O'Connor weeps

I guess Chief Justice William Rehnquist's recent funeral was largely unremarkable from a news standpoint, littered as it was with a litany of the usual suspects. But at the end of the day, one poignant image stood out among the rest: a close-up of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gazing through tears at Rehnquist's casket. The caption simply read, "O'Connor weeps."\nAt first, I was angry with the photographers. I mean, seeing O'Connor cry was like seeing my mom cry; anyone with any decency would look away to let her grieve in peace.\nBut when I read the line again -- "O'Connor weeps" -- the words took on a greater meaning for me. This was no bleeding heart, no crowd-pleasing politician who could turn on an emotional dime and cry on command for the press-corps cameras. This was Justice O'Connor, the reigning matriarch of American jurisprudence, the very quintessence of dignity. And she was weeping.\nHer white hair was wispy and wind-swept, her puffy eyes brimming with silent tears. And as she clutched her handkerchief to her mouth, I realized why she was crying. Rehnquist had been her colleague for 24 years and her friend for half a century. She had lost something special. And I couldn't help but feel that maybe we all had.\nI was born Dec. 5, 1980, when Jimmy Carter was still president and Warren Burger was still chief justice of the United States.\nBut my earliest memories of a president are of Ronald Reagan, and my earliest memories of the Supreme Court are of Justice O'Connor. Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings ruled the evening news, and Johnny Carson was the king of late-night. The only pope was John Paul II, and the only chief justice was William H. Rehnquist.\nNow, in a span of less than two years' time, they're all gone in one way or another. Rehnquist is just the latest in a long parade of giants of my boyhood who have retired or passed away. And regardless of whether I agreed with them or not, they've left the world emptier by their leaving.\nThis is the end of the 1980s, just as surely as John Lennon's murder Dec. 8, 1980, was the end of the 1960s. And I guess I'm more humbled by that thought than saddened, as I realize that our generation will soon come into its own as an heir to a great legacy.\nTo quote Winston Churchill, for most of us, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."\nFor O'Connor, the end is a great deal closer. She served America well for 24 years as its first female Supreme Court justice, and she has much to celebrate and be proud of. But that can't have made it any easier for her to say goodbye to the Court she loves and an extraordinary chief justice and friend.\nSo for one moment, while the world looked on, balancing humanity with grace, O'Connor wept.