Two newsworthy events occurred last week that brought a full range of responses by the public. The death of David Koch and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s recurrent cancer hit the news, and an inordinate amount of the responses I viewed were disturbing. The lack of kindness and sensitivity in our country is astounding.
Mr. Koch was one of the richest men in the United States, and he put his money where his mouth was, financing political campaigns and issues to such an extent that he turned the tide of many campaigns and legislative policies. Once the Supreme Court lifted the lid on corporate contributions, Mr. Koch led the pack in persuasive political advertising. But he didn’t act alone in this regard. Many rich folks funneled millions of dollars into politics, on all sides of the political aisle. Because he was the poster child for money in politics, his other spending was overlooked. Mr. Koch also gave millions of dollars to charities, funding the arts, and funding cancer research, education, and hospitals. He was very generous, and while his detractors would have it that all of his generosity be forsaken for his entirely legal (sanctioned by the United States Supreme Court) funding of political causes he believed in, his family shouldn’t be disqualified from receiving the most basic of human kindness in their grief. I don’t like the no-holds-barred money in politics either, but responsibility for campaign finance reform rests squarely with the legislative branch of government, not private citizens like Mr. Koch.
Justice Ginsburg and her family are receiving the same backlash as Mr. Koch’s family; folks seem to be cheering her health crisis as the gateway for an additional conservative justice to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Well, she’s still alive and grace would have it that the public shouldn’t count its chickens before they hatch. While I don’t agree with many of the legal opinions proffered by Justice Ginsburg, I admire her moxie. She is tough as nails, and she has blazed more legal trails for women lawyers than most any jurist before her. No one should doubt her resolve; I’d bet money she will die on the bench versus quit the court. But cheering her illness as some sort of positive turn of events is abhorrent. Whether you appreciate her for the woman she is or not, no one should applaud her cancer recurrence.
Perhaps the best advice my mother gave me is it is better to say nothing when the proposed contribution is in poor taste or, worse, hurtful. How I wish those who find glee in others sorrow took the same advice.
Tammi Fisher is an attorney and former mayor of Kalispell.