Why I Support Christine Blasey Ford
Friday evening, Lovely Beautiful Daughter and I traveled to Urbana to attend Made, a festival of music, poetry, and handmade arts and crafts. We chatted the entire way there, as we made our way through the booths of homemade soaps, funny magnets, pottery, and whimsical clay pots for succulents, and as we searched for the restaurant we decided to try out. On our way to the restaurant, the subject of the latest supreme court nominee came up.
Lovely Beautiful Daughter, in so many words, wasn't sure the alleged events from thirty plus years ago should keep this man from being appointed. Maybe he's changed, she said.
We continued talking after our appetizers had arrived.
Maybe, I said. But doesn't she deserve to be heard? If he did what she says he did, she's been living with those nightmare memories for over thirty years.
Lovely Beautiful Daughter nodded. Thankfully I've never experienced sexual assault, she said.
At that, I could feel the tears wanting to show themselves. I looked at Lovely Beautiful Daughter and said, I am so glad you haven't.
Because they are memories that never, ever go away. They might sift to the back of your mind, but they are always much too ready and willing to come screeching to the forefront. When they do, the moment is relived. Again and again. And those memories have a way of persuading you to make decisions that you know are not in your best interest. You watch yourself going left when you know without a doubt going right is the better choice. But you go left anyway, as if some invisible string is pulling you and you're powerless to cut it.
Those memories are a life sentence.
And it's so unfair.
Lovely Beautiful Daughter, in so many words, wasn't sure the alleged events from thirty plus years ago should keep this man from being appointed. Maybe he's changed, she said.
We continued talking after our appetizers had arrived.
Maybe, I said. But doesn't she deserve to be heard? If he did what she says he did, she's been living with those nightmare memories for over thirty years.
Lovely Beautiful Daughter nodded. Thankfully I've never experienced sexual assault, she said.
At that, I could feel the tears wanting to show themselves. I looked at Lovely Beautiful Daughter and said, I am so glad you haven't.
Because they are memories that never, ever go away. They might sift to the back of your mind, but they are always much too ready and willing to come screeching to the forefront. When they do, the moment is relived. Again and again. And those memories have a way of persuading you to make decisions that you know are not in your best interest. You watch yourself going left when you know without a doubt going right is the better choice. But you go left anyway, as if some invisible string is pulling you and you're powerless to cut it.
Those memories are a life sentence.
And it's so unfair.
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"The world is a broken place. People are messy, but life is worth living." Yes, yes, and most definitely yes.