I have no idea whether Anita Hill was lying when she accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, right after he was nominated to the United States Supreme Court. I was all wrapped up in the story when it happened 19 years ago, but I’ve long since forgotten Anita Hill.
Apparently, Virginia Thomas, Clarence’s wife, can’t forget. She left a message last week on Anita’s phone asking her to publicly acknowledge that she wrongly accused her husband. Virginia claimed she was extending “an olive branch” to Anita, but the recorded message didn’t seem to back this up.
Judge for yourself: “I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day,” Virginia is heard saying on the tape.
I think Virginia may be a little daft. If she’s not, and she’s spent all these years thinking about Anita, she’s a sad, sad woman.
Granted, sometimes I’ll think about some awful thing someone once said or did that I want to make them “pay” for, but it passes in and out of my mind in seconds. It’s a good chance none of these people is giving me a second thought, so why waste my valuable time thinking about them?
Virginia, surely you can find something more productive to do than leave wacky messages around town. Throw a dinner party for your husband’s colleagues. That would be fun.
0 Responses to “She just can’t seem to get over the hill”
Toby Wollin says:
I think there is actually more to this story. First, as you say, it seems awfully weird that Ginny Thomas would have some sort of ‘sticky note’ that she’s been transferring to the calendar every new year saying, “To Do: Make sure to call and leave message to You-Know-Who for an apology this October.” For 19 years? Ginny Thomas was married to Clarence Thomas before the hearings even took place. If she’d wanted an apology, wouldn’t you think she’d have asked before NOW? And to call someone’s office phone at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday? Nope – Ginny Thomas did NOT want to speak to You-Know-Who. But she did want to be able to say she’d asked for an apology.
On the other hand a couple of things happened right before she made that call: First, there was an article in the NY Times with regard to the political and lobbying organization she heads and their activities. And second – but we did not find out about this until after Ginny’s phone call, Clarence Thomas’ former ‘girlfriend’ (I find the use of that phrase a little odd – considering the tale she’s telling), Lillian McEwen, came forward to corroborate not only some of what Anita Hill said in her hearing testimony in 1991, but also what other women said about their working relationships with Clarence Thomas. And then, she added even more details which, given what Clarence Thomas said in sworn testimony in 1991, looks like he was less than truthful back then.
And oh, she’s shopping a book about her life – and it includes her intimate relationship with Clarence Thomas and details all the dirty laundry.
Let’s see now – where do all of these threads come together? Well, I’m going to make a guess the Thomases became aware of this book through perhaps an interested publisher called them up to do a little bit of fact checking. And Ginny decided that if she could get an apology from Anita Hill, this would pull the plug on Lillian McEwen’s book and tidy up what just might be a rather embarrassing mess for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Only – it seems that she stirred the pot, Ms McEwen added some red meat and spices and now it looks as if anyone with the license to print “Anita Hill Was Telling the Truth!” bumper stickers has got a good thing going. Anyone for tee-shirts?
0 Responses to “She just can’t seem to get over the hill”
Toby Wollin says:
I think there is actually more to this story. First, as you say, it seems awfully weird that Ginny Thomas would have some sort of ‘sticky note’ that she’s been transferring to the calendar every new year saying, “To Do: Make sure to call and leave message to You-Know-Who for an apology this October.” For 19 years? Ginny Thomas was married to Clarence Thomas before the hearings even took place. If she’d wanted an apology, wouldn’t you think she’d have asked before NOW? And to call someone’s office phone at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday? Nope – Ginny Thomas did NOT want to speak to You-Know-Who. But she did want to be able to say she’d asked for an apology.
On the other hand a couple of things happened right before she made that call: First, there was an article in the NY Times with regard to the political and lobbying organization she heads and their activities. And second – but we did not find out about this until after Ginny’s phone call, Clarence Thomas’ former ‘girlfriend’ (I find the use of that phrase a little odd – considering the tale she’s telling), Lillian McEwen, came forward to corroborate not only some of what Anita Hill said in her hearing testimony in 1991, but also what other women said about their working relationships with Clarence Thomas. And then, she added even more details which, given what Clarence Thomas said in sworn testimony in 1991, looks like he was less than truthful back then.
And oh, she’s shopping a book about her life – and it includes her intimate relationship with Clarence Thomas and details all the dirty laundry.
Let’s see now – where do all of these threads come together? Well, I’m going to make a guess the Thomases became aware of this book through perhaps an interested publisher called them up to do a little bit of fact checking. And Ginny decided that if she could get an apology from Anita Hill, this would pull the plug on Lillian McEwen’s book and tidy up what just might be a rather embarrassing mess for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Only – it seems that she stirred the pot, Ms McEwen added some red meat and spices and now it looks as if anyone with the license to print “Anita Hill Was Telling the Truth!” bumper stickers has got a good thing going. Anyone for tee-shirts?