Oct 6 2018
This week, I find myself perplexed by how Judge Kavanaugh became Justice Kavanaugh. My heart has wanted to learn more about the devastating tsunami in Indonesia, or about the dozens of stories that need to be told from around the world. But, like so many of you, I’ve been holding my breath to see whether Brett Kavanaugh would ascend to the highest court in America.
He was confirmed and sworn in today. And I’m still working through what it means for America and the world.
As The World Turns
Promises made, promises kept
Another tumultuous week, another win for America’s conservative movement in the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. And another reason for the administration to declare a victory, and a campaign promise (to appoint conservative Justices to the Supreme Court) kept.
What, then, about the other side? What’s next for liberals, who feel they haven’t been heard? What does this portend for due process, that feels fair to both the accuser and the accused? Other than voting in the midterm elections, what more can be done?
I wasn’t raised in a culture of peaceful protests. So, on days like these, after hundreds of women raised their fists and voices in Senate office buildings, after thousands of law professors signed an open letter opposing the nomination, and after no less than a 98-year-old retired Supreme Court Justice questioned Kavanaugh’s fitness for the job, I wonder about the effectiveness of such protests. Yes, they raise awareness, and they give us a vehicle to display our discontent. But if it doesn’t affect the end result, if the other party will not be swayed, should liberals be looking to other tools to effect change?
Anti-rape activism gets a Nobel Peace Prize
I did find comfort in another headline this week. While Kavanaugh’s confirmation process can make one question the imbalance of power and the ongoing frustration of women survivors not being heard or taken seriously, violent rape and torture persist in other parts of the world.
In honor of their commitment to help rape victims, The Nobel Committee awarded their 2018 Peace Prize to an activist and a gynecologist who heal survivors and give them a voice. Their work cannot be easy, and I applaud them for doing it.
Om Is Where The Heart Is
Coming to terms with going public
“I wanted to tell this story because I believe it’s time for men to tell the truth about the ways they’ve abused women and what our role has been in creating a culture that tolerates this.”
Don Palmerine
A former reporter and columnist living in PittsburghNow that Dr. Blasey Ford has come forward to share her testimony in the most public of ways, and Judge Kavanaugh has since become Justice Kavanaugh, her attorneys have shared that she won’t pursue her allegations against him.
As a country, America is left to wonder where the truth lies between Ford and Kavanaugh. Though not a criminal trial, this lack of finality won’t sit well in the court of public opinion.
What it has done, though, is unleash a newfound courage in sexual assault survivors to tell their stories.
And, even more profoundly, it’s opening a window for guilt-ridden perpetrators to come forward. In this raw and honest piece, Don Palmerine begins with, “I was both an observer and a participant in a teenage rape. I was 17, and it was 1969, about a year before I would be drafted into the Army.”
News and Views
Loving Lincoln
She calls them “my guys.”
For half a century, Doris Kearns Goodwin has studied, and written evocatively about, some of America’s most unforgettable presidents.
When you invest that much into the life and times of consequential leaders, you know them at a deep and soulful level. You invite them into your dreams, feel them beside you at the dinner table, and know (or at least hope) they’re guiding your pen as you chronicle their greatness.
As someone who guides leaders into their own peaceful place of contribution, and who writes about presidents and peacemakers too, I experienced something for the very first time, with a fellow writer, when I met Doris last night.
I trembled.
Perhaps it was the excitement of meeting Doris who, until last night, had only been my 2-dimensional companion on cable news. In recent years, she soothed my spirit when the political rhetoric of the day felt harsh, assuring me that America has had it much worse, and has prevailed.
Perhaps it was the memory that “Lincoln” was the last movie I’d watched with my soul mate before he passed. His copy of “Team of Rivals” stayed close to his bed, and we spent many days talking about the American presidents we admire. I imagine him now, in that unknown and unknowable afterlife, yukking it up with Abraham Lincoln, asking each other to “tell me a story.”
Or perhaps, perhaps, it was the presidents themselves coursing through my body – with Lincoln leading the way – thrilled that Doris and I had finally met, and might now have our own conversations about them.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book is Leadership for Turbulent Times. In it, she explores the leadership journey of the four presidents she has studied most closely – Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights).
(Are you a Doris Kearns Goodwin fan too? Why? Send me your thoughts here.)
In the next issue:
I’ll have more news on exciting projects that have been in the works all year.
Till then…
Live well and lead large – Maya
(featured image of Supreme Court from GetDrawings)