Morning Edition; Monica Murnang

It's morning edition on KRPS. The country was rocked Friday evening by the news that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died at the age of 87. Within minutes of the announcement of her passing, reactions flooded social media. This morning, we hear from two influential women in Kansas and Missouri about Ginsburg's death and legacy. Next hour, we'll hear from executive director of Southwest Missouri Democrats, Christa Stark, about how she will remember Ginsburg. This hour, District 3 Kansas State Representative Monica Mournand about Ginsburg's legacy and how she will remember the late Supreme Court Justice. I spoke with Representative Mournand on Saturday morning, but when you heard about the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last night, how did you find out and what's the first thing that went through your mind? I was actually appearing to Kansas City with our oldest daughter and her family and she read it online and it just took a moment. You know, even though everybody kind of recognized this could happen. This is a historic moment for the passing of a historic woman and interestingly enough,

our grandkids have a picture of her in their hallway that talks about different women throughout history, kind of a poster, and underneath her picture it says descent. And I think that is what she will be known for, that how descent plays into our world of democracy. And as somebody that is in politics herself, not that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, but you know, she'll be remembered for the stances that she took politically and of course on the bench as a woman involved in this world. What did she mean for women like yourself to take sometimes unpopular views and sometimes to be a target of things? Sure, while I have no closeness in being able to ever say I did the most significant things like she did. I have had experience where I am the only woman in the room, even now, even at 54

years old. I am now a million women in the room sometimes and I am oftentimes struck at how we have come a long way in equal opportunities for all, but we somehow have a long way to go, especially when it comes to pay. I still see on a regular basis, even in education, how the pay disparities are in place, still when it comes to paying women versus men. And of course, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that was one of her big things that she helped us so belong. And where we would be without her is just quite frightening, but we have to remember we have a long way to go. I believe she was a trailblazer, a fighter for equal opportunity for all, and I hope that if I can just do a little bit of that, that would be a life well spent. Looking back on her career, I was watching some of the coverage last night on the cable news channels.

Looking back on her career in life, is there something that you're going to remember her for, maybe one or two things that when you think of her name and you think about her career in the Supreme Court in, before the Supreme Court also, that when you think about her passing and her life that are going to come to mind. Lily Ledbetter, you know, that whole framing of how we have structural things in place that keep certain types of people back or down and that we fight so hard to keep those things in place. And I think when I think of, when I think of her, I think of the Lily Ledbetter case and how that little things like saying, tell the right people, or this or that, how we do that every day in our society to keep folks down. I feel like she pushed us along and I think she'll always be remembered for that.

The second thing that I believe that will always come to mind when I think about her was, which she have ever been on the Supreme Court, graduated from school, get a big corporate. She's experienced discrimination herself, which led her down the path, which led her to what an interesting twist of a life. And I think that while we oftentimes politicize things, we really should look at the individual actions and judge a person based on those individual actions which make up a whole. And I think there's a lot of people today who are thinking through her individual actions and hopefully that'll turn them and me to take more individual action. District three, state representative Monica Mernan, I want to thank you for your time this morning. Sure thing.