My life has gotten very small and I'm not happy about that. I used to know some farmers and got to hear them talk about their lives and now I don't know any.

I have very few friends who live in small towns. I know plenty of writers, lawyers, teachers, performers,

and nobody who earns a living as a carpenter, plumber, electrician. And so far as I know, none of my friends

are Republicans. I used to have some, but they died or became independence. And I miss

their points of view. This struck home when I read a story about Sandra Day O'Connor who died recently.

I listened to an interview she gave the New York Times in 2008 on condition it be released

only after her death.

And it's a memento of republicanism

as it once was in which the country needs now, a party of civility and pragmatism and patriotism.

Sandra Day O'Connor grew up on a primitive Arizona ranch far from town, loved the life,

went away to Stanford, found a vocation in the law back when the idea of women lawyers was rather novel.

She worked on the law review with a classmate, married him, had three children, practiced law on the side, got into

Republican politics, became a judge, and in 1981, President Reagan appointed her to the Supreme

Court, the first woman justice he had promised to appoint a woman during the 1980 campaign

which helped him beat Jimmy Carter.

It's wonderful hearing her at age 78 talking cheerfully about her life.

As a young woman she was hired by the Arizona Attorney General

who assigned her to work at the State Mental Hospital. To do what? she whatever they need he said so she went about organizing a legal

aid clinic for the mentally ill, a simple, necessary good.

Big law firms weren't hiring women lawyers

for fear of what clients might think, so she started her own.

As Chief Justice Roberts said, she broke down barriers for women in the legal profession to the betterment of that profession and the

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