Three weeks with RBG: No words could do her justice
Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Walker
As Linda Longmire saw Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg walking toward her at Naples International Airport, the idea that she would be protecting a symbol of western democracy was the first thought that came into Longmire’s mind.
“I do remember it very vividly, that airport encounter,” said Professor Longmire. “She played, already then at that stage, such a key role in not only U.S. politics, but sort of as a world representative of women's rights particularly. So, I remember this feeling of sort of awesome responsibility.”
In 2007, Ginsburg was teaching constitutional law alongside her old friend, Professor Leon Friedman, through Hofstra’s Summer Law School Programin Sorrento, Italy. The university needed someone with knowledge of the region to serve as a guide for her and her husband, Martin Ginsburg. Professor Longmire, a global studies professor at Hofstra University who had run the European Odyssey with her husband for 27 years, was given the honor of directing the program and receiving Ginsburg.
Longmire became a sort of tour guide, planning excursions, dinners and conversations for their party of eight, a group which included herself, her late husband, two other Hofstra professors and their spouses and Ginsburg and her late husband, whom Longmire described as “a delightful person, charming, brilliant and very interesting.”
This opportunity, a chance to spend quality time with one of the most influential women in our democracy, was everything Professor Longmire imagined it would be.
“There is so much to see [in Italy] every day, but I left a few little gaps just for her to recuperate and to catch her breath because it was otherwise going to be a pretty breakneck schedule, [but] she didn't want any gaps in that schedule,” Longmire said. “She wanted every moment filled in and wanted to see and do as much as possible.”
“She was interested in everything; she had an incredible passion for life and incredible energy,” Longmire said, recounting their visits to archaeological ruins and historical sites. Ginsburg's desire to experience everything was a character trait that deeply impacted Longmire.
RGB among students in Sorrento, Italy. // Photo courtesy of Sant'Anna Institute.
Their busy days were broken up by moments spent in meaningful conversation. “It was so fun to hear her stories as she relaxed and we got to know each other,” Longmire said. “So many personal glimpses into the extraordinary.”
One of the topics that came up was the experience of simply being a woman. Ginsburg was not only a political pioneer, but a wife and mother. On that trip, she shared the challenges of fulfilling all those roles, a struggle Longmire feels most women can relate to.
“This is one of the challenges that women have; [it] is how you balance all of the above and still be active, not only in one's career [and] one's work, but to be an active citizen ... So that was something that was so impressive; that she was able to somehow so gracefully, so elegantly, so successfully balance all of that,” Longmire said.
As an educator herself, Longmire practices a pedagogy of truly encouraging learning, a process that involves making mistakes. She described seeing this same grace in Ginsburg when she taught.
“Sometimes students can ask questions that either aren't clear or aren’t relevant, [but] she would always listen very carefully and respond almost intuitively to the question they might actually be trying to ask ... And she did that with such, again, generosity and pedagogical elegance,” Longmire said. “And I think that as a teacher, that's an art. And to be able to do that at that level of experience and with that depth of detail was just an extraordinary thing to witness.”
But the greatest virtue that Longmire saw in Ginsburg was her ability to truly embrace life and all the beauty it had to offer, despite the pain she saw and felt in her profession.
“Another one [moment] that I remember very fondly was when we were going to Positano, which is a town down the coast, a very beautiful little town on the beach,” Longmire said.
“She [Ginsburg] was on her phone checking with her office in Washington, and it was something about a very burdensome case that had to do with the death penalty ... And so, I remember just her intensity. And I remember turning around and seeing that there was some real sorrow on her face. I don't even remember the resolution of things, but it was clear how passionately concerned she was about this case; someone is about to be executed.”
This warranted concern left Ginsburg very quiet the rest of the drive. The load Ginsburg carried appeared to be too heavy for any one person. However, Longmire caught a glimpse of how she may have managed.
“When we got to Positano, I saw her just sort of shake off this sorrow for a moment, and she jumped out and, almost like a little girl, ran into the water,” Longmire said.
“I could see this full spectrum of her experience. On the one hand, this enormous responsibility and this case, something that was very difficult and sorrowful, but then her ability to face forward and to try to nonetheless embrace life as she dashed into the water and splashed around.”
“I think that will always remain with me; that we as human beings run the gamut,” Longmire continued. “And that is both our gift and our burden; [it] is to be a human being in the midst of that very, very complex world. And she modeled that. She modeled this pioneering advocacy for women and for marginalized persons in general, and I think that's also the abiding inspiration ... She was this icon of justice, but she was also a delightful human being.”
Longmire was inspired not only by the wisdom Ginsburg shared with her during their three weeks together, but by the way she lived.
“One of the things that she really wanted to do was to go on a boat excursion to escape to some of the other islands,” Longmire said. Ginsburg had heard from her dear friend, Justice Antonin Scalia, who had been there the summer before, that it was one of the highlights of his trip.
“When he had been there, an Italian organization, because he was an eminent Italian American, had hosted him and had provided this very beautiful yacht to take him around. So, she wanted to do the same,” Longmire explained.
Longmire was then faced with the challenge of securing a boat fit for a Supreme Court justice.
“We managed to find the boat and then our party of eight again ... set off on our little day excursion off the Bay of Naples, and it was absolutely glorious.”
“It was also just such a joy to see her for a few moments, for a few hours, sit down these huge responsibilities that she had on her tiny shoulders,” Longmire said.
“What was really interesting though, was at one point she climbed up onto the bow of the boat ... And that's the image, I think, that I'll always remember of her; sort of leading the way, pointing forward through these troubled waters ... Almost a kind of solitary, elegant figure pointing to the future.”
Ginsburg left behind a much larger legacy than just her court rulings, and it was clear to Longmire after these few but intimate weeks that the weight Ginsburg carried was a testament to her selflessness. Yet through her troubles and well-deserved notoriety, her character shone with brilliant grace as she modeled what it truly means to be an extraordinary woman, an extraordinary person.
