My City, Twice A Year

Chicago, right before the autumnal equinox (Thanks, Tom Skilling). Doesn't it look peaceful and radiant, yet terrifying at the same time?

The Not-So-Bad Place

OK folks, we're now entering what I call the not-so-bad place. It's the place I go (namely, here) to find little distractions from having to write boring ass briefs. Boring ass motions to dismiss boring claims for boring breach of contract and other boring, boring stuff. Nights like this make me laugh when I see pictures as the one I saw this morning on the el, where Kaplan advertises. The picture is of a racially ambiguous, diligent-looking young woman (wearing glasses, of course -- "She is NOT a sexual object! I repeat, NOT a sexual object!!") poring over law books next to a sculpture of the scales of justice and rows and rows of official-looking, embossed statute and case books in her professional black suit. Under the picture, a caption, "Make your dreams of a legal career come true." HA! Of course, under the picture sat a disheveled man who appeared to be in his early to mid-forties but was probably actually in his mid-thirties and had prematurely aged due to his career and what not. The man was wearing a rumpled shirt and dress pants and shoes, and was fast asleep. Given the hour, his attire, and his legal attache-like briefcase, I can only guess he is an overworked attorney for some small to midsize insurance firm doing endless amounts of dull, rote work. I wish I had a camera (and talent to capture the image).

This should not be mistaken for complaining; despite my bitching I rather enjoy the career I have chosen. I just find images like that, as well as TV crime-dramas depicting attractive young men and women giving opening statements, running their own cases, and having exciting sex lives, amusing.

And YES, I am writing about this shallow subject to avoid writing about more philosophically or intellectually challenging subjects for fear of exposure. Of course, there is also John Roberts, Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War, 2006 congressional campaigns, life, death, and love to write about. Here's my mantra -- I will write about it later!

Is This America?

I don't know if it's because I recently walked through the Garden District and French Quarter, rode the trolley down Canal Street, and enjoyed the beautiful city of New Orleans, but this tragedy has affected me deeply. Perhaps most remarkable to me is the extent to which a single event can unravel the fabric of society. "Baffling" and "remarkable" do not capture the reports of dead bodies, riots, looting, murder, starvation, death, rape, and utter despair from this formerly prominent city in the United States. How can this happen in America? Among other things, it is most evident that those who are suffering the most are poor and black. This event has brought to the surface what already occurs in this country each day -- that the poorest suffer the most, that many of those poor are black, and sympathy and compassion for the abjectly poor do not come as freely as they would for the rich. Could it be that we truly care less for people who are poor, for people who are black, that we value their lives less? This ugly truth is being revealed as I hear talk of what happened there. "Those people should have just left when they were told to leave." "How can they live in a city that could be destroyed by a hurricane that easily? Why are those people looting, how can they be so lawless?" Would we blame them for these things if they were rich and white? Would it have turned out the same way if the victims were rich and white? I don't know the answer to these questions.

What I do know is that we as a country need to wake up to this -- we are not immune from tragedy, and we are not unbeatable. For now, I hope those things that make us great -- our generosity, our innovation, our ability to survive -- allow us to get through this. I will reserve comment on the inaction of our fearless leader. It seems his biggest concern is what has happened to the oil and energy industry down there.

My heart goes out to New Orleans, and to Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf coast.