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<div class="column"><p class="">She Holds These Truths
</p><p class="">Throngs of mourners gather below the<br class="">
forty-four steps that ascend to a portico encircled by
Corinthian columns, each of the sixteen a reminder
of the beauty and dignity of this place<br class="">
where Justice lies in repose before the Great Hall.
</p><p class="">Gazing upward they see “Equal Justice Under Law”
etched over the doors that open to the high court
and what once was her seat, now shrouded in black
her opinions in majority and dissent echoing
through the lives and livelihoods of we the people.
</p><p class="">She battled the patriarchs of bias and bigotry<br class="">
with the sword of reason and the power of words to
wage a quiet revolution and reform a nation<br class="">
called to uphold freedom’s guarantee of<br class="">
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
</p><p class="">They come to be near so bright a star<br class="">
her light cast across the lives of<br class="">
women, young and old, who know what<br class="">
she has given to fight for the rights and
responsibilities that liberty, not time, guarantees.
</p><p class="">Gratitude and grief resound throughout
a country dying for a more perfect union
the sanctity of the Constitution in peril,
perhaps lost without the notorious one<br class="">
a servant of the law and her oath.
</p><p class="">When the crowds return home and the<br class="">
last candle is extinguished, the verses<br class="">
of Amazing Grace withered by the wind
generations to come will hear the whisper
of a Justice’s voice that once set them free.
</p><p class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- L.L. Stamps </p>
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