"RBG RIP" was the headline that I had originally planned for this post on the passing of a supreme American jurist. I (wisely) decided it would be irrelevant and disrespectful. No clever wordplay is necessary. Justice Ginsburg was a fighter for the constitution and she struggled through adversity to sit on the Court when the nation needed her most. For this, every single American should be exceedingly grateful to her. I am! Enough, in fact, to cast aside my stupid headline.
Of course, I am not alone in my sadness. Take the formerly (just outed by Gothamist) anonymous street artist and guerrilla designer Adrian Wilson (@plannedalism). His tribute to RBG may not still be up in the morning yet as the lifespan of monuments is decreasing in the United States, his act of civil disobedience must be applauded and savored. May it remain for a long while. Justice Ginsburg you are missed now and forever.
Not only is this act considered vandalism of public property and subject to fines and arrest, it requires skill and forethought that only our collective respect for RBG could trigger so speedily and with such expert handling.
plannedalism found the perfect location, and changed the subway mosaic from "50th St." to "Ruth St." Within 24 hours of the announcement of her passing, the sign was up.
Although I never met her, I had somewhere around 12 degrees of separation with RBG. My first cousin, Gillian E. Metzger, a law professor and faculty co-director of the Center for Constitutional Governance at Columbia Law School, of whom I am very proud, was one of Ginsburg's Supreme Court clerks, a rather important appointment in American jurisprudence circles. She and a legal colleague wrote their remembrance of Justice Ginsburg in yesterday's New York Times. I urge you to read it here.