Not My Call

Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise): Let me go talk to Deke. I'm sure we can work something out.
Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks): This was my call.
Mattingly: (after a long pause) Must have been a tough one.
Apollo 13 (1995)

I don't remember having a harder time writing.

I intended this post to be about the search for neutral principles in the law. Stilted prose has led me to delete hundreds of words that were as painful to read as they were to type.

What is happening in Washington is disgusting. It doesn't matter what side one is on.

Set aside, for this blog anyway, the inherent frailties of our system. "Go for a business any idiot can run," investment guru Peter Lynch said. "Eventually, an idiot will be running it." Our government was created and administered by human beings, with all of their flaws. Nothing is perfect.

I've spent the better part of my life - certainly almost all of my adult life - in the business of judging the answers to "What happened?" I've been trained in the art of benign skepticism - listen respectfully, question automatically. Thousands of people have told me their stories. Here's what I've learned:

I don't know someone is credible just by looking at them as they talk. Some of the most incredible lies I've heard were told by an entirely straight face. Whatever other people think they see - it's a mystery to me.

Movie lines are the closest thing to wisdom in our modern age. Try this one out - "Archeology is the search for fact, not truth." Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford). In any investigation, the truth is elusive when the facts are contradictory, or scarce.

Reaching a conclusion and then searching for evidence in support is a very human thing to do and is almost always disastrous. The late, great Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called it "Looking over the heads of the crowd in search of a friend." It is no better than a guess.

The Rockies are in the post-season, so I'll root for them. Once they are eliminated (odds are sooner rather than later) I'll pick someone else. Just 'cause. Having an emotional stake in an outcome makes the game richer. I recently pulled for the Trinbago (Trinidad and Tobago) Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League T20 cricket championship because... I don't remember. But, I was delighted when they won by eight wickets, whatever that means.

I don't know who is telling the truth - Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh. It isn't up to me to decide. Both are impressive, accomplished adults worthy of respect. Any combination of true/false/mistaken is plausible when one is discussing recollections drawn from teenage years, even traumatic ones. The experiences of other individuals is not instructive, let alone dispositive.

I don't decide things I don't have to decide. The Constitution gives the President the power of appointment, with the advice and consent of the Senate. It doesn't say anything about also getting the approval of a sixty-something police sergeant sipping a margarita on his back porch.

I checked.

So, I can say - I've happily arrested perpetrators of sexual violence. I've taken, initially anyway, every allegation of sexual violence at face value. I've treated every person making the claim with respect. When it came time to decide on a course of action, I did so in good faith.

When it wasn't my call... I didn't make one.