On The Passing Of RBG: "First, We Mourn. Then, We Fight."

"I’ve Lived Through Wildfires Before. Nothing Compares To This" ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( September 20, 2020 Dear Cog reader, “She changed the way the world is for American women,” Nina Totenberg [wrote]( of her dear friend, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Cog will have more in the coming days, but our first offering is from [Eileen McNamara]( "[T]he time to mourn the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be short and, sadly, the battle to replace her will display none of the grace and dignity that characterized her life’s work and her 27-year tenure on the high court," she writes. We thank you, RBG. For everything. Next up, a story that features one of the most painful things the pandemic has taken from us: our ability to say a final farewell to people we love. Such was the case with Marta Hanson’s grandmother, Harriet Pederson, who died recently at 100 years old. “She lived a state away, behind layers of pandemic precautions. Too risky, too far,” Marta begins her [essay](. But that’s only the half of it. Marta is in graduate school in Boston. Earlier in the pandemic, she moved home to Oregon, where wildfires are now raging. (It turns out Marta’s great-grandmother, a hardy Minnesotan, survived wildfires and a pandemic 100 years ago.) Her postcard from the West Coast is just the sort of essay we love to publish at [Cognoscenti](. It’s a thought-provoking, personal look at a big, important news story. We agonize over good headlines around here -- and Marta’s unicorn of a piece challenged our ability to synthesize. It’s about grief and COVID-19 and wildfires and resilience. [Just read it](. You won’t be sorry. Also this week: Boston Mayor Marty Walsh condemns a federal plan to [double the cost of naturalization fees]( $725 to $1,200), Miles Howard takes on [Zoom dating]( (he kind of likes it) and doctors Abraar Karan and Ranu Dhillon critique “[easy-to-remember but easy-to-misinterpret]( public health guidance (six feet of distance). We hope you're staying safe. -- Cloe Axelson and Frannie Carr Toth Editors, Cognoscenti newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url[First, We Mourn. Then, We Fight]( Her death, at 87, will, of course, ignite a political firestorm about who gets to nominate her successor. But, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was more than a chess piece in the electoral politics of this nation, writes Eileen McNamara. [Read more](   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [US Citizenship Isn’t Only For People Who Can Afford It]( The new and higher fees would make citizenship a privilege only for those who can afford it and impossible for the millions who cannot, writes Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. [Read more](. [I’ve Lived Through Wildfires Before, But Nothing Compares To This: A Letter From The West Coast]( One hundred years ago, in the midst of another global pandemic, Marta Hanson's great-grandmother lived through a Minnesota wildfire that scorched 250,000 acres and displaced 50,000 people. Hanson wonders what her great-grandmother might say to her now. [Read more](  Support the news ['Shall We Take This To Video?': Why Zoom Dates Aren't So Bad]( I loathed the idea of dating over Zoom, writes Miles Howard. But the prospect of going into 2021 and regressing into a puddle of Thoreau-esque solitude and celibacy was unthinkable. [Read more](. ['Always Humble, Always Committed': Remembering SJC Chief Justice Ralph Gants]( There was so much more he wanted to do, writes Radha Natarajan, head of the New England Innocence Project. [Read more](. [Running The Boston Marathon This Year Meant Training Through Twin Pandemics. It Was Worth Every Step]( Running while the nation struggled felt at times frivolous, writes Dianna Bell. But it was also one of the only things that made sense to me. [Read more](. What We're Reading "Policymakers, having left America unprepared for what’s next, now face brutal choices about which communities to save — often at exorbitant costs — and which to sacrifice. Their decisions will almost inevitably make the nation more divided, with those worst off relegated to a nightmare future in which they are left to fend for themselves. Nor will these disruptions wait for the worst environmental changes to occur. The wave begins when individual perception of risk starts to shift, when the environmental threat reaches past the least fortunate and rattles the physical and financial security of broader, wealthier parts of the population. It begins when even places like California’s suburbs are no longer safe. It has already begun." (“[How Climate Migration Will Reshape America]( The New York Times) "The institution I am part of, the media, is also being tested. The press isn’t the only part of America’s institutional crisis. But it’s an important part of the predicament we are in, and of the hope for getting out." ("[The Media Learned Nothing From 2016]( The Atlantic) "Every day is Blursday now." (“[It’s Been Six Months. Our Sense Of Time Is Still Broken]( The Washington Post) "We are facing something far larger: a desperate, life-or-death fight to rebuild, reimagine, reform (and in some cases raze) enormous apparatuses, including our criminal justice, electoral, health-care, and education systems, labor and capitalism, education, housing, the courts themselves, and, most urgently, the health of our planet." ("[It Shouldn't Have Come Down To Her]( The Cut) “ Resilience doesn’t mean bouncing back to normal. It means being transformed toward a new normal. — Ellen H. O'Donnell, "[What Resilience During The Pandemic Really Means]( ICYMI [How Can America Reckon With Racism, If There Are No Facts?]( The devastating irony of the present moment is that for all of our near-limitless access to knowledge, the truth  is not merely inaccessible, but perpetually transformed into an up-for-grabs commodity, writes Jason Clemence.       If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news [WBUR]( [WBUR]  [WBUR]( [95289b97-66e8-43d4-a174-3bc3520a79a9.png]( [Instagram](  [Twitter]( [Facebook]( Want to change how you receive these emails? 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