E D I T O R ’ S
M E S S A G E
E d C o m e y - L a w C l e r k t o U. S . B a n k r u p t c y Ju d g e M i c h a e l G. Wi l l i a m s o n
Doing Our Part to Preserve Democracy
What do you call 120 lawyers volunteering for Law Week and more
than 165 volunteering for Read to Dream? A good start.
I
don’t know about you, but I can’t stand lawyer
jokes. It’s not because I don’t have a sense of
humor. I do. In fact, that’s why I don’t like them.
They’re never funny or clever, certainly not as
funny or clever as the amateur comedians telling
them think they are. Perhaps my least favorite is this one:
“What do you call 5,000 lawyers at the bottom of the
ocean? A good start!”
I thought about that joke over the Fourth of July
weekend. Bear with me while I try to connect the two.
As I was making Fourth of July plans, it occurred to me
that I don’t do a good
enough job of instilling in
my daughters an apprecia -
tion for the freedoms that
we enjoy. So I thought
about how I could explain
to a three-year-old and
five-year-old the role
various people have played
in gaining and securing
our freedom.
Of course, any discus -
sion has to start with the
founding fathers. And then
there are the brave men
and women who have
served in our military. In fact, I originally set out to write
this Editor’s Message about how the freedom we enjoy
today has been paid for with the blood and sacrifice of
those who have served and continue to serve in our armed
forces. Although it’s something I’ve written about —
though inartfully — in past issues, it can’t be stated enough.
But what about lawyers?
Lawyers probably aren’t going to make your Top 10 list
of people to remember on the Fourth of July. Hear me
out, though. As I was doing the final edits of the Lawyer,
I read John Kynes’ Executive Director’s Message, where
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he reported on the success of the HCBA’s Law Week.
More than 120 HCBA lawyers volunteered to educate more
than 3,900 elementary school students about this year’s
theme — “The Fourteenth Amendment: Transforming
American Democracy.”
In our last issue, Tiffany Love McElheran, in writing
more fully about Law Week’s success, quoted Franklin D.
Roosevelt on the importance of democracy and the role
education plays in safeguarding it:
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express
their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real
safeguard of democracy,
therefore, is education.”
The
idea
that
education is the real
safeguard of democracy
was on my mind when I
read Kevin McLaughlin’s
outgoing
President’s
Message on the success
of the Read to Dream
initiative.
More
than
165
lawyers volunteered more
than 200 hours reading
to at-risk elementary
school students. As Kevin
notes, studies show children who read regularly go on to
become more productive citizens. It occurred to me that
by helping kids learn to read and become more productive
citizens, our HCBA lawyers are doing their part to
preserve the freedom and democracy we celebrate every
Fourth of July.
So I’ve come up with my own variation on the joke I
detest. It’s not funny. But it does have the benefit of being
true: What do you call 120 lawyers volunteering for Law
Week and more than 165 volunteering for Read to
Dream? A good start.