Focus on the truth

Re: Ford steps into the spotlight; Kavanaugh fires back — Sept. 28

The Blasey Ford-Kavanaugh drama in the United States has held our attention. What I find so disheartening in this high drama is the politicization of morality. The focus should have been on the truth of the two testimonies. Instead, we heard conflicting stories, where at least one person was telling lies. We also heard different crowds of supporters boldly cheering on their favoured witness, seemingly not at all concerned about wanting to know the truth about what happened. There is something very hypocritical about the fuss being made about this particular drama. There are dozens, if not hundreds of similar cases of drunken sexual assaults and rapes occurring each week on our high school, college and university campuses in North America. There are any number of studies documenting this phenomenon, if you only care to look. While I laud the attention that has been paid to celebrity cases of sexual assaults, thanks to the #MeToo movement, we don’t seem to worry at all about the more general immoral culture of our young people in our institutions of learning. And it will not do to say that boys will be boys, and girls will be girls. There is no excuse for immoral behaviour. Serial rapes, sexual assaults, drunken brawls are immoral. Period. And remember, these young people are our future presidents, prime ministers, premiers and judges.

Elmer Thiessen

Waterloo