One Angry Judge
What would you do if during the course of a job interview you were accused of crimes so heinous that they would not only disqualify you for the position, but also land you in jail—justifiably, if you were guilty—for the rest of your life?
According to some 2,400 members of the American legal profession, including some of my own colleagues at the University of Chicago, Brett Kavanaugh is incapable of serving as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States because he was “intemperate” when accused publicly not just of high school and college drunkenness, but of rape, gang-rape, and attempted rape.
In their words:
Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge.... We are law professors who teach, research, and write about the judicial institutions of this country.... We regret that we feel compelled to write to you to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Thursday, September 28 [sic*], 2018, the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh displayed a …
According to some 2,400 members of the American legal profession, including some of my own colleagues at the University of Chicago, Brett Kavanaugh is incapable of serving as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States because he was “intemperate” when accused publicly not just of high school and college drunkenness, but of rape, gang-rape, and attempted rape.
In their words:
Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge.... We are law professors who teach, research, and write about the judicial institutions of this country.... We regret that we feel compelled to write to you to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Thursday, September 28 [sic*], 2018, the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh displayed a …
Dear F.B., In response to your wondering (and setting aside the grammar of your question) yes and no: Everyone your age (and those a few years your senior, but still virile) does/do think almost 'all the time' about death. A random, unscientific sampling of selected individuals in this age group indicates that the little bandwidth remaining is taken up with a) mortgage payments b) college tuition c) why the Yankees can't win even with a $210M payroll and d) sex. And not necessarily in that order.
ReplyDeleteI see you are in competition with Job as to who has developed the better set of 'friends.' Red Bear's ruminating that your writing would make anyone miserable is, like, way wrong. The ruminations of F.B. are always interesting and thought-provoking, sometimes somber, occasionally poignant, but never misery-inducing.
Glad to know I'm not alone in thinking so much about death. I've wondered whether it was more an effect of age or of my father's dying, although as a writer I also wonder whether it's further exacerbated by the sense of time being so fleeting when there is so much to learn.
ReplyDeleteRe: Red Bear's concern. I'm happy to hear that Fencing Bear is on balance more somber and poignant than misery-producing. My mother and some of my students have commented (privately, not on particular posts) that they find some of FB's ruminations hard to read, but I am convinced that it is as important to write about her (my!) struggles as it is to provide advice.