She said:
“I could hate you so much that I could try to hurt you back.”
He said:
“You should, I will use your womankind – to pleasure myself… to keep you down, order you around, take your rights away. I will claim my entitlement. How dare you ever try to challenge my position. If you do, I know how to manipulate people… to feel sorry for me. I know how to make you insignificant… and I will strip you of your value. You will be invisible until you wither away.”
She said:
“This is why I hate you. I hate you with each breath I take. And I want to hurt you too. I want you to feel helpless and humiliated like you made those women feel. But I’m not going that direction, because then I become like you. I lose my integrity… I lose my ability to be compassionate and to have empathy. I will not give away these strengths … these powers of mine. I will not abandon who I am… because of who you are being.”
He said:
“I want your power. I will torture you until you hand it over… until you give up and give over. I am relentless. We wouldn’t be the country we are if you women didn’t clean the houses and raise the kids to continue making sure it is the men who run their families, their religions, and this country… You and your suffrage in the early 1900s opened a can of worms. We have a chance now to burn those worms. Don’t forget when we burned the witches you womankind used to be. Do you want this to be your future? We have shown you what we can do to you.”
She said:
“As women, we didn’t accept our powers and strengths at that time, and we were more susceptible to your threats and your horrendously tragic behavior and devastatingly destructive actions. We are more whole now. We have each other. And your religion does not rule our morality now. You might get your religion back… the one that closes its eyes to male-dominant acts of rape… whether they be physical or mental/emotional… But now we have many men standing with us. They are the powerful men. They care to know who they are. You do not know who you are and you don’t care. Therefore, your power and your strengths are compromised. You are a dying breed of men (along with your women), trying everything you can to take down… not only the beauty and joy of life… not only our individuality and uniqueness… or our freedoms… or our permission and authority to live the lives we choose… but you would be willing to take the entire world down with you… if your plans should not be fulfilled.”
Kamala Harris wakes up startled from her night dream – to realize that she has been talking with Brett Kavanaugh. She sits straight up.
Harris:
Oh god! How could I have dreamed of this! I am sick at my stomach.
Harris leans back on to her stacked pillows and drifts again into her dreams… She is now floating through a mirrored hallway. Faces of people follow her with their eyes as she floats in a standing position, down the hall. Harris sees the face of Christine Blasey Ford in one of the mirrors and turns to look closer. She slips through the mirror before she realizes what is happening.
Harris is now standing in a shared dream of Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick. They are not initially aware of her presence.
Ford speaks to Swetnick and Ramirez:
I’m relieved that the FBI will investigate Kavanaugh. I am appalled that he could be our Supreme Court Justice. We all know what he is like. I hope that others will step forward.
Swetnick:
Isn’t it amazing that he seduced people to feel sorry for him? He knows how to manipulate through his calculated self-pity. He commits these acts which have deeply hurt our lives… and then commands attention with his righteous and entitled indignation accompanied by his pitiful tears… so that others feel sorry for him. Why do women fall for this? Women are taught to care about others. But men like Kavanaugh and his crowd, are taught to put themselves first with disregard for their impact, especially regarding women.
Ramirez:
Kavanaugh exposed himself with no regard for me and then shoved himself in my face. His buddies thought this was funny. So did he. If a woman had done something like this, she would have been condemned. Who are we as a people?
Kamala Harris walks closer and responds to them as though she had already been in their conversation:
We are in a male chauvinistic culture. In fact, most of the world is imbued in male chauvinism. We pretend like we are free as women. But we get less pay; many consider men and their religions to own our rights. We have only been voting for around a hundred years. We need to wake up. There are more men here with us now. Even though the white male supremacy is gaining attention and strength with this Congress and White House.
Harris looks over and sees Barack Obama, who is now standing at the edge of this dream.
Harris turns to Obama and continues talking:
Barack, it was a miracle you became president. Those white supremacy men couldn’t believe that you were elected. It enraged them and they are still trying to disappear you along with everything for which you stand… including the dignity… worth… and value… of women, people of color, blacks, gays, transsexuals, and those people who have so few resources…
Barack Obama:
Yes, Kamala. You’re right. They want to wipe us off the map. But Michelle and I know that it is love and compassion… it is caring and celebrating life… that will triumph over the jealousy, envy, rage, and hate. This is why we will be active during this mid-term period.
We need men and women in office who stand for what is good and true. We need men and women who honor and respect the dignity of women… who will stand with all people… so we can come together… to be part of something new… so we can bring in a government that truly represents the will… the love… and the dreams of its people…
Tom Perez seems to appear out of nowhere and responds to Barack Obama as he remains at the edge of the dream.
