Reflecting on a modern day hero: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
During these tumultuous times, when I find myself feeling despair over our current events, or overwhelm over the unfinished work before me, I often invoke a silent question of my personal heroes, role models if you will. “What would RBG do in this moment?” I don’t think she would “doom scroll” on Twitter or endlessly complain to her friends about the state of affairs. She would embrace both hope and action, and find a way to focus on the her area of expertise, uphold the law, and artfully write and. express her legal opinions to find a path forward. Here are some of my recurring thoughts on one of our modern day heroes and the simplest way for us to build on her legacy.
After reading and reflecting this week on Justice Ginsburg’s life’s and accomplishments (I highly recommend reading the New York Times Obituary. I also highly recommend watching the 2018 documentary, RBG, and taking in anything you can by Nina Totenberg), and after discussing her life with friends, I remain awestruck by her and the contributions she made to this country. These accomplishments are well summarized in the statements of her peers on the Supreme Court. In the words of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “… Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American hero. She spent her life fighting for the equality of all people, and she was a pathbreaking champion of women’s rights. She served our Court and country with consummate dedication, tirelessness, and passion for justice. She has left a legacy few could rival.” Justice Elena Kagan expressed: “To me, as to countless others, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a hero. As an attorney, she led the fight to grant women equal rights under the law. As a judge, she did justice every day — working to ensure that this country’s legal system lives up to its ideals and extends its rights and protections to those once excluded. And in both roles, she held to — indeed, exceeded — the highest standards of legal craft. Her work was as careful as it was creative, as disciplined as it was visionary. It will endure for as long as Americans retain their commitment to law.” And Justice Anthony Kennedy summarized her impact succinctly: “By her learning she taught devotion to the law. By her dignity she taught respect for others and her love for America. By her reverence for the Constitution, she taught us to preserve it to secure our freedom.” I invite you to read all of the Supreme Court Justices’ statements in their press release here.
As Nina Totenberg explained in RBG, during the women’s rights movement, when women were marching, while she was a young lawyer, Justice Ginsburg realized her superpower, which was her devotion to the law, and she dove into her work, teaching students, directing the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, and arguing and winning six cases before the United States Supreme Court. Her mastery of approaching the court not out of anger, but out of an effort to teach them to see the problems of gender discrimination epitomized her advice to “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” She worked with civility, reminding us to engage with others with respect, and in so doing, make progress together.
Looking at her work over the years, both before she served on the country’s highest court and after, her single superpower that has struck me the most about her legacy is her devotion to the causes that resonated deep in her soul: equal rights, her love of the law and Constitution, and her incredible focus in her work to serve for as long as she could, improving the lives of so many of us.
When I look at her dedication and focus, a women who truly understood her calling, her mission in life, she inspires us, I believe, to continue to hone our own focus toward our own mission, and in so doing everyday strive to live a meaningful life.
I think Justice Ginsburg’s advice on living a meaningful life is perhaps the most resonant and an instruction to us all, especially as we live in these difficult times:
“If you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself. Something to repair tears in your community. Something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That’s what I think a meaningful life is — living not for oneself, but for one’s community.”
Next to my desk in my office I have an RBG action figure. She’s pointing at me, and when I see this I hear her telling me to stay focused, and to strive honor my purpose. Let her life be a call to action to all of us. Let us carry her words in our heart, especially as we work through these challenging times. We will carry uphold her legacy by living for our community and striving to leave this world a little better than we found it.
It’s time to get to work, friends. We have a lot of work to do.
Thank you to my friend, Paige, for the photos of a memorial to RBG in Washington DC.
