In September, 1897, an eight year-old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon, at her father’s urging, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus was real.  In what became the most reprinted editorial of all time, Francis Pharcellus Church, a member of the Sun’s editorial staff,  penned the response.  Without giving a definitive answer, Church addressed the philosophical underpinnings behind the Kris Kringle legend and why the spirit of St. Nick was important.

As I have mentioned before, I am a native born Virginian, and the events of the past week have been a time to reflect on what life in Richmond was like in the 1950s and 1960s, and how the remnants of that era continue to emerge from time to time in modern day society.  I beg your indulgence as I share a few childhood memories.

• I attended segregated schools until 1966 when a handful of black students were admitted to Thomas Jefferson High School.
• There were restricted housing developments in Richmond in which Jews were unwelcomed, much less African-Americans.
• Restaurants and movie theaters were also segregated.  From 1933 until the late 1960s, the only places African-Americans could see movies or live performances were the Booker-T and Hippodrome theaters located in the predominantly minority areas.
• At the University of Virginia, I worked in the Office of University Relations under the work study program.  One of my tasks was compiling the minority enrollment report for the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).  In 1970, there were less than 100 black students in a total student body of more than 7,500.
• Three hundred and fifty years after the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the new world, the ruling class in the state–senators, congressmen, governors and state legislators–still consisted largely of members of the First Families of Virginia Society, Caucasians with European roots.

So, as I watch the news about Governor Ed Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, I wonder where is the modern day Francis Church who, if asked whether either or both should resign from office, will take the same approach as Church did with young Miss O’Hanlon?  The value of the question is not a yes or no answer.  The question is an opportunity to re-examine and reflect on the circumstances and awakened curiosity which made us inquire in the first place.

Instead of a battle over who will sit in the governor’s chair for the next two and a half years, this is a much bigger and more important conflict.  What is it about race in America that would make two intelligent white men think it is okay to dress up as black men?  What is it about any institution–educational, professional or commercial–which would not call out someone associated with it for thinking it was okay to post a picture like the one in the Eastern Virginia Medical Center yearbook?  And finally, as a nation, will we ever be able to address the root causes that permit such behavior?

POSTCRIPT

Which brings me to the other issue in this three act drama, the sexual assault charges brought against Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax.  As has been the case since the beginning of the #metoo era, the tragedy is not that a number of powerful men in politics, entertainment and business have had to answer for their behavior.  The real tragedy is, more than a year later, we have not come up with a more reasonable way to pursue the truth in what is often he said/she said situations.  Or not to apply a “one size fits all” approach to every case.

Without making any judgment about the charges against Fairfax, the comparison to Christine Blasey Ford baffles me.  In Ford’s case, if her account is true, she did not follow either of her alleged attackers into a bedroom.  She was on her way to the upstairs bathroom when she said she was forced into a bedroom and assaulted by one boy while the other watched.  If we give Fairfax’s accuser the same benefit of the doubt, she admits she willingly went to his hotel room and kissed him.  She still has the right to say, “That’s enough.”  I know, I will never be able to understand what it is like to be women in this situation.  But this was 2004, and there had been several high-profile cases in which other women had similar experiences.  One would hope members of both sexes would learn from these experiences.

There is another feature of this case which deserves attention.  It was not a power situation.  Neither party worked for the other.  Therefore, neither was required to have any contact with the other if the alleged victim had felt violated.  Neither feared losing their job.  And that may be the key to getting to the truth.  As has been mentioned by several reporters and pundits, one thing you might look for is contemporaneous documentation, e.g. talking to a friend about the experience.  But I can understand a woman, concerned about the potential shame associated with the incident, might keep it to herself.  But there is one more data point.  Did Fairfax and his accuser have any subsequent contact, even something as insignificant as a text or email?  Until we have more information, the media and politicians on both sides of the aisle would be wise to defer to due process.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP