We each come to life on this planet with the gifts necessary
to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves.
Ann: Justice Ginsburg?
Justice Ginsburg: Ruth, please. We are on a level now, as is everyone, did they but know it. There is no hierarchy on souls as Mister Rogers has taught us.
Ann: OK, I understand form Anita* that you had something to say here.
Justice Ginsburg: I do, Ann, but just as importantly I have something to say to you. You believe that you are lesser than those who have accomplished much while there are many who feel the same about you. Always there are those who have done more, learned more, felt more or experienced more than we have and always there are those on the other side of that equation.
I am inspired by the words that the Apostle Peter left you with this morning because he sees clearly that equality and equity are not the same thing. Equality means a level playing field for everyone who arrives to play regardless of their background, education, privilege or lack thereof. Equity means allowing each to have what they need to be themselves on that playing field. These two concepts have resulting in very differing interpretations of government, society and the legal underpinnings that are designed to achieve the desired goal.
As you know, regarding women’s rights, I asked not for special privileges for women, just that the patriarchal society, as an early abolitionist woman said, “take their feet off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.”**
If we are thus allowed to reach a level playing field, some will jump to carry the ball and others will support the players from the sidelines. Such fallout would then be a result of natural inclination and inborn (for that lifetime) talents.
We each come to life on this planet with the gifts necessary to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves. I have been in “school” recently and very educational it has been to see what I came for and how I worked through it or passed over opportunities to do so.
I ask you to think of the life lessons that your life so far has taught you and to extrapolate your primary mission from what has occurred thus far. Surely you can find a theme.
Mine was the relentless pursuit of equity under the law for each man, woman, and child. We are not equal and never shall or want to be, for there is glory in our infinite variety. There is, however, no glory in oppression because of our differences, and that was the ball I was asked to carry down the field.
Many of you have wondered, as I hear Ann thinking, if my staying on the Court so long was part of my work or whether I let my ego keep me there past the time when a suitable replacement could be assured. I am working on learning the answer to that question and to the even more important one which is whether the course of our country’s history would have been changed for the better had I stepped down earlier.
It is of course, impossible to know at this juncture the answer to a hypothetical which I answered by my actions while living. I can say that I was afraid to live without my work. I could not see my life without it and resolved to die with my boots on, so to speak, as long as I was competent to do the work.
So yes, I gave in to fear. I was lonely, I enjoyed my celebrity and the apparent benefits that my example conferred on others, particularly women trying to get an entrenched patriarchal society to make a U turn.
So whatever the” right” decision was, it is clear to me now that I was not in the “right” place to make it. A closer alignment with my angels might have clarified my vision, but even at this distance I cannot say what would have been the balanced course of action both for myself and for our judicial system.
I loved the law, I counted on it as the last bastion against anarchy and oppression, and I rejoice to say that it has not disappointed me. Though there has been some retrenchment and prejudice in application, the principle upon which the country was founded, that is, equal protection under the laws, still stands firm.
Now we need to work to create an equitable society so that principle can be uniformly applied. I look forward to that day and will be cheering you on from a distance.
March 14, 2021
*Anita Sacco. See "Recommended Channelers" under "Resources" tab. Anita can be contacted for purchase of obtaining the recipe for her protection spray or readings at https://www.etsy.com/shop/FairyTaleEnd.
**Sarah Moore Grimke, letter to her sister Angelina Emily Grimké, penned on July 17, 1837,