Much of the reaction to Clarence Thomas' new memoir, My Grandfather's Son, has centered on the justice's anger. You have to credit the mainstream media credit with consistency. Sixteen years after his confirmation to the Supreme Court, he's as disliked by them now as he was in 1991.
A Hearst Newspapers' columnist finds the book "the ultimate, most revealing act of hostility." A Washington Post Writers Group essayist asserts that in his volume, "Thomas reveals himself to be a Shakespearean archetype, consumed by rage."
On National Public Radio, the account is described as "a book of complete bitterness and rage." Over at the Washington Post, readers were first told that "Justice Thomas Lashes Out in Memoir" and a few days later learned: "To read Clarence Thomas' book is to be struck anew by the blast-furnace of his anger."
I read Justice Thomas' memoir today. It's captivatingly interesting and gives hope there are yet thoughtful, honorable people in Washington. The impoverished black child from the Jim Crow South matured to be his own man and observes himself candidly, warts and all.
Yes, Clarence Thomas expresses tremendous annoyance with some individuals and organizations. One of the people with whom he is most disappointed is himself.
The source of that discontent is breaking his word. Once was to his "Daddy," the grandfather who raised Clarence and brother Myers as his own sons, when Clarence dropped out of the seminary. The second time:
"I left my wife and child. It was the worst thing I've done in my life, worse even than going back on my promise to Daddy that I would finish my seminary studies and become a priest. I had broken the most solemn vow a man can make, the one that ends ...as long as you both shall live. I still live with the guilt and always will."
Justice Thomas devotes space to Anita Hill, the woman who leveled sexual harassment charges that almost derailed his Senate confirmation. Frenzied feminists who only a few years later defended the indefensible Clinton got the vapors hearing allegations of chatting about pubic airs on Coke cans. The justice also takes to task deceitful pols such as Senator Joe Biden, who
Mike Bates is the author of Right Angles and Other Obstinate Truths. Michael’s articles have appeared in the Congressional Record, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Mensa Journal. As a lad, Mike distributed Goldwater campaign literature and since then has steadily moved further to the Right. In 2007, he won an Illinois Press Association award for Original Column.
