask for forgiveness for the missteps of youth as I imagine we all do at times and again, Dr. Ford, I am truly sorry for what happened to you though I have no memory of being involved.”

So back to where we are. There is anger, frustration, ugly facial expressions, inappropriate accusations, disrespect for public officials, inappropriate and hurtful interactions, and a general disregard for what is honorable, while our children are watching and too many adults shake their heads in complete horror. We also note that too much of our society has now taken a page from that aforementioned Head of State’s playbook and think this is perfectly okay. Then we wonder why there is more violence, more disrespect, increasing lines of fracture and complete frustration in a country that we used to have such pride in for so many reasons. There is no wonder here, as Robert Bly (author of The Sibling Society) explains, that now instead of children looking at fairy tales and wanting to rid the world of the monsters that haunt us, they want to BECOME the monsters. That is what we are witnessing in our lives today.

Senators Coons and Flake, we need you, we need your friendship and respect that exist alongside your differences, we need to go back to the basics of how to act as human beings and for each and every one of us to remember that our way is not the only way. I do think that this has been a horrible display --- but not of the behavior of those of one political party, as the other political party has charged, but rather of the loss of common decency at the highest levels of the government of the land that claims that decency is a fundamental part of who we are. At this point, I am sad to say we as a country are NOT THAT and instead have become so much of what we abhorred for so long in other parts of the world. What do we do to get back to the example and reality we are supposed to be and how do we truly reclaim our identity as “one nation under God?” I am sure that God (however one refers to that entity) is crying “My children, my children, what has happened?” -- as the prophets taught so long ago.