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Tag Archives: law
ART THERAPY& Haiku
A LETTER TO US ALL
Dear Us:
Did you ever hear of the Golden Rule? “Treat others as you would be treated.” When asked which of the ten commandments Moses shared with the Israelites was the most important, Jesus advised questioners to “Love others as I have loved you.” In the 60s, even non-believers of any religion, or of even the existent of God, followed the precept “Lead with your heart.” “Flower children” believed in love, for everyone, at all times. And those were turbulent times. We watched freedom riders maimed and killed, their busses set on fire, their murdered bodies hidden and buried in shallow graves. We watched the perpetrators of violence go free; the Citizen Councils ( marketing change for KKK) often included law enforcement and local judges. This is the America currently referred to when Trump supporters urge us all to “Make America Great Again.” They no longer wear white robes nor hide their faces. They wear red ties, dark suits and sometimes red hats.They pretend to be news anchors on FOX News and elsewhere. They pretend to be president like Elon Musk. The delivery system of hate may have changed; the racism and sexism have not. We are experiencing a backlash to the progress made over the past 50 years. It took 50 years for it to grow this strong.
I was a resident student advisor (RA) at Lincoln Tower on the OSU campus in Columbus, Ohio in the late sixties and early 70s. I was also a student activist. I had to become one because I believed in the Golden Rule. I watched Black students, Jewish students and women students derided and demeaned. I was privy to racist commentary because white students assumed they could say them to my white face with my full agreement. White men also felt safe making sexist comments to me despite the fact I was a woman. As an Italian-American I was sometimes mistaken for Jewish and heard my share of anti-semitic remarks. Much of the time such hate-talk was passed off as a joke. Whenever I heard the joke I stopped the speaker and explained nothing they said was funny, nor factual. I demanded such language never be used while in my presence. Those who just joined in to feel safe in the crowd became serious and apologized. The bullies did not apologize. But they shut up. “Stand up to shut them up” became part of every day life on campus. That is activism at its core.
I had a few empty suites on my floor due to an on-going criminal investigation. A mentally ill student was on trial for arson, having set fire in a suite the year before. Once the case was resolved, those suites were re-opened and spaces filled, as were other vacancies on my floor. Who moved in to those spaces? Black women looking for a safe space. Some had repeatedly been locked out of their rooms by white roommates. Several had threatening notes nailed to their door; threats to rape or kill them because they were Black. Most were ostracized and demeaned daily by white roommates. Their complaint to Student Affairs fell on deaf ears. When the spaces opened on my floor, they found refuge there.
Our dorm was typical for OSU where Black students made up a tiny percentage of the student population. My floor was unique. I held floor meetings to discuss expectations that we would all follow the Golden Rule. When I saw or heard of a racial incident I immediately intervened. Soon, I was doing racial mediation on a regular basis. Black women entered the elevator and experienced white women moving close to the emergency call button, with hand hovering, ready to cry for help from women just like themselves returning exhausted from a day of classes ? Time for mediation! Call everyone together and talk it through. Day after day. Incident after incident. It was exhausting for the Black women, and the Black men who visited them, to face daily racial challenges and outright discrimination.
Another RA and two students worked with me to develop a racial mediation program in our dorm. Whenever the Student Judicial Council was handed a case involving a white student and a Black student in dispute, it was handed off to us to mediate the conflict. Our efforts were not always welcomed, but we persisted. Incidents of violence, write-ups to judiciary, and racial conflict decreased. Today, this program would be outlawed by the President who gleefully extorts OSU by threatening loss of education grants and federal funds for programs and research. OSU has caved to the bullies. OSU is not standing up to shut up the racism. It would cost money. And money is god in America, and on college campuses.
OSU is caving to racists and bullies again. And, not just OSU. Columbia University, indeed nearly all colleges and universities, if not all, are caving to racist bullies under the guise of following the law, accepting the lawless and illegal actions of the current administration. Following the law would require universities to protect the free speech rights of faculty and students, to abide by employment contracts and civil service laws to protect both administrative employees and faculty. Universities with law schools had readily-available experts to stand up, speak out and take action. I was an Associate Director of Law at Ohio University. There is a national organization of such attorneys. Why are they so silent? Why have university presidents and provosts not joined arms to defend their campuses against illegal searches and seizures of students? Why did Columbia University not come to the aid of Mahmoud Khalil and his family? If they did so in any way, it was neither apparent nor sufficient.
