Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dear RBG,

You created the change that I needed in this country in order to be successful, not only as a woman but as a member of society. You were an inspiration that continues to transcend political party lines, gender, and race. You are, after all, the Notorious RBG. Thank you. Rest in power.

MEGANA KASHYAP investigations assistant

Amid the life-changing pandemic we were and are in, I felt that little more could happen would truly make 2020 a more challenging year. Then my phone lit up one Friday afternoon. It was breaking news: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away at the age of 87. In seconds, the news station reported it, my friends texted me, everyone was talking about it. When I read of Ginsburg’s passing, I felt powerless. The world was already undergoing one of the most significant changes I have seen in my lifetime, and Ginsburg’s passing meant that our country was going to go through another drastic change with consequences that last generations.

In the muddy waters of politics today, with an unsteady, COVID-19 infested White House and Congress constantly at war with itself, it was comforting knowing a beacon of light was sitting on the Supreme Court bench. That beacon of light was an eighty-seven-year-old judge going through a fourth fight against cancer. It was unfair of us to put the country’s state on her shoulders for decades, but she took the role she had in our future very seriously. Even in her last days, undergoing cancer treatment, she went to work hearing cases on her hospital bed. She knew the American people needed her.

Ginsberg is the reason I, a young woman living in America, can dream equally with my male counterparts. I am allowed to dream of applying to any college I want and having an equal chance of being accepted through her decision in United States v. Virginia. I can even look beyond college: owning a credit card is a sign of independence for any adult. Until 1974 it would not have been an option for me. Ginsburg laid the groundwork for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. This act allowed women to have credit cards, bank accounts, and even house mortgages in their own names, without a male co-signer. It’s hard to understand how Ginsburg led her life breaking so many barriers. It was perhaps Ginsburg’s career that allowed her to view the world differently. In the extremely male-dominated industry of law, she struggled to get a job. It was ironic: she had graduated at the top of her class at Harvard Law School, beating out all of her male peers, yet those peers were getting hired at the same law firms she was being rejected from.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg never compromised herself for society’s beliefs about women. She cleared a path for herself and millions of women that followed behind her. Whether we choose to go down a similar path as a lawyer and judge or another path like I am, it is the same determination that she had for decades that I constantly push myself towards. She broke barriers, earned the name “The Notorious RBG” and then changed the meaning of “notorious”. Notorious no longer meant infamous, no, of course not! It meant living life on your terms, breaking the molds that society had molded us into.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg represented the best of America: it was her humor and kindness that allowed us to feel that her fight was ours too. Even after her passing, we still find ourselves fighting her battle for equality for everyone in America.