BOULDER, CO – As Christine Blasey Ford gave her opening remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning, Boulder’s Dan Winters stood by the US-36/Table Mesa on-ramp with a homemade sign. “Kavanaugh, NO, Honk,” it read. Within five minutes by Winters, more than 10 cars followed his instructions.
“I’m here so they know if they honk, they can make a difference,” he said. “Boulder has always been a progressive city… we are interested in human rights, in equality.”
The Kavanaugh hearings veered close to home for local residents this week as Boulderite and county employee, Debbie Ramirez, became the second woman to accuse the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct.
Ramirez sent best wishes to her fellow accuser Thursday morning via her attorney, John Clune’s, Twitter Account: “Thinking of you today, Christine. They want us to feel alone and isolated, but I’m there wrapping my arms around you and I hope you feel the people of this nation wrapping their arms around all of us. Holding you up in spirit.”
To hear Clune tell it, he and Ramirez would prefer to do more than offer spiritual support. After Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley asserted in Thursday morning’s hearing that he and his staff have made eight unheeded requests for a statement or evidence from Ramirez, Clune released a series of emails between himself, co-counsel for Ramirez William Pittard, and congressional staffers. The emails showed repeated requests from Ramirez’s team for a phone interview that were met by counter-requests from Republican staffers that Ramirez produce a statement or “evidence” first, reported the Denver Post this morning.
>>> 5 Key Moments From Christine Blasey Ford’s Testimony On Kavanaugh
Like Ford, Ramirez has endured threats and abuse since her allegations were made public in a New Yorker story Sunday night. Her former employer, Boulder’s Safehouse Alliance for Progressive Non-Violence has also been subject to “phone calls, emails, Facebook and other methods of electronic communication to spew hatred toward Ramirez and the nonprofit,” reported the Daily Camera Wednesday. “We’re used to shielding ourselves around those professional attacks,” Safehouse’s executive director Anne Tapp told the Camera. “I think that because it’s someone so close to the organization and is such a tender, dear person, it’s difficult.”
Despite the strength of those negative responses, Tapp told the Camera that 85 percent of the contacts that Safehouse has received concerning Ramirez have been messages of support. Those go along with a formal statement of support for Ramirez by Boulder’s County Commissioners, and a plane that circled downtown Boulder Wednesday morning, towing a banner that read, “Thank you Deborah, we have your back.” According to the Daily Camera, that plane was commissioned by UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy group that supports sexual assault survivors. A similar plane visited Palo Alto, California on Ford’s behalf last week.
Then, there is Winters. He says that he has been keeping his cardboard-sign vigil on Table Mesa all week. “I will probably go home early today though,” he said. The short shift had a reason–referencing the proceedings taking place across the country in Washington DC, he added, “I’m recording the hearings.”
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Photo Credit: Mara Abbott/Patch