The Poster Boy President leading the racist mob of greedy Americans spoke at the DOJ recently. His racist and personal attacks on lawyers, prosecutors and judges, was accepted and even cheered. Racism and greed cross all boundaries and sexual preferences, exist within every profession, religion and community group. It is a constant and persistent threat to the principles of democracy. Those whose racism had been laid low, who crawled under rocks to hide their sins, have crawled back out, empowered by the greed for wealth and power, threatened by those they spurn who have finally found success on a more equal path, and undermined by their own sense of failure despite the promise of an American Dream. Instead of blaming the greedy power-brokers of industry, banking and finance, politics and education they blame their fellow victims. Their racism blinds them to truth, and they willingly embrace false-hoods and disinformation. They would not recognize a fact if it stared them in the face. They would prefer to attack the fact and the experts offering the truth of the fact.
As a lawyer, as an educator, as a writer, I am heart-broken over the loss of my country, my Constitution and its guarantees of personal freedom for all persons who are in this country…no matter where they came from, or how they got here. That is the promise of America. That is the American Dream. Shopping for cheap goods because your existence only matters if those power-brokers can make a buck off you cannot fill the place freedom once filled within the American heart and psyche. Woke? Woke is what is required to survive the on-slaught against a free people who simply want to find a good-paying job, buy a house, feed and educate their family. The power-brokers want us to stay asleep. Like children, we are angels in our sleep, causing them no discomfort, and quietly staying out of their way as they take over our economy, our government institutions, our military, our banking system, our educational systems and local/public schools…even our post office!
Wake up, my fellow lawyers, my fellow professors, my fellow school teachers, my fellow social workers, my fellow counselors, my fellow retail workers, my fellow waitresses and caterers, my fellow babysitters, my fellow students, my fellow Catholics and people of faith, my fellow Americans. Wake up and stay woke! We have work to do, if we can stay awake to do it loudly and persistently. This is no time to lie down and feign sleep. God knows, none of us sleep well theses days.
Filed under COMMENTARY, FAMILY STORIES, POLITICS
FREEDOM HAIKU
A collective grief
has settled over the land.
Only time can heal.
We may never know
nor fully understand why
our freedom must go.
We must be the heart
of miracles yet to be.
And bring freedom back.
It is ours to seize
from its darkest journey and
bring it back to light.
Courage is our friend.
Struggles are not the end, but
A new beginning.
And just like that, friends,
the weight of grief rises up.
Grief comes to an end.
I yearn to see you
happily and truly free,
breathing liberty.
CRIMINALITY PLUS
Those who voted “Trump”
are jail-breakers, criminals
in their sad way, too.
TEAR DOWN THE WALLS
Let me tell you. Being a woman who is fully human is not a given. It is always a hard-won position. Too many dismiss women as not fully human. Women and their ideas are called “empty-headed.” Women are called “weak-willed.” Women are called “frail.” Men are are not thought to brainless or empty-headed. Men are not thought to lack willpower. Men are not expected to be weak. There are stronger and more respectful words for men. I am all for respecting men. I only ask for the same in return. I do not always get that respect. Even if I had remained in my hometown, married a “nice Italian-Catholic boy” which was my parents’ most fervent hope, I would not have been able to avoid such disrespect. But, I might have had a man to come to my defense. More likely, not. Men know how to avoid a fight. Their lives depend on reconciliation to bullies. Male aggression can be a fierce and unpredictable experience; especially, by men with gangs behind them.
Bullies come in all guises. They are not just “street toughs” with cigarette packs stored in the rolled-up sleeves of their tee shirts, tatooed sleeves exposed in warning messages as in my childhood neighborhood. Boys and girls both learned to give them a wide berth. Bullies also exist in board rooms, school rooms, and court rooms.
I did not stay and be a well-behaved little girl all my life. I became a lawyer. I entered courtrooms where early-on I was usually the only woman to make an appearance on a client’s behalf that day. Maya Wiley, spoke of her experience as a lawyer yesterday, in an appearance on MSNBC. Ms. Wiley carries two strikes against her. She is not only female; but, like former Prosecutor and Attorney General of California Kamala Harris, she is a woman of color. She is Black. She lives in a world where the unspoken message is, “If you are Black, step back.” This is the silent message in the brain of too many Americans. I am a white woman. Yet, I find some empathy in our positions as a female.
Ms. Wiley mentioned episodes in her practice of law as a federal district attorney which matched my own experience. The judge, despite her presence at the Justice department table ready to plead her case, pretended not to know she was an attorney. The judge dismissed her entire identity in that moment. He cut her. She bled. She still bleeds.
