Thank You, Christine, for Your Courage—And Your New Book

Steve's Blog on Writing

As Monica Hesse writes in her recent Washington Post review of Christine Blasey Ford’s new book, One Way Back, following Ford’s testimony in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings, “Death threats forced her family into a hotel room for months. Bodyguards accompanied her children to school.”

It was, in short, a nightmare. I know Ford had mixed feelings about publishing a book, since I’ve talked to her about those mixed feelings, but here she is, checking in with a courageous account that I hope many of you will check out. (Would love to see comments below from anyone who does read the book.)

Kirkus calls the book “an artful and honest account of sacrifice and survival”—and really the book itself amounts to an act of survival, in that Ford is showing that for all the death threats, for all the demonization, she knows the truth and she’s going to speak her own truth even if it means riling up the bottom-dwellers who repeatedly come after her.

I for one find Christine Blasey Ford’s words—and example—very inspiring. I hope one day to introduce her to my daughters.

When she testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2018, the truth of her words came across. At the time, my Santa Cruz Sentinel column of support—”I Believe You, Christine Blasey Ford”—was stripped across the front page of the newspaper, and only later did I find out that Ford and her husband were regular Santa Cruz surfers, and that the local coverage meant a lot to her.

We put out the call for submissions for a collection of tribute essays, “I Believe You, Christine,” and received many powerful contributions, but alas, the death threats meant Ford was keeping a low profile at the time, and I was unable to confirm with her that she indeed wanted such a book published. I’m hoping some of you who contributed, and might see this blog, will take the opportunity, to write to Christine in the comments below: I’m sure she’ll see your words. (And we’re still talking about finding a way to publish at least some of those essays.)

Knopf has a book on the Supreme Court coming out later this year—Stench—which contains a detailed account of the time, back in college, Brett Kavanaugh got drunk and started a bar fight with a guy he thought was the lead singer of the band UB40. Every individual can and will decide for herself or himself whether to believe Ford’s account, but to me it fits with the detailed picture of Kavanaugh that emerges from deep research.

The larger point is: For Ford to refuse to be silenced, to continue to tell her truth, with grace and eloquence, strikes me as monumentally brave and important

I hope some of you who are thinking of reading the book will order a copy right away (Mom, counting on you here), to help boost the book’s chances of hitting the bestseller lists with first-week sales.

And down the road, if it’s safe, we may have an event here at the Wellstone Center with Ford—or work with Bookshop Santa Cruz to put one on. For now, it’s still too dangerous, but we can support her and her book the old-fashioned way, by reading it and telling others about it.

—Steve Kettmann

Upcoming OpenMic Nights

Let us know if you’re in the Santa Cruz (California) area and would like to attend one of our upcoming Tuesday night OpenMic readings at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods. We’ll host people at 7 p.m. on the following dates: Tuesday, March 26, Tuesday, April 9, and Tuesday, April 16.