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The year began with the Impeachment of an American President, who on whatever side of the aisle you sit, you would have to admit has brought disgrace upon that office and this country.

The impeachment was shut down by more of Mitch mcCONnell’s obstructionist histrionics. Could our forefathers have even imagined the amount of damage of which someone in the position of Senate Majority Leader would be capable?

As the tide of that raging injustice made clear that the Voice of the People was not to be hearkened, we found ourselves quite suddenly in the midst of a World Pandemic. Due to the negligence of the tRUMP Administration’s handling of the crisis, today we find ourselves at close to 200,000 American Deaths and with over 6.7 million Americans infected. The ensuing Quarantine has led to 30 million Americans on Unemployment and mcCONnell responsible for seeing that no Federal Aid has reached those Americans for seven weeks now…

Social and Civil Unrest among the People like we have not seen in our Lifetimes (And I lived through the Sixties!)…

The Western United States suffering the effect of mcCONnell’s & Other Republicans’ inaction on Climate Change…

And now, last evening at sundown as the Sabbath and Rosh Hashanah began, we received the news of the passing of NOTORIOUS RBG…

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“WE’RE FUCKED!” was the text that came through to my phone from one of my closest friends. Last night at 7:56pm.

We had not yet heard.

In July of 2016, GINSBURG told The New York Times:

“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” Ginsburg told the Times in an interview posted online on Sunday. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that,” she said, joking that her husband, who died in 2010, would have said, “‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.’”

Prescient!

This from one of our Greatest Justices in the History of the Supreme Court of the United States.

And now, in light of this tumultuous year, it is all too easy to Despair.

And how could anyone not feel that?
Well, it’s a Choice.

We Choose HOPE.

We Choose FAITH.

We Choose to FIGHT FOR JUSTICE!

We Choose to VOTE FOR SOMETHING BETTER!

We Choose to Believe that in spite of the debased machinations of a corrupt and insidious governmental administration, there is enough Good built into how our Constitution is set up, that we will get through this!

Several Republican Senators have already announced that they will not vote to confirm tRUMP & mcCONnell’s hostile takeover of the Judicial Branch of our Government.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG fought for women!

Her fight is so Beautifully depicted in two recent films:

The Legal Drama, ON THE BASIS OF SEX

And the extraordinary and inspiring Documentary, RBG

She fought for the Rights of Women and ALL American Women have Benefitted from her Lifetime of Activism!

And NOW is the time for ALL AMERICAN WOMEN to Give Something Back!

FLOOD Your Senator’s Offices with a DEMAND that this seat NOT BE FILLED until after Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021.

This is the mcCONnell Rule – it is the one that he, himself, instituted!

Now, force your Senate Representatives to break with his inconsistency, and refuse to approve any choice that tRUMP & mcCONnell make!

Do you have a uterus? Do you have sex with anyone who has a uterus? Did you come into this world from out of a uterus? If you can answer YES to any of the above questions, then you MUST TAKE ACTION NOW!

We Choose ACTION!
We Choose HOPE!
We Choose FAITH!
We Choose to honor the Legacy of RBG by Protecting our Freedoms and our Country from all threats, both Foreign and DOMESTIC!

As Barack Obama posted today:

Sixty years ago, Ruth Bader Ginsburg applied to be a Supreme Court clerk. She’d studied at two of our finest law schools and had ringing recommendations. But because she was a woman, she was rejected. Ten years later, she sent her first brief to the Supreme Court––which led it to strike down a state law based on gender discrimination for the first time. And then, for nearly three decades, as the second woman ever to sit on the highest court in the land, she was a warrior for gender equality––someone who believed that equal justice under law only had meaning if it applied to every single American.

Over a long career on both sides of the bench––as a relentless litigator and an incisive jurist––Justice Ginsburg helped us see that discrimination on the basis of sex isn’t about an abstract ideal of equality; that it doesn’t only harm women; that it has real consequences for all of us. It’s about who we are––and who we can be. 

