Alito - Friday the 13th Revisited

[Jeffersons Ghost]

It is appropriate for Senate Hearings on Judge Alito to conclude Friday the 13th. All that this conclusion needs is ominous music from the classic thriller named for the unlucky day. Some might even suggest good luck has ended but this spooky saga is just beginning. With any great horror flick, every ending hints at the return of a villain in an upcoming movie.

Certainly, it is a fearful time for George Bush and other Republicans still reeling from scandal but the speed these politicians took to appoint Samuel Alito is startling and almost equal to the apparent media rush to conclude this sordid story. All of these swift moves are beginning to give Americans pause. Alito holding the swing vote on the United States Supreme Court brings to mind Jason holding a knife in the Friday the 13th Movie series. It is downright scary!

Alito failed to carve out the position he will take to provide reasonable checks and balances of presidential powers. Alitro also refused to take a position on basic human liberties, like Constitutional rights to privacy and the God-given right all women have to make choices about their own bodies. Alito even refused to explain or even acknowledge his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, an organization that was “concerned” about too many minorities and women at the university he attended. Alito did not explain why, after promising that he would not rule on cases where he had a financial interest, dove into a conflict of interest case reminiscent of Freddy Kruger diving into a nightmare.

Alito, like the ever-returning Jason of popular movie lore leaves not only the Senate Judicial Committee but also the American people with little comfort and a strong sense of foreboding. Resembling some late-night horror star, this judicial selection will probably return as a recurring bad dream, no longer akin to the American dream.

Friday the 13th movies, like superstitions, are sometimes fun and entertaining. A United States Supreme Court Justice, however, who comes back to haunt us is the worst kind of nightmare. As an American concerned about the Constitutional rights of myself and my children, I hope this is, after all, just a bad dream. I fear, however, that, if confirmed, Samuel Alito will take us all on a horror ride through an America that we have never known. The specter will rise again and carry us through sequel after sequel where we loose rights with each Supreme Court decision. If our leaders allow this to happen, we will have a real reason to fear Friday the 13th; the day the hearings ended and the horror began!