By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
More than 100 Sitkans gathered in front of the courthouse Saturday evening to mourn the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Tory Curran, who helped organize the informal vigil, said she felt a need to share her grief with others. Ginsburg, a justice on the court for nearly three decades, died Friday after a battle with cancer.
“I was despondent last night and just felt such a heaviness and I knew that so many other people felt the same way and so I felt that we needed to be together. She deserves so much honor,” Curran told the Sentinel at the gathering.
Brook Volschenk said she appreciated the chance to join others in honoring Ginsburg,
“A big part of it is the comfort in the socially distanced right world right now, to just be with other people. And not that grieving ever feels good, whether you’re alone or with other people, but sometimes knowing that you’re not alone in something helps you keep going on,” Volschenk said.
Greta Healy echoed this.
“Just the gravity of the world and wanting to be around other people who are maybe feeling a similar way,” Healy said.
Margo O’Connell noted that despite rapidly changing events in the country she wanted to set a moment aside for mourning.
“It felt really important and comforting to take a moment and just sit with that grief,” O’Connell said.
She added that she valued Ginsburg’s legacy of advocating for the equality of women through decades of legal battles.
“There is her actual legacy and all the decisions she made, but also her presence felt so important in terms of equality for women, and as a Jewish woman,” O’Connell said.
Sitkans place flowers on a makeshift memorial for Ruth Bader Ginsburg Saturday night in front of the Sitka Courthouse. More than 100 people turned out for a half-hour vigil to show their respect for the Supreme Court Justice who died Friday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Even before her time on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg worked with the American Civil Liberties Union as director of the ACLU’s Women’s Right Project, from 1972 to 1980.
After her appointment as a justice in 1993 Ginsburg participated in a number of landmark Supreme Court rulings on gender equity. In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion in a case that compelled the Virginia Military Institute to accept women as cadets.
In 2000, Ginsburg wrote the dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore, when the court stopped the counting of ballots in Florida, awarding the presidency to George W. Bush.
The ACLU issued a statement Friday honoring Ginsburg’s contributions to gender and racial equality, and cited her dissent from the Supreme Court’s 2013 majority removing key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“‘Race-based voting discrimination still exists,’ she rebuked her colleagues,” the ACLU said. “‘Dismantling the act,’ she said later, was ‘like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.’”
Curran praised Ginsburg’s achievements.
“Her legacy is immense and her loss immeasurable,” Curran said. She cited Ginsburg’s decision regarding women’s equity in the military, in finance, and in sports as specific inspirations.
She praised Ginsburg for “chipping away at this really unfair system our government has set up, and she kept at it.”
With Ginsburg’s death, “I felt like I had lost a friend,” she said.
Noting Ginsburg’s pop-star cultural status, Curran said that such notoriety helps underscore the functions of America’s government.
“It highlights the importance of the court,” she said. “We all have to take our government seriously and we have to understand how our constitution and how our government works with checks and balances.”
O’Connell said there is reason for concern about the permanence of Ginsburg’s legacy.
“We’re in a place where very realistically all of that could, not be undone, but lost in some way,” O’Connell said.
Volschenk admired Ginsburg’s determination and resilience.
“It can show you what one person is truly capable of, regardless of the challenges that face that person,” she said. “it gives me hope that we can continue to fight for the things that she was doing.”
