"IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT ME!"

IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT ME!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© January 2006

“What comes through (watching the senate confirmation hearing on Judge Sam Alito for the Supreme Court of the United States) is that it is not all about him.”

David Brooks, Columnist, New York Times
On the Charlie Rose Show on PBS (January 13, 2006)


Watching the senate confirmation hearings on Judge Samuel Alito sent shudders through me for the lack of civility shown the man by some senators. Obviously, this bipartisan panel of senators has a duty to screen nominees to the Supreme Court. But this doesn’t give them the right to badger the person in reckless abandon before the television cameras for special interest groups.

Often, I had to move from the television my stomach tied in knots wondering how anyone could take such abuse. I was one with his wife when she rose in tears one day and left the senate chamber.

When my wife came home from work, she asked me, “How did it go today?” I shook my head. “It didn’t,” I said, adding with a touch of remorse, "it's a wonder we get anyone to run for this high court.” Clearly, Judge Alito proved more gifted than this panel, which instead embarrassed itself as well as the nation with its inane savagery.

It was tantamount to psychological abuse bordering on torture. Yes, I said torture!

It is probably clear at this point that I identified with the judge. He came out of a working class family and neighborhood, as I did, and rose to these heady heights because he believed in the work ethic, respect for authority, to be all you can be, and to pursue the American dream by paying attention to detail, practicing fairness, and being guided by a set of principles that give expression to your integrity, and concern for the rights of your fellowman. He has had a rewarding and useful life for the attention.

His strength and the reason he was unflagging in his patience comes from what columnist David Brook refers to as, “It is not all about me!” Some reporters described Judge Alito as not being as cultured or sophisticated as John Roberts, the last nominee. and now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Perhaps these comments were a reaction to his opening statements in which he told how he came from a working class neighborhood “twelve miles from Princeton,” finding there “very privileged people behaving irresponsibly.”

In the 1960, when he was at Princeton, and wanted to enter ROTC, the university abolished the program because it was all about that spoiled brat and privileged generation of students from elitist families that knew nothing about hardship, had little respect for authority, and drifted into self-indulgent crusading causes.

They became “the true believers” that Eric Hoffer has written about, the ambulance chaser mentalities that were always bent on saving the poor, the blacks, the disadvantaged and the underclass from themselves by attacking government, authority wherever they found it, and of course, their own university for not being attentive to their selective agenda, because to their mind it was, “all about them!”

It was in the 1950s that I was at the University of Iowa, what “Life” magazine at the time said was “definitely not for the sophisticated.” It was also a time of hysteria with the “Red Scare” and McCarthyism in play; when the Un-American Activities Committee was looking into people’s lives, and when “loyalty oaths” were required of teachers, writers, artists, and scientists.

Having read recently, “The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism” (2005) by Hayes Johnson, I wonder now if I am experiencing déjà vu, where the bigger the power vacuum the more ludicrous the attack.

Senator McCarthy played on American fears and angers with totally trumped up charges of Communists in the State Department, media and entertainment industry, claiming with little opposition that the nation was “rife with fellow travelers.” None of it proved true, while virtually all of his so-called “lists of communists in government” were found bogus. Yet, he managed to intimidate a generation of leaders into cowering to the lowest common denominator in the American psyche.

It is now a global issue. A colleague of the Korean scientist, who submitted phony stem cell research, becoming a national and international hero, observed, “Hwang Woo-suk wanted to be treated like a rock star.” In other words, he believed it was all about him. “We scientists,” the colleague continued, “find our satisfaction in the work we perform, and the little mysteries we solve along the way.”

There is certain sadness I feel in reflecting on the behavior of senators Kennedy and Bidden in these hearings. I once thought them the class of the senate in terms of hard work and passionate dedication to the people’s business. Now, I fear I see what they are actually made of.

My wonder is how could such men be for blacks, women's rights, and the disadvantaged and not be civil to this man? I was ashamed for them, but not so for Judge Samuel Alito. Whether he is confirmed or not, this was his finest hour. He makes me proud of my lower middle class background, which has allowed me in a humble way to realize something of the American dream. I wish him well, and God speed.

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See Dr. Fisher’s website: www.peripateticphilosopher.com. He writes about leadership issues in his books and articles, many of which are available on his blog.