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May
19, 2003
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
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Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
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Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
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Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
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Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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May
19, 2003
The Bitter Tears of Clarence
Thomas
Still Whining
After All These Years
by ELAINE CASSEL
An article in Sunday's Washington Post with this
headline caught my eye: "Justice Thomas Tells Law Grads
of Being 'Crushed' By Rejection." The article went on to
describe Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's speech to Saturday's
graduating class of the University of Georgia Law School.
The description of Knight Ridder reporter
Stephen Henderson took me back to my daughter's commencement
exercises at a Washington, D.C. area law school four years ago,
when she graduated first in her class. Much to my chagrin, her
class chose Justice Thomas as the commencement speaker. That
is neither here nor there-it is a conservative school and the
students can chose whom they wish.
Of course, my daughter was obligated
to give a speech. After her simple comments, which began with
a humble "I'm scared to death to speak in front of all of
you," and ended with the reminder that life does not begin
and end with law school or law, that friends and family are what
make life worth living, Thomas got up to speak.
It was a somber, self-pitying speech
that left many of the thousands of attendees squirming in their
seats. Apparently Thomas has only one speech-one that recounts
his hard life in Pin Point, Georgia, his "crushing"
experience of graduating from Yale Law School (pity the poor
man who has to go to Yale) without one offer to work in the law
firm of his dreams-a firm in Atlanta or Savannah, Georgia. He
refers to this experience as one of his life's great trials and
tribulations.
He has no gratitude for John Danforth
who gave him a job in the Missouri Attorney General's Office,
which then led to his being tapped for the chair of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and then the Federal
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and then, of course,
to a seat on the Supreme Court-what to any lawyer would be the
pinnacle of a career, not to mention a lifetime. As I noted in
a book review of a recent, unauthorized (though the author
is a fawning fan of Thomas) biography, Thomas exulted when it
first looked like Bush would not nominate him after all. How
odd, that he took his wife to dinner to celebrate his "non-appointment."
Then when he got the word that he would be nominated, he said
he was "crushed" by the weight of the "burden."
To this day, repeatedly in his few public
remarks like graduation speeches, Thomas continues to rail against
the injustice that would not let a black man work in a black
law firm. Or at least he attributes his non-hiring to his being
black-who knows? Maybe it was his sour personality that is apparent
to Supreme Court watchers.
As a sitting justice, Thomas has exhibited
behaviors and attitudes that raise questions about his appropriateness
for the position. He rarely participates in oral argument, saying
all that he needs to know is in the brief. He has described the
Court as a "lonely and cold" place, his life there
as "sedentary and isolated." I wonder what he does
to make life at the Court better for himself--or his colleagues.
But this is not a man who would be thinking
about how to bring joy to himself or his colleagues. His self-pity
knows no limits. And that brings me back to his speech at my
daughter's graduation, which I remembered (and would have rather
forgotten) as I read about his University of Georgia speech.
What was his advice to students? That life would be hard, that
they would be unappreciated, that they may often, like him, wish
to just throw in the towel (he is quoted as saying that he sometimes
wishes to do so "a hundred times a day"). In his speech
at my daughter's graduation, he referred to her as someone who
had sacrificed much (she had, she has two children) to graduate
first in her class, but said nothing of the love of that make
it possible for her to do so. That was the focus of my daughter's
speech-not the sacrifice, but the love that got her through.
I remember approaching several family
members and guests that day and asking them how they felt about
Thomas's speech. One described it as "a cup of cold water,"
another a "dirge," another "somber and depressing."
So what is with Thomas and his propensity to engage in self-pity
when he is asked to join in others' celebrations?
It struck me Sunday as I read the article.
Life is all about him. Thomas is the epitome of a selfish man,
a narcissist to the core. The man you invite to a party whose
presence hangs like a dark cloud over the fun that would be.
And maybe narcissism, more than outright meanness, accounts for
his brutal coldness and contempt of the poor, the minorities,
and the powerless in his opinions. For Thomas's jurisprudence
is consistent in his refusal to uphold any law or remedy that
will give someone a chance like he had. He is an enemy of equal
opportunity, an enemy of the 14th Amendment, an enemy of women's
rights, and enemy of justice and fairness. He says there is no
such thing as cruel and unusual punishment. His lust for the
death penalty is reflected in an unseemly bloodthirstiness as
he rails against any procedure that will delay a prisoner's execution.
Thomas got his breaks in life because
others-from his grandfather, to the nuns in his Catholic high
school, to the administrators at his college and Yale Law School,
to John Danforth, to Bush the first-gave him a break. He cannot
give thanks or gratitude, he can only resent. Resent that his
color, or so he says, kept him from all that he really wanted--a
job in a Georgia law firm. Not being able to recognize what others
gave to him, he has nothing to give to others-not from the bench,
not from a podium.
Justice Thomas could do us all a huge
favor by resigning from the Court that he finds such a burden,
getting into his RV that he claims to love so much, and turning
over his seat on the bench to someone who at least appreciates
the privilege of wielding almost unlimited power as a Supreme
Court Justice.
Of course, he is not going to pack up
and drive his gas-guzzler into the sunset. Unfortunately for
us who care for people who have less than we do, who suffer at
the hands of a cruel and selfish government, Thomas will continue
to wield his hatred from the bench. And we will continue to be
less of a country because he and his partners in meanness, Scalia
and Rehnquist, interpret the law to benefit the powerful, the
wealthy, and the Republicans that put them there.
Elaine Cassel
is the proud mother of a brilliant daughter who does not think
like Clarence Thomas. Cassel practices law in Virginia and the
District of Columbia, teaches law and psychology, and writes
Civil
Liberties Watch under the auspices of The City Pages. She
can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Today's
Features
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
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