What Clarence Thomas Can Teach Our Newest Supreme Court Justice | | By Andy Snyder, Founder | | | | | | | | | Rooster's Crow | | | After our column on Tuesday, a slew of readers wrote us asking for the recipe for haymaker punch. Here it is again: - 2 quarts of water
- 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup of honey
- 1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger
Simply combine the ingredients, stir them well and pour a tall glass over ice. For a variation, substitute the water with some seltzer. Or, for the fellow rum lovers, add a shot of dark rum to your glass for the ultimate drink. | | | |
Rooster's Crow After our column on Tuesday, a slew of readers wrote us asking for the recipe for haymaker punch. Here it is again: - 2 quarts of water
- 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup of honey
- 1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger
Simply combine the ingredients, stir them well and pour a tall glass over ice. For a variation, substitute the water with some seltzer. Or, for the fellow rum lovers, add a shot of dark rum to your glass for the ultimate drink. We don't envy the man. He's in for a big fight.
There's no doubt Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch is going to lead the headlines for the next few days. If you're wondering after our recent column... this is the sort of news you pay attention to.
There will be mudslinging. There will be controversy. And there will be grandstanding.
Who knows, maybe a bit of truth will make the print. But we dare not hold our breath for such crazy ideas.
We won't go into the politics of it all. That realm is overflowing and, truth be told, it reeks - like a few folks may have stepped in something on the way in. Instead, we'll travel a road far less worn. We'll examine the grand intersection of Liberty and Know-How.
It's clear our Liberty rests in the hands of the Supreme Court. Those nine souls could shred our mighty Constitution if the mood struck. They're the balance that keeps our machine from running out of control.
But too many of us have virtually no knowledge of who sits on the mighty perch or how they got there.
That's dangerous.
Let's fix it.
A Quiet Giant
We don't have room to dissect the lives and personalities of all eight current justices. But we'll dive into the oh-so-unique personality of one of them... Clarence Thomas.
He's a man we could all learn from. And he's the judge who most matches our off-center point of view... and no, not because he can often be found camping in his RV in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
While he's highly educated with a law degree from Yale, Thomas isn't all that proud of the fact.
He claims his degree was "worth $0.15" and even has a bumper sticker in his office that says "Yale Sucks." We hope he agrees that over-education is just as lousy a crime as under-education.
But we gravitate toward the man not for the paper on his walls but for the words from his mouth. More aptly, the lack of words from his mouth.
Thomas is a listener.
Incredibly, the justice managed to remain silent on the bench for nearly seven years. Despite a near-constant hum of bickering, questioning and debate from the robes around him, Thomas merely listened.
He broke the silence... only with a joke about Yale - telling a lawyer his degree from the ivy-clad school was a sign of incompetence.
We admire a man of power - a man whose job is not to dictate but to decide - who has the willpower to listen. It's a trait, despite our gut's incessant argument otherwise, of a man of strength.
Thomas has had to call on that strength many times. As a judge, he's made the bold claim that affirmative action is just as racist and discriminatory as segregation and slavery. But he speaks from firsthand knowledge.
Again, it comes back to that $0.15 degree from Yale.
After graduation, Thomas went looking for a job. One lawyer after another refused to take him seriously, Thomas claims. He's convinced they thought he got there only by the color of his skin.
They're bold claims that have drawn plenty of heat to the judge. But he's stood firm.
Slippery History
Let's not overlook the fact that his career on the land's highest bench was controversial from the start.
Just after Bush appointed Thomas to the court in 1991, Anita Hill waved her hands high overhead and warned the Senate to keep the man out of power.
The nation watched for three days as Hill described her history with Thomas. Her testimony reached an X-rated climax as she built her sexual harassment case against her former boss.
While the hearing didn't keep Thomas out of the Supreme Court or prove who was lying, it certainly made the man the bull's-eye of a national emphasis on harassment in the workplace.
Because of it, laws were created, cultures were tweaked and behavior changed.
It's proof that a man's mind, words and actions can do great things - good or bad. With one slip, history can be altered.
The fight to get Gorsuch to the land's highest bench will be nasty. Politics will rule.
But we hope our leaders don't see red or blue as they make their decisions. We hope they look at the man and his thoughts.
Clarence Thomas is a bold man who could teach us all a lesson.
He's a listener... not a talker. He knows the value in the truth. And, although it's made a lot of enemies, he won't compromise his beliefs just to appease the crowd.
We hope Gorsuch holds similar values.
All men should.
Be well,
Andy | | | | | |
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Keep a civil tongue.