Kavanaugh Accuser's Supporters Gather, Chant In Her Hometown

PALO ALTO, CA – Amid chants “We believe in Christine,” Palo Alto City Hall was Ground Zero Thursday for about 100 citizens, neighbors, activists and grandmothers outraged by the treatment of local professor Christine Blasey Ford.

The Palo Alto woman had just provided riveting testimony in Washington, D.C. before the U.S. Senate about her alleged sexual assault at the hands of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“Stand up. Fight back,” yelled Ruth Robertson, a self-proclaimed feminist who led a line of “Raging Grannies,” a group of local Palo Alto women identifying themselves as social activists.

“No matter what the outcome we just want you to come home,” co-organizer Kristen Podulka said, choking back tears. Podulka, a women’s rights activist, is Ford’s neighbor.

“Who believes in Christine?” she asked the crowd rhetorically?

“We do,” the crowd answered, while others held signs and signed a large thank you card spanning a long table. The card will be delivered to Ford.

Podulka was juggling organizing the event while keeping her earbuds attached to her cell phone in her ears. She called the testimony she was glued to all morning “chilling.”

“What strikes me is that’s our rape culture. That’s why the stakes are so high. We have (U.S. President Donald) Trump. With him, we get another chance. But with Kavanaugh – this is a lifetime appointment (to the Supreme Court),” she said. Podulka got tears in her eyes considering how she doesn’t see Ford at her house anymore when Podulka walks by the professor’s house with her dogs.

For Maureen Sanders of Woodside, the day’s events were not as personal but still impactful. She was still reconciling in her brain the momentous day that was unfolding from Washington to Palo Alto, Ford’s home that she testified due to death threats and harassment she’s had to leave.

“It hasn’t been a ‘he said, she said.’ From the beginning, he said it never happened. Then, I got it. Of course he doesn’t remember it. He was intoxicated. She had one beer,” Sanders added, after hearing Ford’s painful account of the incident in question. “Being drunk is not an excuse for your behavior. You are responsible for what you do.”

Sanders has two granddaughters and wants to take this critical juncture in American society and make it a teaching moment.

“I think we’ll have a sitdown,” she said.

If anything, Sanders has a personal story to tell them – a close call.

“I could have been this victim,” she said.

In the background, it was announced that the counselor for therapy had arrived for those who need it.

One who knows about the tragic circumstances personally – Palo Alto Mayor Liz Kniss addressed the crowd with her hope that the children assembled “won’t have to go through this.”

“Show me what democracy looks like,” one chanter screamed.

The intensity could have been cut with a knife. To those who are outraged, it was like a personal attack – and in many cases, it is.

A GoFundMe account has been established with organizers already tripling their goal of $150,000.

By Sue Wood, Patch Staff

Image 1, 3 and 4, Sue Wood, Patch

Image 2: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford arrives before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo By Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)