Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933 - 2020

The family had just marked Rosh Hashanah in the evening with a lovely dinner, and the morning of September 19 in Singapore arrived with the sad news of the passing of RBG at 87 years old. Her body couldn't hold out to see the all-important elections through. Even at 86 years old, she was still fighting cancer and doing what she could for her beliefs and causes. 

I keep an eye on American politics, out of pure interest. But I'm never interested to hold a conversation about it at the dining table. It can be divisive, and for certain topics, I don't let general and uneducated remarks pass without challenging them. I don't stand for silly discussions that don't pull in facts and which aren’t substantiated by evidence. It's very hard to do that politely in a social setting. I've learnt to shut up when the conversation topics veer to politics based on what Fox and CNN reported. Mind my own business, so to speak.

76-year old American lawyer Linda Hirshman wrote a piece for The Washington Post published on September 19, 2020. It's titled 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a vision for America. Her colleagues thwarted it. — She died hoping for a liberal Supreme Court majority that never materialized'.

We'll never know RBG's private thoughts; neither are we privy to the conversations with her inner circle nor the discussions with her colleagues. But her actions and written judgments had lent a clue that could be in no doubt that she stood for justice and equality. With her blazing the way, there must be people to carry this torch, politicking aside. She had earned her rest. 

Why didn’t she step down while Barack Obama had the power to replace her? She was waiting: for a justice, as she said, who would resemble her. And although she didn’t admit it, we knew she was waiting for Hillary Clinton to replace Justice Antony Scalia with a liberal, somebody with a stiffer spine for progressive battles than the one Obama had shown. Had there been five liberals after 2016, she would have been the senior liberal in the majority, and able to assign all the liberal decisions. She would have been the closest thing to the chief justice on a liberal court.

But Clinton lost. So Ginsburg tried to hold on, to hand the appointment to someone who would at least do no harm. Now it is in the hands of the voters. In her last years, people made songs and movies about her, and the public bought out her bobblehead dolls. None of that mattered to the real RBG. She cared about the Supreme Court, making it again the engine of an expanding legacy of American equality. Sadly, it’s too late for her. Only the voters can make that happen.

The American voters are not rational. At least that's what a large number of voters in other countries think. The world has seen them put Trump into office and watched them condone, defend and justify his actions, words and policies. This isn't the America I know. And if this is the America that is becoming, it isn't a country I want to visit, not even as a tourist, because based on the color of my skin, I’m unwelcomed, and likely to fall victim to hate crime or be randomly shot. 

RBG's death has set off a furious debate in the Senate, and the future direction of the Supreme Court. RBG is a liberal icon. She has been criticized for 'murdering babies', and supporting women's right to abortion. Her seat is now empty. I'm horrified and fearful. If (and likely when) a Conservative takes her spot, it seals America's fate, the right to guns, no to abortion, affect jurisprudence, and pretty much sending the country back into the Dark Ages. Whatever progressive policies implemented in the last 50 years can be reversed. 

What America does, might be exactly the push that other countries need to revert to Conservative government leadership and policies. Don't ever say that Asia isn't America. Politicians of any government will use any ammo for their gains. Robert Barnes for The Washington Post wrote, 

A conservative replacement for liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday night at age 87, could shift the Supreme Court’s majority markedly to the right for generations, and transform its jurisprudence on issues such as gun rights, affirmative action and the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.

More immediately, Ginsburg’s death for now leaves the court with only eight members to confront potentially history-shaping issues resulting from one of the nation’s most contentious presidential elections.

The court has already refereed a number of battles between Republicans and Democrats regarding voting rights. A majority of six conservative justices could potentially decide a host of other issues raised by the election itself. The court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore in 2000 essentially decided the presidential election for George W. Bush.

I have no words. I have no illusions about the November elections either. It's not my fight, but we will feel the ripple effects. L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu. God Bless America.

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed — how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague, who by strangulation and who by lapidation, who shall have rest and who wander, who shall be at peace and who pursued, who shall be serene and who tormented, who shall become impoverished and who wealthy, who shall be debased, and who exalted.

~ Unetaneh Tokef prayer