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Thursday, September 27, 2018

If My Memory Serves

In the hearing today, Senators felt comfortable asserting that Ford might be misremembering events from 1982, but they were reluctant to suggest Kavanaugh might be misremembering those events.

Seems the committee members believe Kavanaugh's either
A) telling the truth or
B) lying.
His memory is somehow infallible.

I find that odd.

Based on both testimonies I heard, the memory I have doubts about belongs to Kavanaugh. And not because of his drinking.

Sounds like attending a rowdy party was a common enough occurrence for Kavanaugh. He sure seems to like beer. So, I can understand how one party might blend into the next.

I spent high school in a predominately white and privileged suburb as well; I'm familiar with those parentless get-togethers in the houses with "the good room we don't use." Those parties all look and feel pretty much the same.

I can also imagine the assault being completely forgettable for a young man.

I know. That sounds bad. 

But I believe Kavanaugh didn't think anything of the event. He saw it as horsing around with a girl he didn't know very well at a fun little party. If you had asked him about it a month later, I could understand if he didn't recall it ever happening. It was, for him, just a moment of rowdy fun. He probably thought Ford was having fun too.

For Ford, however, it was a terrifying assault.

But (as he demonstrated today) Kavanaugh cannot imagine a world in which he has a blind spot.
He cannot understand people opposing his candidacy as anything but a conspiracy.
He could not understand how a young woman would oppose a little horseplay.
To him, it wasn't a big deal.

To Ford, it was.
That event nearly broke a young woman's world.
Tragically, Kavanaugh lives in a world where horseplay that crosses the line is a forgettable occurrence.

For this reason, Ford's memory of that night is the more reliable record.

We are living through a time when people will no longer allow one group's perspective on an event to be "the perspective" on that event.

I'm not surprised Kavanaugh claims it never happened. And I don't think he's lying. I think he committed assault without ever realizing it.




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