Dear Brett Kavanaugh:
As one human being to another, I have compassion and feel
sorry for what has happened to you and your family. As a fellow human being, I
feel the unfairness to your wife, your friends, and especially to your
daughters. As a Christian, I feel the
desire of wanting grace and forgiveness to be yours for past mistakes and
misdeeds you have committed. I do feel,
as one man to another, the unfairness of having a long past life haunting and
limiting one’s aspiration for greatness.
Life is not fair, however, and forgiveness is available though it is not
my place to give it.
At the same time, when in the course of a person’s life you
rise to a station where your fellow citizens are choosing you to wield enormous
power over them then, you are held in a different light. That is not the light of compassion and mercy
but the light of discernment and evaluative forethought. We, the people, in
choosing to surrender a bit of our own power to give it to the leaders we agree
upon to represent, lead, and referee us expect those individuals to be
exemplary in character, judgment, and wisdom.
Power is a sacred trust granted by God and the community,
state, or nation to be utilized for the good and benefit of all. That sets a higher standard. Few have what it takes to wield that
scepter. Those who do must demonstrate
they have learned humility, patience, discernment, honesty, and
trustworthiness. They must show that
they have wielded the powers previously granted to them by family, friends,
employers, organizations, and communities to justly care and trust for all
those who have both chosen to be in your life, as well as those who, through no
choice of their own, fall under your authority & power. This is at the heart of a democracy. It is a
heart that presently is on life support in our nation. What we, the people, are
in need of and long for is a return to leadership that honors the trust that
we, the people, grant.
Your hearings, your history, and the current powers that be
have revealed not individuals with honor, integrity, and understanding for all,
but instead a cabal of usurpers of power for themselves and for only their own
small circle of privileged friends, family, and donors. The role which you seek
to play in our nation places you in contention for the hearts & support of
all the people, because you will wield power over all of us. We, the people,
are feeling badly out of joint and unsafe with the growing abuses of power, the
corruption of resources, and the domination of the rich. And, you have shown no
will, no interest, no humility of service to be any kind of independent beacon
or champion of hope or dignity to the least of these.
We, the people, are chaffing under the ancient smallness of
human character, greed, and power that corrupts absolutely. We long for a fair,
independent, kindly, embracing benevolence that lifts all humanity to aspire to
a higher ideal instead of this descent, which you have become a present symbol
for, into deeper division, brute tribalism, and the dark (but familiar) boot of
the oppressor.
The storm winds of opposition to your ascent to Supreme
Court Justice has reminded we, the people, of so much that is small of spirit
and destructive to soul. Your demeanor
and your selfish defense of your obviously perceived right to power (beginning
in high school) reminds us of all the men who over the course of history
carried not the scales of justice but the sword of absolute power corrupting
absolutely.
The people, Mr Kavanaugh, all of us, do not deem you to have
the interests of all of us in mind for one holding one of the most powerful
positions in our nation. Mr Kavanaugh, you are being given the rare opportunity
to redo a former life mistake. You are
in a moment once again, but this time not in a private bedroom in an unknown
house but in the house of the United States of America. We, the people, who most feel the weight you
will have upon us say, “No.” Please
resign your nomination. Do not repeat
your past mistakes of running roughshod over the will of the people by being
drunk on power and laughing with your fellow wielders of power. We, the people,
deserve better from you, from our legislators, and from our president.
One of the people
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