In many ways, Virginia is Kentucky’s Mother Country. So many of our
early settlers (and elected officials such as Henry Clay) came from
there; so many of our counties were carved from Virginia land, we
inherited much from that Commonwealth.
Let’s hope that does not include its rush to judgment.
Once again, accusations are being taken by the populace (and alas,
by the professional media which should know better) as final judgments.
They are not. (And this after the recent CovCath example.)
Let me take their Lt. Governor first. He has been charged with rape
by at least one accuser. Rape is a crime, but we all know it often
takes years for this crime to become public; in some cases, past the
time such charges may count as a crime. Whatever
the case here, judicial authorities should investigate and if the
accusations prove credible, file a case against this man. If not, drop
them. In the meantime, he should not resign; for in this case of “she
said, he said” the way to try to discover the truth
is in the courts, not the media. That’s not our job. Yes it will take
time; justice usually does, but a rush to judgment, running the risk of
getting it wrong, is worse.
Now to Virginia’s governor. I don’t know what possessed him to
say, first, he was one of those men either in blackface or Klan robes in
his yearbook picture, but he soon took it back and said he was not
either one. Who knows for sure? Not me. Maybe you
can look beneath the robe or makeup and know, with 100% certainty, but I
can not. In the meantime here is a man who has been a doctor, led the
fight for civil rights and better health care in his state (and who is a
member of a largely African-American church
BTW!) and I will give him the “presumption of innocence” until I know more.
This UNAmerican rush to judgment must end. It demeans all of us, and our democratic institutions.
Would that John Dingle’s final words to his countrymen (which you need to read) might have touched on this, too.
I'm just sayin'...
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