Back in 1968 while I was in my last year of high school, I entered the Lion's Club speech contest. I was stoked when I heard the topic: Free Enterprise, its Past, Present, and Future. After all, Dad and Mom had a business and their ability to have that business was what free enterprise is all about.

I dove into the library where I researched the topic as fully as I could. The more I read and thought the more disturbed I became. I interviewed Dad and heard what he had to go through just to keep our little family business going and how he had to compromise his beliefs in honesty and integrity (especially with the IRS) in order to keep the doors open. This disturbed me even more as I have always known that my dad stood for honesty. I had seen it in action when he alerted a Mexican family that was going to receive some meat we cut up, meat my dad tried to refuse because it was unfit for human food, for part of their payment for working for the dairy they worked for.

I came to the conclusion that our free enterprise system was in grave danger and our democracy as well from the corporations that were and are intent on making as much money as possible all the while turning that profit into power in the political arena in order to pass laws that allowed them to make even more. The evidence was clear, even to a high school senior.

I put the knowledge I had gained into a well-written speech that laid out my conclusions and cited various references from which I had drawn my information. I practiced the speech until it was clear, smooth and intelligibly delivered.

When I gave the speech at the local Lion's Club, I had no competition. There were three or four other speakers who had just taken up public speaking and were there mostly for the experience. If it had been up to the audience, all members of the Lion's Club, I would have been hanged in the parking lot. In fact, one of the audience members right in front of the podium began fashioning a hangman's noose about 1/3 of the way through the speech. I won but I knew that my message had not been heard. It was a similar experience when I showed up at the next level where I met with stiffer competition and lost, not because of my delivery or organization, but because of the message I brought.

This incident was brought to my mind as I read that in a CNN poll, 53% of Americans thought Kavanaugh should be confirmed. It was also brought to mind by the rabid comments of Kavanaugh supporters on the live thread for the Senate vote and on the thread for the live video of protestors outside of the Senate chambers. It seems that we as a species are about to fail. As a species, the majority of us cannot override our emotions to accept ANY evidence that disproves a belief we have held. We will dig in, fight to the death against anyone who tries to upset our precious apple cart. And, my friends, that seems likely to happen in the not too distant future as we have put ourselves in a position where all the twisted argumentation in the Universe will not save us, will not save our species.