In the days since the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, social media as well as opinion editorials have been filled with the angst of women “triggered” by their emotional distrust of men and their past experiences. Numerous women have reacted in the context of their own sexual abuse experience, seeing and hearing -- and reliving -- their own trauma in Blasey Ford’s testimony. They are unable or unwilling to separate the two in order to evaluate the validity of someone else’s story. Corroboration is, seemingly, irrelevant.

Women have described “wanting to throw a shoe at the TV,” being able to watch only briefly because they could “only take so much at once,” not being able to talk with their husbands about the hearing for “fear of losing control,” feeling that they didn’t want to “even speak to a man for weeks” and wanting to go “scream at every man I see.”

The cacophony of irrational, out-of-control voices reacting to Blasey Ford’s flawed testimony is drowning out all rationality and reasoned arguments. Piers Morgan, the British television host, called the hearing a “viciously partisan bear-pit,” though, I’d say, at times it veered into a “cat fight.”

The #MeToo movement -- which began with legitimate concern for women who have suffered harassment or abuse by an oafish, cruel, or evil men -- has devolved into a movement where any woman can accuse any man of anything and she must be believed regardless of facts, evidence or corroboration.

Worse, the resulting toxic culture has made it impossible for men to defend themselves.

It’s time for an #UsToo movement where the voices of rational women are allowed to break through the shrillness and rancor of emotional outbursts from women who cannot separate fact from fiction.

Hundreds of #UsToo women spoke up for Kavanaugh, but their voices were ignored or ridiculed.  They gathered on Capitol Hill and made impassioned pleas for a fair hearing. Many sat and listen in the audience to every word of the hearings. Others sat in front of televisions taking careful notes. They are women who love their fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, cousins; they respect their decent colleagues and the wonderful men in their churches and communities. They are sympathetic to victims and condemn abusers, but they are not blind to reality.

They are aware that nobody’s perfect and women sometimes lie.  They saw what happened to the Duke Lacrosse Team.  They read the Rolling Stone account of the UVA fraternity “rapes.”  They’ve known about dozens of cases where girls are vindictive and, indeed, evil.

Some of us are old enough to remember the “casting couch” stories and to have seen plenty of sleeping around to get ahead.  We’ve listened to women retell events that we’ve shared and recognized that everyone has memories that are flawed and inaccurate. We’ve seen the women who will do anything and say anything to get attention or to get their way. We’ve seen women with mental and emotional illnesses who can seem normal at times but are not. We know that there are good women and bad women, good men and bad men. 

The #MeToo movement has gotten seriously off-track.  The emotional, knee-jerk responses that assume Kavanaugh’s guilt because he is a man and the irrational acceptance of Ford’s testimony even though it is full of holes and has absolutely no corroboration is appalling. 

Feeling sympathy or even empathy for a woman is not the same as hearing confirmation of the facts or having corroborating testimony from someone who was there at the time.

It’s time to end the self-centeredness of the #MeToo era as currently too often displayed. It’s not a sisterhood of saints.

It’s time to end the viciousness, bitterness, and vindictiveness of the #MeToo movement; it is destroying both women and men. It has destroyed civility and the assumption of innocence until proven guilty.  It has run roughshod over due process.

It’s past time to end the “politics of personal destruction” in the fear of any curtailment of abortion on demand.  It was sad to see senators become caricatures of themselves as they preened in self-righteous arrogance, determined to destroy an honorable man of faith who had spent a lifetime building a reputation for sterling character and unimpeachable integrity.

Thousands of women have expressed support for Kavanaugh; these are intelligent women who listen carefully and reason logically. Many of them have built successful relationships with men they love and with male colleagues and friends that they respect. Many are raising sons whom they love and with whom they are proud!

They don’t have an agenda other than Constitutional governance, and they recognize truth and facts.  They also recognize when a special agenda is being pushed and the public is being duped by slanted, biased media coverage and #MeToo knee-jerk reactions.

It’s time to hear from the thousands of women across the country who are saying, “Listen to #UsToo!”

We vote. We are actively involved in our churches, careers, and communities, and we have lots of friends.