LA Fridays with Bob and Tom: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

LA Fridays with Bob and Tom

Week 15.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

This week we visit the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, LA, to view the Notorious RBG: The Life & Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The exhibit is based upon the N.Y.Times bestselling book of the same name, created in partnership with the book’s co-authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik.

Through archival photographs and documents, contemporary art, media stations, and playful interactives, the exhibition tells the parallel stories of RBG’s remarkable career and the efforts she exerted to expand, “We the People”, to include those long left out of the Constitution’s promises. Woven throughout the exhibition are briefs and other writings by RBG including some of her most famously searing dissents.  Ginsburg’s legal efforts to have the law accept equality between men and women for equal pay, educational opportunity, and control over their own body, reminds me of the legal efforts of Thurgood Marshall on behalf of Afro Americans for equal rights in education and voting rights.  Ginsburg and Marshall, two Supreme Court Justices that give us hope in troubling times.

Bob and I encourage everyone to see the RBG exhibition which runs until March 10th, open from noon to five, with plenty of free parking.

 

 

lafridayswithbobandtom@gmail.com

 

ROBERT BLAUNSTEIN, PhD BIO

 

Robert (Bob) is a PhD physicist whose career has spanned academia, government and private industry. As a faculty member of the Department of Physics at the University of Tennessee, a Branch Chief at the United States Department of Energy and Vice President of an American International Group Company, his scientific endeavors include radiation physics, environmental research, environmental insurance and nanotechnology.

Originally from the East Coast, Bob was seduced by his sons and their families (and the California weather) to leave Washington, DC after retiring in 2010. While recovering from culture shock, Bob found many outlets to reconcile his eclectic interests. As a member of Senior Scholars for over six years he continues to take courses in a myriad of subjects ranging from film to art history to brain science and finds great intellectual and social rewards in Senior Scholars and the Plato Society.

As a latent artist, he sketches scenes about town once a week with an artist friend from his college days and is attempting to learn to play the electric guitar.

On moving to Los Angeles, he found Tom Jacobson, another recent transplant. They became great friends and decided to explore their new town together leading to over 113 sites in our city. Dubbed “LA Fridays with Bob and Tom” they are happy to share their experiences with others.

Bob lives in Brentwood with Phyllis, his wife of 56 years, an education policy executive. They have two sons and four grandchildren, one of whom plays a guitar a lot better than Bob.

 

THOMAS JACOBSON BIO

 

Thomas (Tom) is an attorney who practiced trial and constitutional law in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in 1938 in Bamberg Germany, he was one of the youngest passengers on the ill-fated voyage of the Damned, the SS St. Louis, turned away from Cuba in 1939.

Tom represented local civil rights activists and Dick Gregory and twice argued cases successfully in the United States Supreme Court. In 1970 he was the Democratic candidate for Wisconsin Attorney General.

Retiring in 2008, he and wife, Peggy, moved to California to join their two sons and four grandchildren, and enjoy the warm weather.

Tom has kept busy as a member of Senior Scholars and Plato for the last six years keeping his brain stimulated and active. Yoga and swimming have kept his body in shape.