The best teacher of the week, hands down: Christine Blasey Ford
There are too many candidates this week to choose the worst teacher of the week, so I’ll leave that to you. But the best teacher — that one is easy.
The person who used her time at the public pulpit with the most dignity and composure and directness and duty — important lessons all — was Christine Blasey Ford.
She is the California professor who testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about what she said Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, did to her when they were teenagers more than 35 years ago.
You would have to have your head in the sand not to know the story, so there’s no need to go into details.
But whatever you think of Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, her disposition Thursday before the committee and millions of people watching live broadcasts was so forthright that even those who support Kavanaugh didn’t believe she was lying; they just said she was confused.
The American Bar Association came out after the hearing and urged a delay in a nomination vote, calling for an FBI investigation into the allegations. The comments are striking because an association committee had unanimously given Kavanaugh its highest rating of “well qualified” for the Supreme Court. It is not a stretch to think that had Ford presented herself in a different way, the ABA may not have made this call.
What Ford did was offer a lesson in public service: first, by coming forward with her concerns about the judge before he was nominated by Trump for a seat on the Supreme Court, and then overcoming deep fears about going public and testifying because she thought it was her duty to her country. She was never belligerent during her testimony but only cooperative and direct, and never manipulative.
That makes her the best teacher of the week, hands down.
