What RBG Taught Me

I am sure that of the 200,000 Americans who have died thanks to COVID-19 we have lost many national treasures, but we have lost two more to things not COVID related.  This year we have lost John Lewis, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  I am sure I will post many things about the Supreme Court in coming days, but for now I want to reflect on what Justice Ginsburg taught me (though I never met her).  She paved the way for equality for women in many areas in the 50’s and 60’s.  Starting in the 70’s, I entered the fight for equality for the disabled.  My fight went to legislators and the Library of Congress.  I was able to do this thanks to RBG because she opened the door for people to think about equality and discrimination.  She fought for gender equality.  Martin Luther King and John Lewis fought for racial equality, and I along with others fought for disability equality a little later.

 

Back when I was a kid, gender equality was called Women’s Lib, and that term was often used in a not very nice away.  Back then, companies had these things called typing pools.  The men with the real jobs would need something written up.  It could be interoffice memoranda, company communications, or external communications.  The assignment would be given to one of the women in the typing pool and that’s how paper communications were done.  Women were not expected to get jobs other than that, and even that was a concession because the men all wanted real jobs, and not typing pool jobs.  The highest career attainment open to most women back then was that of secretary to a man boss.  That was it.  The end.  Ginsburg led the way to change all that.

 

The three fights I mentioned were met with opposition.  It was against the law for me to go to my nearest public school, for example.  Since I am legally blind, I was forced to go to the blind school.  The radical idea that many disabled children might be better in regular schools with regular children was met with stern opposition, though most of that was well meaning.  And of course, we all know about the opposition to racial and gender equality movements.

 

What I would like to say is change is difficult.  It is hard for all of us to first realize things have changed.  It is even harder for us to realize things must change.  And finally, it is very difficult for us to accept that change will occur whether we want it to or not.  Nothing worth fighting for comes easily.  Against the backdrop of change are those who fight to keep things as they were.  For them, change is bad.  This is often motivated by a fear of change because change transitions us into a period of the unknown.

 

America is browning.  Of that there is no doubt.  What will this mean for the future?  Who knows.  Those who fear change say it will mean an increase in crime.  These same change deniers fought hard against gender equality for women because such change would cause the breakdown of the family, cause social unrest, and delude women into thinking they could do more than they actually could, and on and on and on.  Yes, change brings consequences.  We have seen, for example, a rise in single parents and alterations of the fabric of the nuclear family brought about in part by the increase of women in the work force, a more tolerant attitude toward divorce, and the sexual revolution. 

 

In today’s world, technology is often the bringer of change.  What will happen to our privacy thanks to “Big Brother” technology.  How are mobile devices affecting our children?  Will we ever gather around the dinner table as a family again or will we be glued to our smart phones?  Who knows.  What I do know is there will  be consequences from change, some good, and some bad.

 

In America today we see the affects of changing attitudes.  People who call for police reform are met by opposition who call for more of the same type of policing.  People who call for transgender equality are met with religious opposition calling for a reversion to the status quo or even for the rolling back of some of the changes which have been made, thanks in part to Justice Ginsburg.  Those who say they no longer want the glorification of the Confederacy in the form of public monuments are met with those who say the fabric of our government is being torn apart.

 

Ginsburg taught me that change is inevitable, and when it is time for change, we must embrace it, fight for it, and accept it knowing that society will change.  We will not like all the consequences of change, but nothing is permanent.  When TV was invented, the public was treated to high quality documentaries, as well as porn.  But who among us would want to eliminate TV? 

 

America is browning.  Most Americans believe in gender equality extending to transgender equality.  Most Americans believe in pro choice over pro life.  Most Americans believe policing must change in some form or other.  Most Americans believe the world is much older than 6,000 years.  In a democratic society such as ours, all of these believes will bring about change.  Those who oppose change and wish to revert back to the way things were are fighting a losing battle.  Things will never revert to the way things were and if you look throughout human history, change has always been there and no one has ever fully reverted to the way things were.  The only variable has been the pace of change.

 

And finally, whenever you have a society like ours in which change is easy to make relative to other forms of government, some changes will be more wrong than right and this will bring about more change.  Back in the early 20^th century, the US decided to kill all the wolves in Yellowstone National Park thinking this would be better for everyone.  It turned out to be a disaster so eventually, wolves were brought back but now, our understanding of wolves is much better than it used to be so things are not exactly as they were before. 

 

During this election, many Americans fear change, but Ginsburg taught me that change will happen regardless of whether I am afraid of it or not.  She taught me to fight for the changes which are worth fighting for, then adjust to make the original changes better.  She started by fighting for equality for women.  She realized later that this should also apply to transgender people.  So she modified her change to make it better.

 

All the fear mongering today such as your suburbs will be destroyed, you won’t be safe unless Trump is elected and so on, does absolutely no good.  If Trump wins the election this year, a year will come when a Democrat wins.  Don’t get sucked into a politics of fighting against change because though you may have a temporary win here and there, you will always lose in the end.