IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
By Julie Asher
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — A Georgetown University associate professor’s tweets that white
Republican men should die a “miserable death” for supporting Judge Brett
Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court is more than just about free
speech, said the head of Students for Life of America.
“Recommending
violence, death and mutilation for members of Congress is not a simple ‘free
speech’ moment,” Kristan Hawkins told Catholic News Service in an email late Oct. 3.
“It’s a debasement of our free market place of ideas and a recommendation for
criminal conduct.”
In
a Sept. 29 tweet, associate professor Christine Fair, who teaches in the
Security Studies Program within the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
at Georgetown, said that white Republican men deserve “miserable deaths while
feminists laugh as they take their last gasps.”
A
bonus, she suggested, would be to “castrate their corpses and feed them to
swine.” Her tweets can still be found in cyberspace but Twitter account was
suspended shortly after she posted them. As of Oct. 4, the account remained
suspended.
News
reports quoted her as offering no apology for her comments and saying she has
been the target of similar nasty tweets.
Georgetown
University’s president, John DeGioia, said in an Oct. 2 statement Fair’s tweets
were her own views and that the university protects the right of all members of
the university community “to exercise their freedom of expression.”
However,
he said, “this does not mean the university endorses the content of their
expression.”
“Since
our founding, Georgetown has been dedicated to the free exchange of ideas and
robust dialogue,” he said.
But
“we can and do strongly condemn the use of violent imagery, profanity and
insensitive labeling of individuals based on gender, ethnicity or political
affiliation in any form of discourse. Such expressions go against our values,”
he continued.
He
said that while protecting the free speech of its faculty members, Georgetown also
is “deeply committed to having our classrooms and interactions with students be
free of bias and geared toward respectful dialogue. We take seriously our
obligation to provide welcoming spaces for all students to learn.”
If
faculty members’ comments “are determined to substantially affect their
teaching, research or university service,” DeGioia said, the situation would be
addressed through “established procedures” outlined in Georgetown’s faculty handbook.
Hawkins told CNS: “The leadership of
Georgetown University, just a few miles from where Congress works, should be
supporting our highest ideals, not professors who want to see members of
government dead.”
This August Hawkins and Students for Life of
America sponsored a
#Justice4Life tour in several states and organized rallies with pro-life
students to urge U.S. senators to confirm Kavanaugh.
Fair’s tweets came after a daylong hearing
called by the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 27 to hear testimony from Christine
Blasey Ford, who claimed that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party 36
years ago when they both were in high school in the Washington area. Kavanaugh also
testified, vehemently denying any such assault occurred. He said he did not
even know Ford.
In her tweets, Fair labeled Kavanaugh “a
rapist.” She called GOP members of the committee “a chorus of entitled white
men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement.”
After
the Sept. 27 hearing the Judiciary Committee voted to send his nomination to
the full Senate, but agreed with a proposal by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, for
the FBI to take a week to investigate claims made against Kavanaugh. The FBI
wrapped up its investigation Oct. 3 and sent its report to committee members
for their review. A confirmation vote on Kavanaugh was expected Oct. 6.
A
day after the committee hearing, John Garvey, president of The Catholic
University of America, suspended the dean of the university’s National Catholic
School of Social Service who had questioned Ford’s credibility in a couple of
tweets.
The
dean, Will Rainford, had used an official university Twitter account. He later
apologized in an open letter to the university community, “my tweet
suggested that she was not a victim of sexual assault. I offer no excuse. It
was impulsive and thoughtless and I apologize.”
At
an Oct. 1 demonstration some students, alumni and faculty members called for
his resignation.
Garvey
said in a statement the tweets were “unacceptable” and showed insensitivity
to abuse victims, but that he wished Rainford to “continue to lead the
school.”
Among
those supporting Kavanaugh’s confirmation are signers of an online petition at
www.catholicvote.org urging the Senate to vote to confirm him for the high
court. As of Oct. 4, the petition had more than 17,400 signatures.
On Sept. 14, a group of
about 65 women who have known Kavanaugh for more than 35 years sent a letter expressing
their strong support for him to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-California, who are chairman and ranking member, respectively, of
the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“For the entire time we
have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with
respect,” they said.
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