Missing Sandra O'Connor, the pragmatic voice

Speaker 10s - 434.26s

My life has gotten very small, and I'm not happy about that. I used to know some farmers and got to hear them talk about their lives, and now I don't know any. I have very few friends who live in small towns. I know plenty of writers, lawyers, teachers, performers, and nobody who earns a living as a carpenter, plumber, electrician. And so far as I know, none of my friends are Republicans NORP. I used to have some, but they died or became independence, and I miss their points of view.This struck home when I read a story about Sandra Day O'Connor PERSON, who died recently, I listened to an interview she gave the New York Times in 2008 on condition it be released only after her death, and it's a memental of republicanism as it once was, and which the country needs now, a party of civility and pragmatism and patriotism. Sandra Day O'Connor grew up on a primitive Arizona ranch, far from town, loved the life, went away to Stanford ORG, found her vocation in the law, back when the idea of women lawyers was rather novel. She worked on the law review with a classmate, married him, had three children, practiced law on the side, gotinto Republican politics, became a judge, and in 1981, President Reagan PERSON appointed her to the Supreme Court, the first woman justice. He had promised to appoint a woman during the 1980 campaign, which helped him beat Jimmy Carter PERSON. It's wonderful hearing her at age 78, talking cheerfully about her life. As a young woman, she was hired by the Arizona GPE Attorney General who assignedher to work at the state mental hospital. To do what, she said. Whatever they need, he said. So, she went about organizing a legal aid clinic for the mentally ill, a simple, necessary good. Big law firms weren't hiring women lawyers for fear of what clients might think, so she started her own. As Chief Justice Robert PERSON said, she broke down barriers for women in the legal profession to the betterment of that profession and the country as a whole. She was a mid-level state judge when Reagan PERSON appointed her. She thought he liked thefact that she'd grown up on a ranch, and off to Washington GPE she went. She was a conservative, but a pragmatist at heart, a problem solver. And as the court shifted ideologically, she held her ground and cast deciding votes on some historic cases. As you hear her talk about her life and work, you note that there is no resentment, no anger, bombasticity, not a trace. The reporter asks how she felt when decisions were overturned for which she had writtena majority opinion, and she says, well, how would you feel? That's as angry as she gets. I had Republican NORP aunts like her. I missed them. When her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she took care of him. In the early days of my husband's illness, I often took him to court with me because he could not be left alone, she said.She stepped down from the court to care for him as his condition deteriorated. He wound up in a care center deep into Alzheimer's, and there, forgetting that he had a wife, he fell in love with another woman, and Justice O'Connor visited the two of them, holding hands in love, he no longer recognizing her, and she was glad to see him happy. This is pragmatism of a very high order. I read fundraising mail from progressives about empowering all voices from diverse backgroundsand identities to create spaces of healing and inspire a sense of authentic belonging in our journey toward equity, diversity, and inclusivity, eliminating oppression and developing effective tools for social justice. And, oh, my God, do I miss hearing farmers talk about the weather, my aunts, talking about my grandfather, driving a team of horses, pulling a cultivator, holding the reins in one hand and a book in the other.I'm in love with a pragmatic woman myself, thank goodness, who snorts aloud at the phrase creates spaces of healing and effective tools for social justice, but who feels at home in a hardware store and can deal with bureaucracy on the phone. I attend a church with two women rectors. I go to a woman dentist and a woman neurologist. I have a niece aiming to be an architect, friends' daughters and granddaughters taking their places in lawand medicine and academia. Most of them leaning leftwards, but nonetheless they owe a debt to plain-spoken Republicans like Justice Sandra Day O'Connor PERSON. We are all poorer without her.

Speaker 0435.24s - 451.56s

Cheerfulness. It's a simple virtue that can turn the tide in gloomy times. It's also the title of Garrison Keeler's PERSON new book. Funny, thought-provoking, whimsical. It's an uplifting read and a great gift. Cheerfulness. Check it out at garrison keeler.com ORG.