So for anyone who frequents social media, the past few weeks have probably been rough. I don’t want to get into the details of the Kavanaugh Hearings in this post, but I do want to talk about some of the scary assumptions and attitudes I came across in response to them, namely how a number of women seemed to take the hearings as a personal attack against them.

Now, I will not downplay the trauma any person has felt as a result of assaults or honest discrimination, but there is a major problem if someone decides to demonize half the human race due to the actions of one or several individual(s). Not only is it unjust to hold someone accountable for something that they did not even bare witness to, but you will exhaust yourself doing it. No one has control over their circumstances of birth: gender, race, genetics, economic class, geographic location. And to make assumptions about someone or to shame them over these things is no way to gain empathy. These women who rant and rave about white male privilege will never find peace or satisfaction in this world if they continue to carry on as they do now. All they will find is continuing opposition and anger.

To those who claim that showing support for any man accused of sexual misconduct without evidence is the denial of support for victims in general, I ask why? True justice can only be achieved by punishing those who actually commit a crime. (Failing to punish the correct perpetrator can result in future victims.) To attack a person who has nothing to do with a separate incident serves no one. How many women would call for similar character assassination and punishment of a fellow woman accused of child abuse without anything more than hear-say to back the claim? I believe these women would see the folly of their “guilty until proven innocent” mindsets if they would simply consider their own reaction to being falsely accused of a crime that they find horrendous and beyond their moral capabilities to commit.

With mid-term elections approximately a month away, Democrats seem to see the controversies of the Kavanaugh hearings as a good opportunity to arouse interest in voting. While I wish to encourage more people to get out and vote, I don’t want to see them casting ballots over a single issue like this Supreme Court nomination. Elections should be based on a holistic view of issues affecting one’s community and not just a single, hot-button topic. Picking candidates based on emotions will simply result in continued fighting between the parties and lack of accomplishments by our government.

The more divided America becomes politically, the more people demonize their fellow Americans. All sides need to stop making assumptions about people based on circumstances of birth. People need to stop voting based solely on hot-button issues and need to start looking for common ground that affects everyone in their communities. If we truly believe diversity can be one of America’s strengths, then we need to banish this “us versus them” attitude held by so many groups in our country today.

Hezzie