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President's Message
Citizen Lawyer
Privilege Begets Obligation
Maybe individual lawyers can't change the world or achieve world peace,
but we can use our professional training to achieve justice for one more
human being today.
by Gary L. Bakke ![Gary Bakke]()
Wisconsin lawyers are privileged people. By accident of birth we are
privileged to live and work in one of the most comfortable states of the
most comfortable country in the most comfortable generation in the history
of the world. In the million years of human existence, only a miniscule
fraction of our brethren have enjoyed the nutrition, health, safety, freedom,
and knowledge that we take for granted. What I have described so far applies
to most of our citizens, not only lawyers. But as lawyers, we are among
the privileged of the privileged.
For many of us a part of that privilege is that we make our living dealing
with the everyday problems of everyday people. We struggle with everyday
pro bono decisions, burgeoning accounts receivable, and clients with limited
understanding of the legal system. In return, we are rewarded with the
knowledge that we make a real difference in the lives of real people every
day. The opportunity to witness and assist in the daily struggles of others
is a constant reminder to us of how fortunate we really are.
We live in a meritocracy. Our society allocates a disproportionate quantum
of nutrition, health, safety, and sometimes freedom to the brightest and
most able of our citizens. We have all grown up with the understanding
that this is the natural way of things – that the opposite, socialism,
was an abject failure with its economic theory of "from each according
to his ability and to each according to his need." I didn't question our
meritocracy until I started to worry about the future of my special needs
son who may never successfully do kindergarten work. Does he deserve less
health care, less food, poorer housing, and less security because his
Brazilian mother abused alcohol during her pregnancy? Why? Your client
with an IQ of 90 deserves only 10 percent of the good life enjoyed
by you with your IQ of 130? The neighbor who had neither the cultural
expectation nor the money to attend college, much less graduate school,
deserves less health care? People who live in homeless shelters,
get their clothing at Goodwill, and receive groceries at the food shelves
deserve their plight, right?
Neither you nor I can change the world, but we can do our part. As citizens
of this wonderful state, we have a special obligation. As lawyers, we
have a special opportunity to contribute to society with our professional
training. The next time a pro bono opportunity presents itself, think
about the privilege that you enjoy and share a morsel with one in need.
Welcome the opportunities to enhance diversity, assist the disabled, and
promote justice to those in need. It's not an obligation; it's a privilege
that will make your life richer.
In closing, let me relate a story that I found at the end of a remarkable
little book entitled Synchronicity.1The author relates an event where the audience had just viewed a home
video about Auschwitz created by a Holocaust survivor. In spite of the
author's experience, the video was one of love and hope. At the end of
the video, an image appeared of two birds sitting on a bare branch and
the following message was printed:
"'Tell me the weight of a snowflake,' a coal-mouse asked a wild dove.
"'Nothing more than nothing,' was the answer.
"'In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,' the coal-mouse
said. 'I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began
to snow – not heavily, not in a raging blizzard – no, just like in a
dream, without a wound and without any violence. Since I did not have
anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs
and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the
3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing you say
– the branch broke off.'
"Having said that the coal-mouse flew away.
"The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about
the story for awhile, and finally said to herself, 'Perhaps there is
only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world.'"
...
1 Jospeh Jaworski, Synchronicity,
San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996. The author is the
son of Leon Jaworski, the Nixon impeachment prosecutor.
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