On several occasions early in my career I made an appearance on behalf of a client. I sat with other attorneys, all men, in the courtroom waiting for my case to be called. It was called and I approached the Bench. “Good morning, your Honor, I am Louise Annarino, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society. This is my client…the plaintiff in the case before you today.” Standard introduction. Not a standard response from the judge, however. Instead he said with a smirk toward my opposing counsel, a man, “Young lady, you cannot just waltz in here without a lawyer. Come back after you get one. Next!”
Holding back my anger at his attempt to shame and dismiss me…and my female client…from “his” courtroom, I answer, “ Your Honor, I am an attorney. I am representing this woman who is my client. Let me repeat for you that I am a lawyer from the Legal Aid Society.” He responded,
“And, I told you you must be a lawyer to represent this client.” By this time my client leaned in and whispered to me, “I thought you were a lawyer!” I could barely hear her over the laughter of the male attorneys seated behind me awaiting their cases to be called. The judge laughed with them. I did not. I said, “Perhaps you are not listening to me, or are hard of hearing. I shall give you the befit of the doubt.” I am a licensed attorney in the state of Ohio and I am not going anywhere.” He heard my case. My client had her successful day in court. We both bled that day.
I returned to the office and told my colleagues what had happened. A woman attorney said, “Oh my, I forgot to warn you, we women always carry our license with us and lay them on the bench before we start.” I took my license off the wall and put it into my briefcase. I wish I could say that was the only episode, but it was not. Not every judge, nor every attorney cut me. But, I still bled. I bleed writing this account. All women bleed. We have become experts at stanching the flow. Right now, you are thinking of jokes about our menses ever month. Stop it! Those bleeds bring new life into the world. We honor those bleeds. We do not honor the dishonor of men cutting us down to size where we can be ignored as not fully human, not fully equal; cut and bled.
Kamala Harris was interviewed my Mika Byrezezinski at a Know Your Value Conference in San Francisco describing what it was like to face barriers of discrimination and break down walls. She said, “‘When you break things, it is painful. You get cut, and you bleed, and it will be worth it — But be very clear. It will be and can be a very painful process.’ Kamala Harris knows this. Maya Wiley knows this. I know this. Every woman who breaks down barriers knows this. Women break down barriers every day…int their homes, at their businesses, in boardrooms, in school rooms; and yes, in courtrooms. They break down barriers in friendship relationships, in love relationships, in business relationships. We still do not have an ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). Why do men need barriers from women? We love them. We respect them. We honor them. It is time for them to do the same. And to those women, too afraid to break down such barriers, we get it. We know the position you are in. We bleed for you, too.
We say to all people, as Reagan said to Khrushev, “Tear down this wall” so that none of us need bleed ever again. Vote for Kamala Harris in November. We need each other. We need each other healthy, whole and safe.
Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
THE LIGHT WE REFUSE TO SEE
I used to believe Truth lived in the shadows.
If only we could shine enough light,
then Truth would be set free
for all to see.
There are those who prefer we stay in the dark,
it is true. They fear the Light will open our eyes.
It is no longer so easy to darken the streets
upon which we set our feet
hoping to reach a place of greater liberty.
Truth speeds around the world
from one shadowed place to the next.
Through media Truth moves at the speed of light.
Truth seekers use facts to light our way
along the path to a new day,
one where Light holds sway.
The darkness can no longer hide Truth in shadow.
Those who live in the dark side of life
create new truths able to live in false Light.
In their constant retelling of lies
Truth simply dies in plain sight.
The battle between the Light and the Dark,
between Truth and Lies
is now exposed in MAGA prose
stealing the limelight with false praise
for oligarchs, autocrats and murderers
whose only goal is to control
the flow of wealth into their own pockets
while those who work to be whole
starve and struggle at their feet.
Those forced to flee and seek amnesty as refugees
would add their story to our own
brightening the Truth we already know.
The telling would not surprise the homeless
who walk our own streets.
The homeless, like Truth, used to hide in shadow.
We try to keep them there so we cannot see
the borders they have crossed.
Truth and Light and Love are all apiece.
Without Love we are blind and refuse to seeTruth.
There is no Light strong enough to overcome
deliberate blindness cushioned by lies.
We allow them in boardrooms, newsrooms,
hearing rooms and even, courtrooms.
