Reflection, Gratitude, and Anticipation

Friday, June 25, 2004 is my last day as a Legal Services paralegal. Later this summer, I will begin my next challenge as a law student at Temple University, Beasley School of Law.

Since I began this term of service on February 5, 2001 (minus a four-month hiatus in early 2003 for a trip to visit family in Costa Rica), I have met with 1700 clients. That is 1700 low-income, economically-disadvantaged men and women of Philadelphia. They come from all backgrounds: Americans of African or European or Asian or Latino descent; immigrants from all parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Although the great majority spoke English (or perhaps the Philadelphia version of it), I used interpreters to communicate with other clients in French, Creole, Amharic, Arabic, Vietnamese, Polish, Russian, Thai, and other languages. I even met with a couple of deaf clients who needed a Sign interpreter to communicate.

Through my position at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA), I was able to directly experience the beauty of our country: the diversity of languages, cultures, ethnicities, and even different Philadelphia neighborhoods, and all the pride that comes along with each of those "ingredients." If we lined up all of my clients, we would see a reflection of the polychromatic world we live in, made up of men and women each striving for a better life for themselves and their children.

Many times, people focus so much on another's socioeconomic status that they jump to automatic conclusions about the values and personality of the other person. That error in logic applies in both directions, as much from low-income to upper-income as from upper-income to low-income. Aside from my primary professional responsibility to give quality legal advice and assistance, it was this human tendency to judge others that I intended to combat through daily direct interaction with the low-income people of Philadelphia. How often does a poor man or poor woman of Latino or African-American descent (those two demographics are the majority of the clients that come to our office) meet for a one-on-one conversation in a closed room with a "white, tie-wearing guy from the suburbs" (all political correctness and my actual background aside)?

There are two themes that guided my work, and will continue to guide me through life, regardless of time, place or surroundings. Each one can be embodied in a quote.

First, throughout my term at PLA I kept a quote posted on the file folder on top of my desk; the printed quote was easily in view during interviews with clients, and I would sometimes take advantage of that by glancing at it during an interview. The quote is from Ernesto "Che" Guevara: "Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality."

The second quote is something I read just yesterday evening, but it applies to the work we do at PLA: "[...] for this little boy whom you have met, his life is just as important, to him, as your life is to you. No matter how insufficient or how shabby it may seem to some, it is the only one he has [...]". This quote comes from Amazing Grace: Children's Lives and the Conscience of a Nation, by Jonathan Kozol.

The two themes embodied in those quotes, and which I hope I have emulated in my work, are those of love and respect.

For those reading this who are not familiar, the work we do at Legal Services is very important work. In fact, without it, the premise upon which the United States of America was founded simply does not exist in reality. That premise is justice, and the equal access to justice. Justice is what sets this country apart from the many corrupt governments of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Justice is what sets this country apart from the plutocracies in many parts of the Middle East. Justice based on 'the rights of man' (as Thomas Paine so passionately wrote) is what makes this country so special.

Our objective at Legal Services is not one of correcting the misfortune of poverty, nor is it one of providing charity to those who do not have. Our work, and the work of any true public servant, is not a matter of misfortune or charity, but is one of working actively against injustice.

Working in the trenches of family law, injustice appears on a microcosmic, case-by-case basis; for example, an unjust relationship based on the power and control of domestic violence, or the injustice of a parent not providing child support for a child born into an already unfortunate socioeconomic environment, or the injustice of a parent denying a child contact with that child's other parent purely due to the spite and resentment of a failed relationship.

In addition to providing legal assistance, I tried to infuse clients with the two themes of love and respect to prevent a civil war of emotions between (or sometimes within) parents, between whom was caught a child or children. Although many clients are already conscious of this, I hope that my method provided a positive example.

I will provide individual gratitude in a direct, more personal environment on my last day at PLA, but be assured that I have the deepest gratitude to everyone there. For now, I will offer individual thanks to my mother and my father, without whose example and love I would not be who I am today.

I end with two final quotes: "My lawyer is a rebel, a revolutionary who is alienated fundamentally from the status quo, probably with as great an intensity, conviction, and irretrievability as I am alienated from it -- and probably with more intelligence, compassion, and humanity" (Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice). My only qualification of this quote is that I do not intend to be alienated from the reality of life and the world we live in. Instead, replace "alienated fundamentally from the status quo" with "opposed fundamentally to the injustices of the status quo." I will consider myself successful if my clients use this quote one day to describe me.

Finally, any reference to revolution is only meant in the literal sense of 'turning over' a new example and form of human interaction; a revolution in the social sense, as people interact with each other in society, regardless of whether in a professional or an informal setting. This definition, and this hope for a better future, is easily summed up in a quote by someone who also began his career as a lawyer: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world": Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Thank you.

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Saw the Y100 Feztival, featuring Beastie Boys as headliner, at the Tweeter Center, Camden for $35.50.