Steve Frey
Walking out onto College Avenue from the Lyric Theater in Blacksburg, all I could think of was the tremendous impact Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had on American society over the last 40-something years.
Moments before, the movie “RBG” had just concluded, and the appreciative audience had given it and its protagonist sustained applause.
That doesn’t happen at movies very often.
Ginsburg is a diminutive octogenarian who has cast a giant shadow on jurisprudence and the rights of all Americans, but especially women. She won five of six cases as counsel before the U. S. Supreme Court ensuring that women had the opportunity to obtain equal pay, equal benefits, equal opportunities to gain employment and admission to military academies and many other rights that should have been automatic under the law but weren’t.
She explains in the movie that she was like a kindergarten teacher to the Supreme Court members because she had to help them see the discrimination against women that they didn’t understand existed.
It might be easy to forget that until 1978, women could be fired from their workplace for being pregnant. Sexual harassment was officially defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1980.
It took until 1993 for all states to recognize marital rape. Women were not allowed to apply for credit until 1974. Ginsburg, and others like her, helped to forge these somewhat recent changes in American laws.
As a Supreme Court justice, she also has often written the dissenting positions for judgments that she felt were wrong.
She always presents a logical, methodical review of the law and a supporting argument for the case, win or lose.
America is lucky to have someone of her intellect and character serving on the Supreme Court today.
Like so many of the people who have made a difference in changing the United States for the better, she never asked to be in the spotlight; she just worked the cases she felt would make the most difference and won most of them.
Not long ago there was another movie about an American hero, Thurgood Marshall. He worked tirelessly as a lawyer for the NAACP to help bring equal rights to black men and women.
He fought and won the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education case that helped to integrate schools and society.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of two other icons, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. King, of course, fought until his death for the civil rights of blacks, and Kennedy did the same, as well as supporting Cesar Chavez and the farm workers of California, the poor of Appalachia and the forgotten in the Mississippi Delta region.
Abraham Lincoln fighting to free slaves, Harry Truman integrating the military and Dwight Eisenhower sending troops to Little Rock for integration—so many men and women were at the right place at the right time to help America move forward to recognize and protect the rights of all.
Many people in this area probably had relatives who were members of the United Mine Workers. They also had to struggle for their rights, but unions have attained the 40-hour workweek, health insurance, child labor laws and the industry safety laws that people enjoy today.
The men and women who accomplished all of that made a huge difference in America and are not as well known as a Marshall, Ginsburg or a Kennedy. However, they too made America the great country that it is today.
Often without fanfare, members of local city councils, boards of supervisors, and school boards make changes that improve the lives of people in their communities.
Men and women honorably work to advance the prospects of thousands with their thoughtful deliberations.
The Constitution is the blueprint for equality and freedom in America. Fortunately, there are many Americans like Ginsburg who realize its value and importance.
There are Americans who also understand that we have a ways to go before we have achieved equality.
Blacks, women and other groups have not achieved equal pay or opportunity. The Marshalls and Ginsburgs of today are willing to go to court and work through the system to help America live its promise of equality under the law for everyone.
Everyday Americans must also do their part. When injustice exists in America, it is every American’s responsibility to stand against it.
Most of all, vote. Vote for people who speak with moral conviction and have the background to back it up. Vote for people who care about the citizens they represent more than corporate profits or the money they receive from lobbyists. Vote for people who have a vision of unity and equality for all.
The United States is an evolving experiment begun a couple of hundred years ago by a group of leaders who had the crazy idea that they could create a republic with democratic principals that would be something better than the monarchies of the world. And they were successful.
Watching Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg fight on the screen in those movies, one had to feel good about living in a country where change for the better is possible.
Good men and women can stand up against oppressive laws and make changes that are helpful for everyone.
Sitting in the Lyric Theater watching the credits run and hearing the spontaneous applause of fellow citizens at the end of RBG, one felt proud to be an American.
Walking down College Avenue in Blacksburg on a warm June night, one felt a sense of hope in the knowledge that there are other Ginsburgs, Marshalls, and RFKs in the world today who will continue to fight for the rights and freedom of all people, regardless of who they are, what they look like, or where they come from.
Ronald Reagan talked about America as being that “shining city upon the hill.” That is the goal. America and Americans have always stood out from the rest of the world for the determination to be moral and just role models in the past, and with the help of those who are willing to work to create “a more perfect union” like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we always will.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
