Regardless of how you feel about the judicial pronouncements of recently deceased U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I hope you recognize how much she did to advance the ability of women to pursue any vocation of their choosing.  Her ground breaking work on ending gender discrimination in the marketplace has enabled millions of women to enter careers from which they had previously been excluded, and always by men.  In addition, in numerous judicial victories over the years, she succeeded in persuading courts to acknowledge that, be it in terms of spousal benefits or taxation, men and women deserved equal treatment under the law.

     In many instances, Justice Ginsburg centered her argument on the law's tendency to construct its dictums on the basis of social custom rather than innate ability.  Too many times, legislators (again, always male) developed laws rooted in their perception, one which their culture had fostered, of women as an inferior being.

     Much ink has been spilled in various religious circles about the person and being of women.  Almost all of it has been grounded in social convention and not the intrinsic fact of humanness.  Yet Genesis is very clear:  God made man and woman equal beings.

     It has been society, a male dominated society, that has made it otherwise.

     Be well, Justice Ginsburg.