To the Editor:
Martin Farrell
Editor of the Fillmore Herald
On Thursday, many of us watched the Senate Judiciary Committee interview Dr. Christine Blasely Ford and judge Brett Kavanaugh. The contrast between of these two individuals could not have been more stark. We had a clear-eyed, emotional but disciplined accuser. And we had a sitting judge who mawkishly told dubious stories of his children “praying for Dr. Ford,” multiple lies about the status of other witnesses, the concocted meaning of well-known references to gross acts and “games,” such as “ralphing” (a term which literally no one thinks refers to the judge’s “weak stomach”), aggressively insulted the Committee and in particular senator Amy Klobuchar over his potential misuse of a beverage, and who claimed that all facts leveled against him were and are the result of a left-wing conspiracy on behalf of the Clintons.
His shocking lack of respect for the senators conducting the interview, his clearer-than-ever-before partisanship and mawkish display of emotion, show Kavanaugh does not have the judicial temperament or integrity to serve on any bench, let alone the SCOTUS. Can you imagine if Dr. Ford had melted down in such a self-indulgent tantrum?
Kavanaugh has been a political operative for decades. He was involved in the decisions on torture in W’s administration and was essential to the Clinton Whitewater investigation before he was on the bench. He falsely minimized his partisanship in those roles, but he showed his true bias on Thursday. And, while most of us can agree that beer may have benefits to its use, to carry on as passionately and defensively as Kavanaugh did about his past underage and present use of the intoxicant was so astoundingly juvenile and unsettling that it must be seen to be believed.
An elitist with the arrogance and disingenuousness to dispute it, Kavanaugh appreciates and relishes control over other people as his near-hysterical treatment of Klobuchar and other senators indicated. That his stated job on the bench is to “call balls and strikes” is clearly not his agenda. But look what happens when someone challenges him. He loses it. He cries and sniffles about his family’s pain, though his own ambition is what has subjected them to the experience. I believe him on that issue; it has to be difficult. But more difficult than being on the receiving end of his entitled, alcohol-fueled sexually-repressed behavior in high school and college? The Trump advice to fight back ten times harder revealed the soft, entitled, and undisciplined underbelly of Brett Kavanaugh.
Dr. Ford has had to live with that terrifying moment of being helpless and subject to the drunken abuse of an acquaintance with his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream for help, who later only recalls himself as being interested in sports, academics, good works and church. And, of course, “ralphing.” There are lots of enemies of Roe v. Wade on the Federalist Society list. I’m pretty sure there at least one who doesn’t have Kavanaugh’s baggage and who won’t weep with self-pity in a job interview.
Kelly Scoles

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To the Editor:
Hi, I have something I want to state in the paper regarding the school district and how they put are children in Gateway. The vice superintendent said, "Oh it will be good for your son, don't worry. I will come visit once and check on him.” Well it never happened. He has never been back. Meanwhile my son has been in so much trouble because of the people he met from colonial, all over Ventura and Oxnard with tattoos on their faces. Some have gone to Juvenal Hall for murder. This is what they do to our kids from our town. They put them in this school with a bunch of thugs that in other circumstances would have never met these people and these kids were probably just like my son when they were sent there and when they come out they are different. Sure our kids shouldn't get in trouble but you don't put a baby in jail. Please advise and I am not the only parent that feels this way.
Leslie Beserra
Fillmore