Sandra Day O'Connor
delivered 12 June 2004, National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Now the only way to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.
We must delight in each other; make others' conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body.
The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people.
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.
So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.
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I had a law school professor, Jerry Sloane, who always used to say: "It's all the same case." It's true: it's all the same case.
Jeffrey Orchinik, Esq. had Sloane at Temple Law School. He thought Sloane's observation was ridiculous.
Mr. Orchinik, one of the features of creative people is that they state only partial truths.
My observations about Justice O'Connor elsewhere on this blog:
http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-day-in-court-psychoanalytic.html
Governor Winthrop sailed to the new world on The Arabella.
Arabella is also the name of one of my favorite operas by Strauss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPi4RbMtQXc
Oddly enough, I heard the opera Arabella for the first time on the radio in the spring of 1982 when I was studying for exams in my final semester of law school.
Bob Strauss's father ran a dry-goods store, rubbing along as best he could.
"Have you any idea, then, what kind of people we are? We don't rank very high in the worldly scale. We rub along, as best we can, I'm afraid, like somewhat dubious characters." --Arabella
John Winthrop (12 January 1587/8 – 26 March 1649) was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years of existence. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" dominated New England colonial development, influencing the government and religion of neighboring colonies.
The city of Jerusalem was originally built around the Gihon Spring, on the southeastern hill to the south (left) of the Temple Mount, which is today crowned with the gold-domed Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem has been continuously inhabited since at least 3000 B.C., but it was only in the time of Solomon that the city limits expanded beyond the southeastern spur, known today as the "City of David."
The City of David was very narrow; about 80-100m wide. The east side has a steep slope of about 60 degrees. Though smaller, steeper and more difficult for construction than the Western Hill, the City of David was chosen because of its water source, the Gihon Spring. The Kidron Valley borders the city on its east side.
Excerpt from President Reagan's funeral. President Clinton is at 3:36 on the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yda2wajC0U
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