The Melancholy Slumber Party At The Supreme Court (October 2018)

September 14, 2020

While we’re on the subject of demonstrations and politics, here’s a post I drafted back in October 2018!

So, I went and protested two weekends in a row against putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. And after all was said and done, and he’d been voted in, I couldn’t sleep. So, I headed down to the Supreme Court somewhere around 3 o’clock in the morning to see if anyone was still around.

Sure enough, there were these two women who *just* graduated from law school. And they were heartbroken.

One was telling me how Ruth Bader Ginsberg was her hero, and that she’d lived basically her whole life dreaming of being on the Supreme Court, and that for a very long time, her nickname was “Justice [Her Last Name].” And she was totally empty. She was like “I don’t even want this anymore. My whole life, this was all I wanted. But this court is repulsive. It can never fully bounce back from what happened today. And I don’t want this at all anymore. My whole life’s plan is different now.”

And I know that sometimes when we’re upset things look more bleak than they are when we get a little distance. So, maybe she will decide to work toward that later, and maybe she will become a Supreme Court Justice after all.

But there are few things in this life that make me sadder than seeing someone’s dream die. It is so heartbreaking. And it was heartbreaking to sit outside of the Supreme Court with them.

I don’t really have a giant point of this story. It just really hit me how far-reaching everything that’s happening is, and how personally affected people feel, and are. And it’s just… I know I’ve already said it, but it’s heartbreaking.

I dunno. I’m still keeping some hope alive. As Cory Booker says, there is no hope without despair. Hope is a response. So, I guess at this despair is waging a crater in America, maybe in us… Hopefully it’s just leaving room for us to fill that crater with hope (and volunteer hours, and protests, and donations to campaigns, etc., etc.).

It’s been a tough weekend. Hope you’re all doing well.

xoxo

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