By John J. Trause
In John Trause’s A Conversation Between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Darth Vader, a great judge and an intergalactic villain discuss women’s rights and terrestrial laws. See it performed live on Sun. Dec. 20 as part of the Boog Poets Theater event at Welcome to Boog City 14 Arts Festival. Go to https://twitter.com/boogcity, https://www.facebook.com/groups/115605743040, or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGD_RIKdy7P9fdpIugMgoLg/live.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Dissents speak to a future age.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman’s equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: I would not like to be the only woman on the court.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is not like I have gone crazy, I just don’t want to take any chances. You never know what could happen.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is not women’s liberation, it is women’s and men’s liberation.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.
Darth Vader: No, I am your father.
The End
A Conversation Between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Darth Vader was originally published in longer form in John Trause’s book Exercises in High Treason (New York : great weather for MEDIA).
——————————
JOHN J. TRAUSE, director of Oradell Public Library and author of six books of poetry and one of parody, Latter-Day Litany, the latter staged Off Broadway, has participated in the Boog City Poets Theater Festival and other Boog City events on and off since 2012. He is a founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative (Rutherford, N.J.) and former host/curator of its reading series.