Justice Ginsburg inspired the generations who followed her, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful leaders in the land. Michelle and I admired her greatly, we’re profoundly thankful for the legacy she left this country, and we offer our gratitude and our condolences to her children and grandchildren tonight.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals. That’s how we remember her. But she also left instructions for how she wanted her legacy to be honored. 

Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn’t fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in.

A basic principle of the law––and of everyday fairness––is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment. The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard. The questions before the Court now and in the coming years––with decisions that will determine whether or not our economy is fair, our society is just, women are treated equally, our planet survives, and our democracy endures––are too consequential to future generations for courts to be filled through anything less than an unimpeachable process.

And as Marianne Williamson posted today:

As of this day, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is no longer an old woman. And I have mixed feelings about her death. On one hand I love John Irving’s words, “Give her back, God! Give her back!” I join with others in despair at what Mitch McConnell might do now – and who are we kidding, what he most assuredly will do. But on the other hand, it’s just too much of a sign that she died literally hours before the setting sun that ushers in Rosh Hashanah. According to the tenets of Judaism, the most righteous souls die at such an hour. And she was such a righteous soul. Several years ago I was with a group on a tour bus in Jerusalem; we stopped at a red light and right below me walking on the sidewalk was RBG! I was so startled I couldn’t believe it. I’ve always wished I had said “Let me out of the bus!” so that I could go introduce myself, but I remember thinking at the time that I didn’t know where I would go if the bus went on without me. Pretty dumb, of course. But it happened so quickly. She was walking with three men who looked like bodyguards, and I learned later in the day she was there to receive an award. I always thought it amazing that the one place I saw her was in the Holy Land. So as sorry as I am that she’s gone, for all the obvious reasons, I think there’s a way that all of us need to be glad for her …to grow up now and do the work ourselves. I’ve said for years that our generation had a prolonged post adolescence…that we had failed to fully mature. God knows we’re dealing with the consequences of all that now. But you can’t say that about people like RBG. She was mature in every possible way. And now we have to take it from here. It is our turn to show up, to be mature, to serve our country. She was so in love with her husband and they get to be together now. It’s almost greedy of us to ask for even one more day of her than we were given. We know what we need to do and we need to do it. If anyone deserves a rest, it is she. She will continue her journey in eternity; let’s up our game in our journey here. Dear God, please bless this precious soul. We thank you for the time we had her in our midst. May we be better people for having known her as we did. Amen

As Chabad.org reminds us:

For thousands of years, Jews have been evoking the blessing of “Blessed is the true judge” in response to death and tragedy. The entire blessing, with G‑d’s name, is as follows: Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the universe, the True Judge. In Hebrew it is pronounced: bah-rooch a-tah a-do-noi e-lo-hei-noo me-lech ha-o-lahm da-yan¹ ha-e-met. While only one who personally underwent a tragedy makes the full blessing with G‑d’s name, on hearing of the death of another, many respond by saying, “Baruch dayan ha’emet.” You may have also heard people responding to generally unpleasant news with the phrase, “This is also for the good.”

The great Sage Rabbi Akiva once arrived at a city. Upon arrival, he sought a place to lodge; however, no one provided him with one. He said, “All that G‑d does, He does for the good!” and he went to sleep in a field. In the field he had with him a rooster, a donkey and a lamp. A wind came and blew out the candle. A cat came and ate the rooster. A lion came and ate the donkey. Rabbi Akiva said, “All that G‑d does, He does for the good!”

It turned out that marauders came and captured the residents of the city. Rabbi Akiva was saved because he was camped outside the city and had neither candle nor rooster that would have attracted attention to him. This story illustrates how even seemingly negative occurrences happen for a reason, even if that reason is not apparent, as it was in the end for Rabbi Akiva. Because of this truth, alluded to in this story, our sages said that we should always thank G‑d for the not-so-good happenings in our life, just as we thank G‑d for the good in our life.

Thank You, NOTORIOUS RBG!

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