Ginsburg honored at candlelight vigil in Capaha Park

Kendra Eads, executive director of SEMO Network Against Sexual Violence (NASV), is clear about the impact the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had on her life.

Ginsburg died Friday at age 87 from pancreatic cancer after more than 27 years on the nation’s highest court.

“Because of (Ginsburg’s) work for gender equality,” Eads said, “I was able to establish my own financial independence (and) didn’t need a husband or my father to sign the mortgage in order to buy my own home.”

Eads said that thanks in part to efforts by Ginsburg, nominated for the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, women were no longer seen in law as “dependents or protected property.”

Eads was the lead speaker Sunday at a candlelight vigil attended by two dozen people at Cape Girardeau’s Freedom Corner in Capaha Park.

Southeast Missouri State University English instructor Andrew Dodson said he attended “to gather with like-minded people (in order to) bask in the glow of an amazing American.”

Fellow Southeast faculty member Sandra Cox said Ginsburg “used her voice to make real change.”

Flowers and tea candles surround a poster with an illustration of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during a candlelight vigil in Bader's memory Sunday at Freedom Corner in Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Cox compared Ginsburg — referred to by the popular moniker RBG — to the Old Testament judge Deborah.

“Like the ancient Israelites, we (too) have lost our wise judge,” said Cox, making note of Ginsburg’s reported wish not to be replaced on the court until the 2021 inauguration.

“(Ginsburg) showed us there was no ceiling for (women’s) professional achievements,” she added.

Aaron Lerma with Planned Parenthood told the gathering Ginsburg was a “fierce advocate who took the fight to her deathbed.”

Lerma said he admired the way Ginsburg exercised her public platform.

“(Ginsburg) used privilege and influence in an attempt to do good (and) understood true justice was not punitive nor retaliatory but restorative,” he added.

“Behind every successful woman is RBG,” said Eads, adding, “We can’t allow Senate Republicans to push through her replacement.”