The dismal truth of our nation’s sad moment in time is that there was no time to properly mourn the death of a significant public figure, a U.S. icon who started her career underestimated by a chauvinistic legal profession and ended it as one of the most revered individuals of her era. Instead, the headlines and news stories the next day were preoccupied with the political gamesmanship to come, in no small part because Republicans wasted no time to declare their blatant hypocrisy. They practically licked their lips as they announced plans to offer the lifelong criminal currently in the White House a privilege they denied his predecessor, the new election year rule they concocted back then thrown in the trash like a soiled napkin. Ruth Bader Ginsburg deserved better, not just because of her years in the Supreme Court. Her time arguing before that once august body is perhaps even more impressive. I soothed my anger and misery by seeking out the relevant words of some of my favorite writers:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Great Equalizer by Jill Lepore

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Was a Fighter, But I Feel Defeated by Jessica Valenti

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Knew the Dark Elements in American History Never Die by Charles P. Pierce

What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now by Dahlia Lithwick

It Shouldn’t Have Come Down to Her by Rebecca Traister