For context, I’d like to refer to my previous post of January when I wrote that many people who had been abused, sexually assaulted or bullied were triggered by the election of Donald Trump with his history of admitted-but-denied sexual assault and the way in which his cohorts enabled him to engage in his relentless attacks on his accusers.
Here we are once more: Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh – the same pattern of accusations, denials, dismissal, attempts to discredit the accusers, outrage at victims who speak up, refusal of full investigation, abusers coming to the defense of abusers. Of course, anyone can make an accusation, but it’s the subsequent response that shows what we are made of – or which agenda will take precedence over our basic human decency. We all make mistakes, of course, but our integrity is dependent on our ability to take responsibility, our ability to move forward on honest admission and restitution. And there is evidence of previous misconduct by his own hand and in the memories of those who shared in his drinking days.
Rather than taking the accusations seriously, letting a proper investigation lead where it may, we find counter accusations and even allegations of conspiracy. The refusal to investigate will be the nail in the coffin of those without integrity.
We see stress growing in the women who have been subjected to abuse and felt the soul-killing sting of being dismissed as they’ve seen happen to other women over and over. This man’s nomination, the accusations, the attempt to ignore them has triggered the collective consciousness of womankind, having had their dignity subjugated to others’ (mostly male) agendas.
We’ve seen again the violation of trust, the betrayal of ethical responsibilities of authority and abuse of power, the denials, and blaming the victim. It looks as if women were some kind of repository to receive the evils of men so that we men can maintain some conceit of pious innocence while blaming women for our inadequacies. This is not new. The institutional church has been blaming women for the ills of the world since the establishment of its male authority.
I find heartening the courage we see in the women who, in spite of all that’s raged against them, speak truth to power. These are the warriors we should lionize, the ones we need as role models for girls and boys, as well as us adults. The courage and sacrifice of these women just might save us from our neurotic patriarchy and restore integrity to a corrupt political system built on undeserved power of male dominance.
The stakes are high and we will all be judged accordingly. It reflects on the expectations of people in power (men and women), the integrity of due process, the value and dignity this country is willing to recognize in every woman, the messages passed along to boys and men about what is permitted and to girls what is expected.
Who sits on the Supreme Court is important, but not nearly as important as the need to recognize our societal illness in its denigration of women and to respond with integrity to an ancient wound inflicted on half of humanity by the patriarchal neurosis enabled by religious institutions.
The stakes are high today and in the coming days.