Going Forward with the Brett Kavanaugh Vote – A Betrayal to Women

Does a woman remember assault, ten, twenty, thirty or more years later?  Absolutely. How does a person forget powerlessness – being demeaned, terrified and deprived of humanity?  It burrows into the mind leaving an indelible mark.  Even if suppressed, that memory lingers often accompanied by embarrassment, self-blame, anger and shame.

So, people who argue that a sexual assault from years past must be unreliably fuzzy and half-remembered are wrong.  When someone holds you down, covers your mouth, and almost smothers you while tearing at your clothes you don’t forget it.  This is not a nudging toward intimacy.  It’s sexual assault.

Those who want to rush the Supreme Court vote for Brett Kavanaugh should be ashamed. They’re reminding women who’ve been assaulted of those horrible moments and telling them this time it doesn’t matter.

Senators who vote against delay dismiss women as credible when it comes to sexual misconduct, scoff at the courage it takes to come forward and close the door to important evidence regarding a Supreme Court nominee’s fitness for a lifetime post.  If he is innocent, let’s know that.

In the absence of delay, there will be no fuzzy memories in November by countless women who thought things had finally changed – that their voices were at last being heard. Betrayal by those sworn to honorably serve tends to leave an indelible mark as well.