What to do about Kavanaugh

author: jacob nelson | staff writer 

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So, that’s it? Kavanaugh gets what he wants, and we get no resolution?  

Well, not quite. Kavanaugh’s misconduct complaints are being transferred to the Judicial Council of the tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. What does this mean? More of the same, I guess. We get to hear a bunch of people talk, and we have no way of proving who’s right. The problem with this trial is that, for the most part, it’s entirely subjective. All anyone has to go on is things that were written in a book or things people recall from memory. It’s a painful process for the decision makers. The truth is that for anyone not making the decision, it is easy to pick a side and stick to it, whether that is the belief that Kavanaugh is innocent, or that he did in fact commit sexual assault. Those decision-makers have to take absolutely everything into account, because the wrong decision could either let an evil man walk free or see an innocent man lose everything he has worked for.  

I feel that the problem with trials that go far back into history is that we don’t know the facts, because of limited technology and suppression of certain demographics who couldn’t speak about the shit they had to endure. Because of this lack of concrete or objective knowledge, we allow our emotions to control our ultimate decision. How the person looks, moves, blinks, or stutters when they speak all become a part of our “evidence” to prove why that person is innocent or guilty. We, as humans, are biologically engineered to judge one another – that’s never going to change, and there is no point thinking you can completely convince the other side that they are wrong because conflict is one thing we truly excel at as a species. 

So, let’s take a break from determining whether or not we feel Kavanaugh is or is not guilty. I feel that there is something better we can take away from the trial. We’ve seen a lot of this shit in the last few years, from beloved comedian turned sexual predator Bill Cosby, to Movie mogul turned power-abusive tyrant Harvey Weinstein. What happened in those trials? Well, if you recall, they weren’t exactly “short and sweet.” Months and months of trials and back and forth happened before we saw any resolution. Harvey abused his power in the movie industry and would repeatedly coerce aspiring actresses to perform sexual favors for him in order to be in his movies. If they didn’t, they would never see the spotlight in their life. On the flip side, Cosby simply drugged and attacked his targets. 

It took a while, but we got to see both of these animals fall from grace. What we can take away from these trials, even though they were based on history, is that the modern world doesn’t stand for this anymore. We are seeing more and more people come forward and finally start talking about the things that they were not able to years ago. Childhood actors, supporting members on movie sets, producers, actresses. It’s all coming out now, because we have now provided an environment in which standing up for yourself is embraced. It’s great!  

I mean, just look at what happened to Brock Turner, the swimmer at Stanford. For those who don’t recall, Turner was one of the first cases to open up the conversation about what truly happens to women and doesn’t get talked about. He was accused and found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster, before two students caught him and restrained him until police arrived. The big difference between Turner’s case and the cases we see nowadays are that the woman remained unnamed in Turner’s case. This is why I believe we are progressing at a fast rate, because only a few years later, we’ve seen hundreds of people come forward and speak up about these acts. It proves that we are creating a safe space for these people.  

So, I have decided to take a different outlook on this situation. I don’t want us to continue fighting against something that we can’t prove has or hasn’t happened. Believe me, no punishment available could fit the crime these people would have committed years ago. So, what I propose is that we focus on the now. We use the Bills, Harveys, and Brocks of the world to convey that we won’t accept this in the modern day, and rather than focus our efforts and attention on the past, focus them on right now and figuring out ways we can help the women, children, and men that are going to be facing this issues in the near and distant future. What’s the old saying? “Crime never takes a break.” So, we can’t take a break from today to focus on last century. 

In an age where social media rules, we have the ability to expose and condemn acts of aggression and assault. Just last week, we saw a pro-life protest in Toronto take a turn when a pro-choice activist showed up and kicked a protestor. The martial arts master was then fired from his job and picked up by police for assault. Facebook has become the new court room, and we are the judge, jury, and executioners.