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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDahlia Lithwick: What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-remembrance-what-now.html?via=featuresJurisprudence
What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now
Throughout all of the late-breaking notorious fame, the justice knew that she was just one link in the chain.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sept 19, 202012:49 AM
snip//
Whenever she spoke, Justice Ginsburg was at pains to say that she stood on the shoulders of giants. At her confirmation hearings, in her prepared statement to the Senate, she was meticulous about who truly deserved the credit for her landmark career, and it wasnt RBG: We could not have come to this pointand I surely would not be in this room todaywithout the determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equal citizenship alive in days when few would listen. People like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Harriet Tubman come to mind. I stand on the shoulders of those brave people. I never heard her give a public speech in which she didnt thank, by name, the allies, champions, fighters, of whom she inevitably saw herself as a beneficiary; she cast herself as someone lucky enough to be in a long line of champions and fighters, and also as someone set and determined to pay it forward to the people who would someday stand on her shoulders. She was a link in a chain, albeit a link lucky enough to score a crown when she was old enough to collect social security.
Justice Ginsburg was reserved and cautious and careful with her words, but I also think she never truly wanted her career and the progress for which she toiled, day in and day out, sleeplessly and through illness, to be just her own. Maybe it was because she was almost always a part of some bigger entity; an ACLU project, a law school class, a court, another court. She talked about soloists a lot, but she didnt do a lot of solos. Instead, she saw herself as part of something bigger, some that started with her mothers passions, and the help of her professors, and boosters, and friends. And of course, she knew that she lived as the repository of her beloved husband Martys hopes for a better future, and his endless efforts to do what he could to make it so. The world they envisioned was one that might be created thanks to the work we have all done, the marches we have marched, the fights we have fought, the protests we have protested. It was always a collective effort. And every time a door closed, or a clerkship was declined, or an all-male court found her to be weirdly femalewhatever team she was on, she hunkered down and regrouped and pushed forward again.
Justice Ginsburgs personal famethe bedazzling fandom that suddenly sprung up around herwas improbable because to her, it was always about the people who paved the way, and the people who would follow after. I think perhaps she got a kick out of the idea that the young ones who came after might be moved and inspired and lit up by her stardom and her integrity and her grit; that they might go to law school or sign a petition or go on a march thanks to her. And while the loss of Justice Ginsburg is gutting, and lacerating, and brutally sad, her entire life and work has been in service to the idea that the rest of us are in fact capable of being allies and helpers and boosters and supporters, and also that the generations that are disconsolate tonight, for the lack of a hero, are themselves capable of stepping into her teeny tiny mighty three-inch-heeled terrifyingly fabulous shoes and taking up the work she didnt begin but merely inherited from those who came before.
America has lost a warrior and its OK to be crushed. I am flattened. And I will mourn, because she deserves to be mourned. But we are also facing an almighty battle that will rage in the coming weeks, with attempts to fill her seat in an unseemly and grotesque manner. It will be hard, and painful, but if you find yourself feeling hopeless and powerless, then you are empathically doing it wrong. Because if anyone had a right to say nah, it was the woman who couldnt get a job or a clerkship after graduating at the top of her class. But she pushed on, and then she pushed forward. She stepped into the fight of the phenomenal women who paved the path before, and now, well, its time to step into her fight and get it finished. I think the Notorious RBG would have peered owlishly out at all of us tonight and asked what the heck we are waiting for. And I think we can probably honor her best by getting to it.
duhneece
(4,105 posts)I will rise up. Ill mourn today and tomorrow... then Ill rise.
BComplex
(7,984 posts)This is such a desperately sad day with the loss of RBG. But you've always fought right along side of her, and all that she stood for, and I know you'll keep on fighting.
Raven
(13,872 posts)Biophilic
(3,487 posts)I would have never seen it otherwise and it really resonates with me. It's exactly what I needed this morning.
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)This is a message we all need to hear and take to heart right now!
niyad
(112,435 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,493 posts)We have big fights on our hands. No keeping any powder dry! This is war!
2naSalit
(86,061 posts)I saw here on a news show last night and discovered that she and The Notorious RBG liked her a lot and called her "spicy". I've liked Dahlia for some time and what she has to say now is absolutely correct.
We must press forward or lose it all. And increasing our efforts in this fight is the best way to honor her and all that she has done for all of us.
Kitchari
(2,157 posts)We need to pay attention
brer cat
(24,402 posts)We must continue the fight.
crickets
(25,896 posts)Thanks for posting this, babylonsister.