(NOTE: This is a repost of a previous post that was half published. This will contain the entire post)
I'm not a very introspective person. All my adult life has been consumed in my work, whether it was teaching or lawyering, and in my family. But with the advent of conditions beyond our control, I find myself in the uncomfortable process of evaluating the past and regarding the present with an eye on life's influences, which inevitably brings me to Ulysses.
Art is in the eye and mind of the beholder. If you've ever gone to an art gallery, read a book, or listened to a song and thought, "Wow, that speaks to my heart, that explains and defines my life," then you know what I mean. Ulysses is that art for me.
So enamored was I with Ulysses that when I taught history, economics, and political science, I would at least twice a year slip in some Tennyson. Sometimes more than twice a year. I used to think that I bored the hell out of the students until one day, clearly out of nowhere, a former student of mine told me that she had read the poem and really enjoyed it.
I guess I was a full service teacher, imparting value whenever I could.
Art means different things during different parts of our lives. So it is with Ulysses. For example, take the famous refrain, "Come, my friends, 'T is not too late to seek a newer world." To someone in their twenties it may sound like a rallying cry to upset the established order, to someone of more advanced years it may sound like a call to try one last time to make the world a little better than you found it.
I am now at the stage of my life when the last lines of the poem really speak to me. When I wrote my book, I was focused on the information contained therein, and the message I wanted to send. Clearly this wasn't the best book ever written, and it could definitely have used a good editor. But after four re-writes over three years, I couldn't bear to spend another year trying to get the book published via traditional means. Thus, the book was self-published.
However, since it came out at the end of June, and some people have read it (thank you), I started to think about my motivation for writing the book. Was it personal in settling scores, was it more an intellectual exercise, or was it the coda of my life? I think I've figured some of it out and would like to share it with you, and perhaps this will explain motives in writing this book. And as always, I look to Tennyson:
We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven,
Ahhh, our glorious youth when all things were possible. But in my advanced years, I for one am definitely not of that strength. However, some of the values formed during my youth do endure to this day.
When I was younger, I learned that if you didn't stand for something, there was a hole in your soul. I came of age during a convulsive time in our history. There was a choosing of sides, and conscience had to literally be your guide. Issues of race, war, poverty, gender equality, and the environment forced a choosing. There was a real division between those who resisted the status quo and advocated change, and those who resisted change and were fine with the status quo.
From that time to this, I tried to live the principles mandated by my conscience. Sometimes I found myself getting into real trouble, but as John Lewis would say I was in “good trouble.” Advocating for and trying to make change isn’t easy. My experience is no different than those experiences of tens of thousands of others who worked change.
The longer you live the more you learn. You learn at a deep and fundamental level about the structural injustices that exist in our own communities. You learn that too many of our neighbors live each day with the possibility that some random event will demolish the fragile structures of their lives. I have written that for the underserved and marginalized among us, life is a daily battle for survival. Each day people live with the various and very real insecurities that too often define their lives: insecurities in housing, food, family stability, income, health, education, and employment to name just a few.
These are not abstract concepts. They are the reality that millions live with each minute of each hour of each day. When I was in private practice, I met people grappling with these problems. Out of that experience came two concepts: no individual or organization could create the social, economic, and legal changes need by everyone afflicted by these insecurities; and accepting the truth of the first concept, then no one organization would be able to meet the legal needs of 12% to 30% of Rhode Island’s population, but at least it could meet the needs of as many Rhode Islanders as it could.
Thus was born the Rhode Island Center For Law And Public Policy, Inc.
that which we are, we are;
RICLAPP was founded on one principle – to help as many of those individuals and families in need as we could. I envisioned a network of community partners to help create efficiencies that we otherwise not have had. And with greater efficiencies, the more people we could help.
I was lucky to have had many able and capable professionals to assist me in RICLAPP, and so many community partners to create the efficiencies I envisioned.
However, we shared many of the insecurities that our clients lived with. We were constantly confronting issues of funding and external threats. These threats were on-going for the nine years of our existence. We were small and vulnerable, but we continued to provide services necessary to so many.
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
If there are any heroic hearts in this story, they belong to those who served our clients, each day, with great energy and passion. To a person they knew the condition of RICLAPP and to a person stayed as long as possible. The work they did for little or no money and without complaint speaks well of their character and humanity. They are true heroes.
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
Life’s events tend to grind each of us down. I am no different, however I retain the strong will to do what I can for as long as I can. The same could be said for those who worked with me and are now pursuing careers in various areas of public interest law and those in private practice who allow me to prevail on them from time to time. Their will to serve others and their communities remains strong,
As does mine. Occasionally a former RICLAPP client will contact me with an issue and I try to help as best I can. I have found working with other small non-profits with their missions to be rewarding. There remains much to do…
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I believe each of us has an obligation, to whatever extent possible, to help others in need. None of us knows if some random event will intrude on our lives. If that happens, we will look to others in our communities for help.
That’s why I formed RICLAPP, to help those in need. But the need continues and grows with each passing year. I believe that aside from some abstract awareness of the issues of poverty, unmet needs, and the fragile lives too many of us live, we don’t know much about these realities and their legal impacts.
We assume that we live in a just society. That’s true for some of us but not all of us, and in a pluralistic democratic society that is unacceptable. I wrote this book, started this blog, and around the first of the year will begin a podcast to raise awareness and, hopefully, motivate some to action.
And that’s why I pledge to devote any proceeds derived from the sale of this book, every penny, to financially struggling non-profit legal service organizations.
I could use a little help. Purchasing this book is a great way to help those helping others…
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