Perez:
I want to preserve the democratic party but… we already have a lot of women and people of color in our party. I don’t want to rock the boat. And it wouldn’t hurt if some of our senators or representatives voted yes for Kavanaugh. I’m afraid of women too. I presented myself as someone who wanted to change the party… but I can see now how I want to hold on to what is familiar.
Swetnick to Perez:
After all that you have heard from the Senate hearings, you say it is fine to vote for Kavanaugh! Who are you? This is a warning … that we need new people, not only in Congress… but also in the Democratic Party. If you can support your members to vote for this man who has treated women in unconscionable ways, you need to leave.
Michelle Obama then walks over to stand with Barack Obama, appearing as if out of nowhere.
Michelle Obama turns to Swetnick:
I agree with you, Julie. We need new people. We need young people to vote… and to get involved. Older and middle people too if they are alive and forward thinking. I can not see this with you, Tom. As women, we have been around too many closeted chauvinistic men who just stand around and allow male supremacy to strip away our rights. I’ve had enough of this.
Brett Kavanaugh appears at the edge next to Perez:
Kavanaugh yells out:
You women are nothing. My life matters more than yours. You will not get in my way. You all are trying to destroy my life.
Ford to Kavanaugh:
It is you who destroyed your future… when you felt entitled to force yourself on women… and to treat them as objects of your sexual conquest… You have been a part of the white privileged male world where women fulfill the roles you give them… as you seduce them into your world.
Michelle Obama:
Barack and I respect and honor one another. We listen and hear what matters to ourselves individually and to each other… We are tender, gentle, and vulnerable with one another. And we choose the love, even when we disagree… We hold the love even when we don’t like each other at the moment. We know that we are each ‘more’… because of our love… We are part of one another… Yet we are fully autonomous. This makes our relationship… well… beautiful…
*****
Einstein finds himself walking through the Hall of Mirrors again… His afterlife feet are on the ground. As he is passing through the Hallway of Mirrors, he sees a shadow in one. He stops and stares. The shadow comes to the forefront and becomes liquid blue as it walks through the mirror into the Hall with Einstein. The liquid blue then becomes a radiant blue… revealing an unfamiliar Being… It is full of light… and seems to be from somewhere else…, not earth… from the stars? You can almost see through this Being…
The radiant Blue Being lifts Einstein until both of them are back in the shared dream in which Ford, Ramirez, Swetnick, Harris, and the Obamas, remain. The radiant Blue Being remains still, at the edge… A hush fills everyone here… The Blue Being looks intently into their eyes.
Radiant Blue Being;
There was something that just happened in your world. Two women confronted one of your Senators in an elevator. They insisted that Senator Flake respond by committing that he would have the FBI investigate Kavanaugh. He did not respond. As the elevator door was closing, one of the two women said something to him… that can change the course of history. She said, “Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me.“ And then she said something missed by most. She said,” I believe in you.”
It is easy to hate and judge. But it takes courage, even daring… to hold a vision… when no one else may hold it with you… These women became a bridge… a bridge of belief… They believed he could change… for women… even after he had voted ‘yes’ to go forward with the confirmation.
There will be people who will crack your hopes and visions… who will want to take your freedoms… You can go all out and fight them… You can hate them and build forces against them… But if you stand firm for what matters to you while you hold the vision they can change… that you believe in the goodness, truth, and beauty of human nature… and that you will hold the space for them to be different… then you can be the ‘bridge of belief’ that allows them to do just that! That is what Maria Gallagher and Maria Archila did… and Senator Flake changed his position to support not only their concerns but to stand for the honor of women throughout your land.
Your country has been cracked… splintered into many cracks…
Now, let’s let the Light come in.
Albert Einstein, Christine Blasey Ford, Ramirez, Swetnick, Michelle and Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris… find themselves sitting in moss-covered chairs at the edge of the Cosmos… in the Between… where imagination imagines itself… They surrender to the Love…
And a song sings through the breath of their souls …
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say.
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
We asked for signs
the signs were sent
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent.
Yeah the widowhood
of every government —
signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.
Ring the bells that still can ring…
You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum.
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
“Anthem” by Leonard Cohen
copyright © 2013-2018, Lyn Marsh.PhD. all rights reserved. You may not reproduce materials without permission from Lyn Marsh,PhD.
References:
LAZARIS.COM
[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sezin-koehler/the-crack-in-everything-w\_b\_13186758.html]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/09/28/did-two-women-in-an-elevator-just-change-everything/?utm\_term=.00137554b6b2]
[https://www.thenation.com/article/breaking-a-promise-tom-perez-puts-his-thumb-on-the-scale-for-andrew-cuomo/]