Not Ready To Die: The Notorious R.B.G.
Do not mess with the Notorious R.B.G.
Women need to give themselves more credit. We need to recognize our inherent worth as valuable, contributing, unique individuals, holding the power to achieve our most incredulous dreams. Perhaps one the greatest examples in our modern age is Notorious R.B.G. or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The 81 year-old Supreme Court Justice is a judicial powerhouse, a female role model indicative of the thriving potential that exists within every one of us — an entire blog is dedicated to Bader Ginsburg, highlighting the Justice’s accomplishments, celebrity encounters, and legal theories.
Clinton Appointee
R.B.G.’s unconquerable spirit extends beyond the Courts where she shapes U.S. public policy. Having lost her husband to cancer, Justice Bader Ginsburg was diagnosed with the disease in 1999. Despite undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, R.B.G never missed a single day on the bench. She has displayed incontestable strength in her intellectual thought processes — determining the most critical decisions of our present and future – and as a fearless human being, giving tangible meaning to “a life well lived.”
It is R.B.G.’s vigor that separates her from the pack, her conviction and willingness to dissent against decisions that would have innumerable consequences for generations to come, that continues to deem her a bold leader. According to the NYT article, “The Unsinkable R.B.G.,” her physical aptitude is legendary. Fellow Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recounted a summer teaching together on the French Riviera. “She went off parasailing!” he told The Washington Post. “This little skinny thing, you’d think she’d never come down.” Her dissidence could likely be heard from above mountaintops.
“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.” — a statement by R.B.G heard around the world, reverberating with women of all generations, but speaking loudly, with hindsight, to the women of today.
Justice Ginsberg is a survivor, an individual with the moral fortitude to make decisions rooted in the Constitution and deciphered in honor. According to the NYT, Ginsburg is planning to be on the bench when the Supreme Court weight in on monumental issues like the future of the Affordable Care Act and a national right for gay couples to marry. We can expect from the 81 year-old Supreme Court Justice the same vigor and tenacity she has always displayed in her decision-making.
R.B.G. already has a mounting fan base, and her small frame and stature have only added to her vibrant leadership. She supremely answers Beyoncé’s “Who run the world” question — her sole being is a reminder of the mammoth contributions women make in their communities, nations, and around the world.
