What We\u2019ve Lost<\/p>\n
In the early 1990\u2019s I was involved in a ugly and bitter dispute in my little corner of the world; Pataskala, Ohio.\u00a0 It involved the school coaches, a lawyer who had a gripe against them, and the school board.\u00a0In the midst of this, I got some advice from a friend.<\/p>\n
This friend was an \u201cold school\u201d coach.\u00a0 While he hadn\u2019t been a high school coach for all that long, he had been coaching kids for thirty years (that was \u201cold\u201d for me back then.)\u00a0\u00a0 He was a \u201cbear of a man,\u201d a coach who cared about kids, and who had a lot of the best values of his time.<\/p>\n
I was struggling to understand how the dispute had gotten so ugly:\u00a0 lawsuits threatened, public claims of corruption.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get it:\u00a0 we disagreed; but instead of arguing with the means, but agreeing on the ends that all sides wanted to help kids, it was a \u201cnewer\u201d way to disagree.\u00a0 It was \u201cagree with me or you are a bad person who needs to be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
My old coach friend told me a story about his union (his day job.)\u00a0 He said in the union meetings there would be incredibly loud and intense arguments, both sides trying to get their point across to the membership.\u00a0The members would vote, a decision made, and the meeting would end.\u00a0 Then all sides would head out to a bar and drink beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the way men argue,\u201d the old coach would say, \u201cArgue until it was done, then shake hands and go drink beer.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWomen,\u201d he said \u201cwould argue and then hold a grudge forever.\u00a0 They would plot and scheme to \u2018get back\u2019 at the other side. No hand shake, no beer, just fighting forever.\u201d\u00a0 My friend would then make the ultimate insult to the other side, \u201c\u2026they fight like women, not men.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was far before the \u201cMe Too\u201d era; but even then I recognized that this was a \u201csexist\u201d way of viewing the world.\u00a0 I knew women who fought just as hard as men, and shook hands and drank just as much beer as well.\u00a0 But, with the gender identities taken out, my friend was making a greater point.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t we recognize that we can fight and argue about the means but still agree on the ends?<\/p>\n
President Obama, in his eulogy to John McCain made a similar point.\u00a0 He recognized that there were many areas where he and McCain disagreed quite publicly.\u00a0 But President Obama knew that at the end of the day, they were both on the \u201csame team.\u201d\u00a0They differed widely on the means to achieve it, but they both believed in making the United States a better place.\u00a0I\u2019m betting the quiet drinks they had at the White House afterwards weren\u2019t beers, but Scotch still makes the point.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the era of being \u201con the same team\u201d has passed.\u00a0 We are now in a time when anyone we disagree with must be \u201clocked up,\u201d or completely destroyed.\u00a0 Our \u201cReality TV\u201d version of politics doesn\u2019t allow for respect, or fairness, or a beer at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
We are seeing it today with the total disrespect of the Trump Administration towards the Democrats in Congress.\u00a0 Last night, the White House dumped 42,000 documents about their Supreme Court Appointee Brett Kavanaugh on the Judiciary Committee.\u00a0 The hearings begin today; it\u2019s impossible that Democrats could review those documents, but the Republicans don\u2019t care. \u00a0Instead the hearings will roll on; Chairman Grassley and the Republicans will get their nominee on the Court, \u201cby hook or crook.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there is little Democrats can do.<\/p>\n
Kavanaugh in another time would have been vetted and questioned, and probably approved by wide margin of US Senators.\u00a0 While Democrats (and me) certainly disagree with his views, he is the \u201c\u2026model of a modern Supreme Court Justice.\u201d\u00a0 If he didn\u2019t represent the pivotal deciding vote, he would be a \u201cwalk-through\u201d like Justice Gorsuch was.<\/p>\n
But he is that critical vote.\u00a0 Upon this appointment may stand the fate of the civil rights reforms of the past forty years.\u00a0Kavanaugh\u2019s writings on the Court of Appeals in cases relating to Roe v Wade are more than scary.\u00a0 So it\u2019s going to be an ugly debate, and there will be recriminations on all sides, towards\u00a0 \u201cenemy\u201d and \u201cfriend\u201d both.\u00a0 However this turns out (and it\u2019s difficult to see any other outcome besides Kavanaugh\u2019s approval) there will be no shared beer, or Scotch, after it\u2019s over. \u00a0It’s another sign of our times, and what we’ve lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"