EXTREME guitarist Nuno Bettencourt has paid tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday (September 18) due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer. She was 87.
On Sunday (September 20), Nuno took to his Instagram to write: “NOTORIOUS RBG
“It is a sad day knowing we won’t have you along with your leadership, insight, intelect, bravery and common sense with us on a planet that needs women and men like you more than ever.
“I had fantasized and hoped that you we’re going to be our first woman president.
“I loved that you fearlessly fought for equality for women. But EQUALITY for all was the goal. That’s why the first quote and photo of you I posted is the one that resonates so hard in my heart and mind.
“‘Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.’
“As simple as that may sound and read, I fear that currently in our society and in the issues that are dividing this country, the common sense in this quote is the single most important piece that is missing in movements that are supposedly pushing towards equality.
“As important as these movements are and we want to join arm in arm with our countrymen and women, Instead of inspiring leadership fueled by unifying words, actions and solutions to pull us together in great numbers, movements are being driven by blame, guilt and hate towards anyone who look the same or have the same occupation as the guilty, Instead of holding actual individuals responsible.
“It’s the same barbaric beliefs that have poisoned our past for 100’s of years. Now taking any past progress and dividing us even further.
“Any current feelings of hope and unity, quickly and dangerously, turn to feelings of resentment towards each other, worse, resentment towards groups that was never there to begin with.
“It’s easier to fuel a fire than it is to put it out.
“Extremists will always start the fires. And they, along with the media and the trending Socials, lead us to believe that the country as a whole are like them.
“They are not who I’m worried about. It’s the majority who will decide what to do with this bad information that scares me.
“Will we jump on a trending bandwagon and buy into it. Or will we do our own individual research and seek out actual FACTS That these days seem to have been replaced by OPINION.
“Choose a side or find common ground and work together towards realistic resolutions?
“Ruth?”
Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School, going on to become a staunch courtroom advocate for the fair treatment of women and working with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. She was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980 and appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
The justice, who sat on the bench for 27 years, was the second woman confirmed to the top court.
Supreme Court justices serve for life or until they choose to retire, and supporters have expressed concern that a more conservative judge might replace her while President Donald Trump, a Republican, remains in office.
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he will hold a vote on Trump‘s nominee to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Ginsburg on the Supreme Court despite the fact that, in the days before she died, Ginsburg reportedly told her granddaughter that it was her wish that she not be replaced before Inauguration Day.
“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Ginsburg reportedly said.
McConnell blocked former President Obama‘s Supreme Court pick from receiving a confirmation hearing after Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, the year of the last presidential election. At the time, he and other GOP lawmakers maintained that a Supreme Court vacancy should not be filled the same year as a presidential race.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nuno (@nunobettencourtofficial) on Sep 19, 2020 at 8:43pm PDT
