Three Cheers for Sotomayor
Judge Sonia Sotomayor and I can never forget the mutual experiences we endured as children of the Bronx and fans of the New York Yankees. We both grew up in modest circumstances, the difference being she was blessed with dedicated parents who were inspirational models. I was raised in three foster homes because I inherited divided parents, both the children of immigrants, who fled from each other and me during the Great Depression.
Two and a half decades may have separated our adolescent years, but I'd bet that the Yankees were our subliminal favorites because they were winners at a time when too many of us were surrounded by losers. The Judge will be remembered by many for her decision, ending the seven and half months old strike of major league baseball in 1994. I grew up loving baseball after Lou Gehrig picked me up at home plate, an autograph-seeker, and took me into the dugout in Yankee Stadium in 1937.
But I'm sure it was the poverty of hard times that propelled Judge Sotomayor and me to seek better lives. My youthful years occurred when anti-Semitism was rampant in New York. For the first time I sensed humiliation when one of my foster mothers escorted me to a relief agency where used clothes were thrown in my face. The Judge, I'm sure, experienced the pain of discrimination because she was a Hispanic which went with being considered lower class. Eventually, she sought her way out and up through the law. My path was by way of journalism. Her values were honed through 17 years on the bench. Mine evolved, listening to Edward R. Murrow reporting from the rooftops of London and then meeting him on the border dividing Burma and China; even later, interviewing four honorees of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Somehow, as I watched the first day of confirmation hearings on Judge Sotomayor to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the opinions expressed by the seven aging white men composing the minority of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee deliberately ignored the issue of what is expected of a sitting judge. We can anticipate little difference when the full body of the Senate votes in the weeks to come.
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I am so embarrassed for my country listening to these pompous windbags questioning Ms. Sotomayor. Anti-woman? Anti-Latina? Anti everything. So humiliating.
Can someone please clarify that Cardinal Spellman HS is not in the South Bronx. While Judge Sotomayor grew up in the South Bronx, Spellman HS is in the Baychester section of the Bronx. I live right down the road, so I know.
Right down the street.
Your triumph over a hard childhood is a great story - and it gives you the authority to comment on a life like Sotomayors. Wishing you well on the Huffpost. You will bring a special wisdom to it.
Nice post. Good read.
Perhaps the two of you can look into the theft of Federal park land for the construction of the new Yankee Stadium.
A woman has to be twice as good as a man. A latino has to be twice as good as a white.
She's worked hard to be four times as good as the guys she'll be working with.
I think you are right on all three accounts.
Smile, though your heart is breaking
Smile, the GOP is faking
SMILE SMILE SMILE!
Congratulations Ms. Sotomeyor, you have conducted yourself with class, grace, and poise. :)
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