By Judy Siedlecki
I felt sick when the Nortorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court justice) died at the age of 87 Friday evening, because I felt she was the last guardrail against the destruction of our democracy. Now, I remind myself, God doesn’t make mistakes. I can relate through my own personal experience that when it seems the darkest, God shows the way.
Three times I saw the movie about her, “On the Basis of Sex”. Fortunately it was out last year before the Coronavirus hit. In it she was married, attending law school, and the mother of a baby girl. Her husband became ill in his third year of law school and she added his school work on top of hers. Graduating at the top of her class, she was rejected to work in law offices for a number of discriminatory reasons. One was she’d be taking a job away from a man. I remember that opinion against me back in the 1960s and my mother before that when we had to work as breadwinners for our family.
Ruth didn’t let discrimination deter her from using the wisdom of her words for equal justice for all. She was sweet, endearing, wickedly smart, even being great friends with Antonin Scalia despite his opposing her views on equal rights for gender, women’s right to choose, same sex marriage, upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and protecting social and voting rights. I’m with her on all of these issues.
The Supreme Court will be hearing ACA in November when it could be overturned with a Trump appointee so inclined to ignore the more than six Million coronavirus casualties who would be considered having a pre-existing condition.
Regarding marriage, her mother-in-law on her wedding day, had advised her to sometimes be a little deaf which she applied to other areas of her life. She was slow to anger. Her demeanor, persistence to do what’s right, and optimism despite the odds, made her an Influencer of moral character to be replicated so that little girls, and big ones, wanted to be RBG for Halloween and buy clothing with “Notorious RBG” on them.
I would sure hate to see her prestigious and virtuous character and legacy supplanted by a 180-degree-turn person taking her seat on the Supreme Court. Ruth held the door open for someone who would be fair and just. Rest in peace courageous woman. Only five-foot tall, she made a ladder to the sky to uphold just such a woman behind her.