Somewhere in America a teenage girl is listening to her parents defend Brett Kavanaugh and she is thinking to herself, "If something like that ever happens to me, I have nowhere to go"
Todd Holloman
I agree that "innocent until proven guilty" is appropriate if criminal charges are filed and it goes to court. Unfortunately, for many women and girls, it never even makes it to court. There are many reasons why ... shame, feelings of helplessness, law enforcement steering girls away from pressing charges, etc.
Perhaps instead, we should create a climate where women and men are believed and then taught how to report, document, and get the support they need to take their cases to court.
Victims of sexual misconduct and assault are the only ones who have the burden to prove they are victims...teach them how to do this and empower them...from a very early age, both men and women.
Unfortunately, in this case, there are multiple people affected but, still, the only victims are the ones assaulted. Instead of defending Kavanaugh or others, the parents should discuss the dangers with their daughters and provide a dose of reality for the world we live in now and should discuss acceptable behavior and treatment of women with their sons.
Kavanaugh might be criminally innocent, and his purported behavior is mimicked by men and boys in every high school and college in the country...I can accept that...what I can't accept is that he felt a need to lie about the behavior and the terminology used to describe these sexual "games" and blame them on everyone else other than owning up to it. Most people are fair to those who recognize that the things they did in their youth can be embarrassing and shameful now that we are adults. We all probably have those skeletons in our closet.
Not someone I want to see grace the halls of the Supreme Court for lying, partisanship, evasive behavior, and of course, his stance on certain constitutional rulings. There are men and women of more noble character, and we deserve to have them no matter what party is in power.