Inaugural Post

Welcome to my blog “...and not to yield." Given that it's part of my site in support of my book "Access To Justice On The Outskirts Of Hope" I think I need to address how both titles came about.

The book had its genesis in a law review that I wrote and was published in the CUNY Law Review in 2016 entitled "Working On The Outskirts Of Hope." As the President of the Rhode Island Center For Law And Public Policy (RICLAPP), I was invited to submit an article detailing the operations of RICLAPP and the challenges it faced. By the nature of the platform, the article had to be brief and its brevity caused it to be somewhat incomplete.

After RICLAPP closed at the end of 2016, I found that I had an opportunity to reflect on the past nine years of operations, reflect on its successes, and confront our ultimate kmfailure to obtain the funds to continue. More importantly, I was able to reflect on why I started RICLAPP and the milieu in which we operated. So I started to write these thoughts down, which led to a more complete exposition of why a privately funded non-profit legal services organization (LSO) was necessary and the success it could have meeting the needs of traditionally underserved people.

Next thing I knew, I had hundreds of pages and thought, "hey, this could make a book!" I showed the book to a few people who gave me important feedback and rewrote, and then rewrote again, and rewrote one more time for good measure. After that I did numerous edits, and more edits, and after third edit realized that I could always tinker around the edges of the book but in the end I said what I had to say. It was time to publish...

There are basically three ways to publish: one, the traditional way with an agent hawking the book to various publishers who then have more control over the content and economics than I liked; two, I could pay to have it published by an "independent" publisher often described as a vanity publisher and I wasn't going to pay for publishing my own work so that idea didn't exactly thrill me; and three, Amazon's Kindle Direct Publisher - Select would permit uploading the work and publishing it on its site. It was something more immediate than the other alternatives so that's the route I went. Plus the royalties tended to be more favorable than the other alternatives, something that is important to me.

While we're on the topic of royalties, let me explain that I am accepting no money for this. Instead, all royalties will be distributed to other LSOs in need of a boost, assuming that my book earns enough money to boost anything. I detail why I do this in Chapter 1 of Volume I so you'll need to purchase the book to discover why I'm giving away the fruits of my labor.

In any event, if you've gotten to this blog, you'll have already read about the book by now. I won't go into any more detail than that save to say that while a reader might not consider the book to be great literary art, it is informative on so many levels, particularly in discussing the reasons for and challenges of those living on the outskirts of hope is accessing justice in our courts and how the law has permitted this denial of true justice to millions of Americans.

The name of this blog, and eventual podcast is ...and not to yield. Most who have taken an English lit class or watched the last James Bond movie know that this title is taken from the last lines of Tennyson's Ulysses. The poem, itself a cop from Homer's Odyssey (about the rollicking adventures of Odysseus and later appropriated by the Romans as Ulysses), tells of Ulysses, who after decades of ruling his small kingdom longs for new adventures. The poem alludes to previous adventures but is really an exhortation to his followers to follow him one more time. Evidently pushing back against those hesitant souls who think themselves too old to take on new adventures and discover new things, or are just too comfortable with their lives, Ulysses tries to rally them with the cry, "Come come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world." Ulysses is clearly not content with the status quo.

Ulysses is also not content with old age. He tells his friends, "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!" Later after he romanticizes past glories and the prospect of new discoveries, he says, "Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done,..."

As I've gotten older, Ulysses has become increasingly relevant. While old age has its honour, some work of noble note may yet be done. Which brings me to the point of this blog and my book. For much of my life I have attempted to influence events to effect change and progress. Actions and perseverance, often in the face of fierce resistance, is vital to bring about change and progress. History is all about progress, from the kings of the middle-ages through the establishment of true democratic institutions, from living in caves to great scientific and engineering feats, the progress of humankind is inexorable. But this progress comes at a price in time, treasure, and often a lifetime of devotion.

I have some years on me which is why Ulysses impacts me. In the end, we all have some noble act we can perform and I hope the book, this blog, and the soon-to-be podcast will be mine. In these time, with so many people in need, with our institutions under attack from within and outside, with facts decried as fiction, we get lost in the miasma of the day and forget what we can do to assist our families, friends and neighbors.

So while I recognize that I am not now what I once was, I hope I still posses that equal temper of heroic heart to continue to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. I guess we'll find out together.