The Kavanaugh trial (because that’s what it was) was exhausting for political watchers, particularly if one came down on the side of believing Kavanaugh over his accuser Christine Blasey Ford.

And, just to clear up a misperception: it’s not that people believed Ford and just didn’t care, as CNN’s Susan Hennessey suggested on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1048685892674707456

With respect, Ms. Hennessey, it’s definitely that we didn’t believe her. We made a decision based on reason, not hate. And it wasn’t hard. Even her own witnesses didn’t believe her story that they were with her at the now-fabled party. But this is all old news.

What’s new is the question of what we, as a society, do in the aftermath of the undeniable knowledge we have now that the young women of this country (and some of the young men) have shown themselves to be unable to maintain control in the face of adversity; and are possibly willing to sell their outrage for a buck (as some reports suggest many of them did).

And about those protestors who were arrested…who ASKED to be arrested, presumably to make their point and draw attention to their cause: do they understand the irony of asking government representatives to allow them to freely speak? My guess is, they don’t.

What has happened to these ladies?

There was an image I couldn’t get out of my head after I saw it broadcast during Saturday’s vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the SCOTUS seat he now holds. In the interest of time, I’ll share the thread I wrote about it on Twitter rather than trying to rehash it here:

A thread because I can't get it out of my head:
The large statue this woman climbed isn't "lady justice" of the balanced scales. That's in fact the smaller statue, the Greek goddess Themis, or "lady of good counsel." The larger statue is called "contemplating justice"… https://t.co/TtqhhZtScy

— SarahLee (@sarailola) October 7, 2018

It is a woman soberly, quietly, reservedly contemplating justice. Her male companion at SCOTUS is called "authority of law"; he's the protector. These are the roles of male & female in the Western tradition as regards the law. The woman has an equally serious & important job…

— SarahLee (@sarailola) October 7, 2018

Possibly more intellectually rigorous and certainly calmer and less prone to bursts of reaction. She's wise and calm. Her job demands it. This woman stomping all over the esteemed female tradition doesn't seem to realize that "patriarchy" she says denigrates her for her sex…

— SarahLee (@sarailola) October 7, 2018

Has asked her to play the powerful role of "Sophia": wisdom. I'd say that's quite an honor. And is impossible to accomplish in the midst of chaotic emotion & irrational mob frenzy. Your tradition is to contemplate. MY tradition is to contemplate. That transcends "white women"…

— SarahLee (@sarailola) October 7, 2018

And political party lines. Which is why you do not speak for women-any women, no matter where they come from or the color of their skin-who embrace the sacred role of contemplating justice. You fail us.

— SarahLee (@sarailola) October 7, 2018

What has happened to young ladies in this country that they don’t realize the great responsibility they’ve been given by the Western tradition to be the keepers of the intellectual flame of justice? Are they being paid to forget it? Or are their minds being twisted to believe, as Hennessey suggests, that the men and women on the other side of the aisle simply don’t care about victims of a crime (despite the fact that, in the case of Ford, no crime seems to have occurred)?

And what can rational people do to reach young mercenaries full of outage induced by lies?

I don’t know. But we need to find out.