A year or so ago, I saw a post on Fun 92.7’s Twitter page about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It was not nice, called her a rude name, and said something like, “is she still alive”, but in more of a white-trash mode of communication.
Now that she has, indeed, died, I am reminded of this post from a local business, and wonder how any educated, thinking, intelligent person can think that her lifetime of service to the citizens of this country has not directly touched each of us. If you are one of the people who think her only cause was to keep abortion legal, let me share some things with you.
First of all, she was not a proponent of abortion. She was a proponent of abortion RIGHTS. That is very, very different. She wanted women to be able to make the choice to safely end a pregnancy. The fact that some women use abortion as a form of birth control is not on Ginsburg’s hands. That’s on all of us. This throwaway society where we put ourselves, our comfort, and our needs before anything else. Inconvenient? Get rid of us. Expensive? Get rid of it. Life changing? Get rid of it. We are killing everything around us in the name of our own success, babies included. That is on us.
Before sitting on the Supreme Court, this tiny-but-mighty woman was a litigator for the ACLU. She argued six cases before the Supreme Court, winning five of them. She created the Women’s Rights Project. The reason women can financially manage an estate without a husband? That was her. The ability of a woman to enroll in the Virginia Military Institute? That was her. Did you know there used to be different drinking ages for men and women in Oklahoma? A woman could buy a beer at 18 years of age, but men had to be 21. No more. Survival benefits for widowers, and not just widows? That was her. Yes, she stood up for men’s rights, too.
What started this fire in her, for gender equality? Could have been when she was among a handful of women being admitted to Harvard, being interviewed by the dean on why they deserved to take a spot that could have gone to a man. It could have been because she had to hide her pregnancy under baggy clothing so she wouldn’t lose her job for being pregnant.
And now we have lost the most liberal judge of the current justices. She was not, by far, the most liberal to sit on the bench, just the most liberal at this time. I believe that the highest court in the land is most beneficial to its citizens when it is balanced, and that means replacing the late justice with a like-minded person. But, we are living in very partisan times, with balance and fairness the last thing on our minds. We want it our way or no way, regardless of which side you are on. We are doing future generations a disservice, and I think Justice Ginsburg would agree.
I, for one, will miss her staunch advocacy, fiery spirit, and unapologetic forward movement. She was, indeed, The Notorious RBG.
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