Let me get something out of the way first. I am happy that he is no longer on the Supreme Court. I am happy that he will not further drag this country back into a hellish age. I am sad that it is another thing for the Republicans to obstruct President Obama about and further damage the system of politics that has served this country for 240 years or so. I am happy that amongst the public, the thing he will probably best be known for is predicting the first steps in an avalanche of equal rights for all, and has been quoted by judges in that way.
So don’t expect me to be donning sackcloth and ashes here, wailing about how we lost a judicial titan here. Pfeh. Just typing that gives me the heebie jeebies. I am no fan of Anton Scalia the jurist, the judge or the person.
But I still think of those who truly cared for him, and I feel sad for them. To them, Mr. Scalia was not the most hated man on the Supreme Court. But he had nine children, and 28 grandchildren, and a large extended family. Today, they’ve lost one of the most important people in their world, and I feel sad for them.
Maybe it’s sappy of me. Maybe losing my mother after an eighteen year battle with lung cancer in December and in the process of probably losing my grandmother at the age of 90 has changed me. I do not wish anyone dead. I DO wish they were not in power and that their ability to harm the country was eliminated, but the only people I could ever wish death on are people like Osama Bin Laden and the like, the truly EVIL. (please, I know I’m going to get hatemail saying that Scalia is capital E evil. I just disagree).
One of the things that struck me most about reading stories about Mr. Scalia is that one of his best friends in judicial circles was Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The two had common interests and had dinner together every New Year’s Eve. Maybe that’s something.. if two people with that much difference in views could find common ground, maybe there’s some hope for the rest of us in at least partially closing the great partisan gap between us.
So, in short, I feel sad for his friends and family, the people who knew him not as the judicial hatemonger we view him as, but Dad, Grandpa and a friend. I offer them my thoughts, prayers, and condolences.