“Speak Truth to Power,” isn’t that what we say?
When Power seizes the Light with falsehood
can we not see that False Light
can never be allowed to hold sway?
True Light is always more powerful than false.
Liars know this and ban books, and oppose
all who stand alight within Truth’s glow.
This is the one thing I still know.
Filed under POETRY
LOVE ‘EM OR HATE ‘EM
I have seen this hate before. I could not understand it then.I do not understand it now. When my mother lay dying it became clear to me that the only measure of a life is the ability to love. A body shriveled by cancer’s reach into every cell, wracked by pain, realizing death is near holds onto love, not life. Death’s grip is too fierce to break. But, the only thing death cannot destroy is love. I saw it in my dying mother’s eyes, reflected in my own. That love binds us still. It always will. So, no, I do not understand the need to hold onto hate when love is so much stronger. Love reveals our strength to us; hate, our weakness. Love displays our courage; hate, our cowardice. So, no, I do not understand hate.
As child of Italian immigrants, growing up in the 1950’s, in a neighborhood populated by two German immigrant families, dozens of Italian immigrants and a few Irish immigrants, I learned my place. Venturing too far away from the four block area adjacent to the railroad tracks we inhabited brought me to the Appalachian whites nearby, who could not afford to live anywhere else, so had to live near the despised and hated immigrants. Our Catholicism, a commonality of each immigrant group, did not endear us to “Americani”, either. We learned to ignore their taunts and sneers, threats and minor assaults with whatever weapon they wielded…a switch from a shrub, a golf ball, a pitched badminton racket, a rock. We were careful to avoid the “hoods” carrying switch blades. Skinned knees caused while running to escape and falling, split lips or bruises were not uncommon. To be clear, not all of those “Americani” participated in bully tactics; but, too few fully embraced us, and none defended us. I have seen this hate before. I have felt this hate before.
My parents explained that hate is not universal. Only cowards and ignorant fools cling to hate. Most people know how to love. Thus, we were admonished to never hate anyone. Stay strong. Show love no matter what. Be brave. Never start a fight; but, never run from one. Stand up to bullies. They are weak, fearful cowards and will back down. Hate is not endemic to white people, nor to any group. But, within every group there are cowards…bold, brassy, loud and stupid cowards. We held our ground at the playground. We ignored the jokes and jibes. We ducked the projectiles. We moved forward when told to get back, staring with fierce determination to continue to swing, to play ball, to run races. We seldom allowed hate to stop our games and ruin our fun. I learned to withhold my smirk when I saw the bully fall back and slink away. I learned to love despite the hate directed my way. I invited the bully to stay and play. Some did. Thus, we broke the force that would have driven us away from enjoying our childhood. We grew strong, fearless and full of hope for better days.
The recent anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought back these childhood memories. When the announcement of his death came over our PA system every class adjourned to the chapel at our Catholic high school. We prayed the rosary together. We prayed for comfort, peace and love in our country. Then, we were sent home to grieve with our families. I gathered my books, not knowing what to expect next, and when school might resume. Across the street was a public junior high school. As I walked by on my way home, clad in my school uniform identifying me as a Catholic, one by one, several public school students shouted at me, “We finally killed him!” “He got what was coming to all you filthy Catholics !” “ This is what happens to Catholics who don’t know their place.” I remember these taunts and all the others. They are tattooed on my heart and on my brain. I even can feel the look of confusion on my puckered brow, wondering how these young kids could hold so much hate for their own president, and for me, a total stranger who had done them no harm. How could they so dishonor the wonderful country we shared, and its democratic principles. No one is more aware of or more grateful for American principles than immigrants are. These long-time inhabitants seemed not to recognize such values at all.
That was then. This is now. Ignorant people still cling to their hate. But the indifference to the haters, the lack of comment rebuking haters which I expected but sadly never heard led to this day. Now, hate is fueled by the right wing of the Republican Party, and not condemned by its members. Worse, its chosen presidential candidate, whose first election succeeded because of, if not regardless of, his hate-spewed speech and hate-filled acts toward people of color, women and non-Christians is further encouraged to continue hate-filled policies and practices which will kill our democracy as surely as it killed Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy. I have seen this hate before. I did understand it then. I do not understand it now.
I always knew I became a lawyer to stand in the way of those who blocked programs, policies and practices which honor diversity and seek justice for all. I would be in position where such efforts could be implemented and enforced. Only now, do I understand it was my armor to protect that child in me who still believes that good can prevail once we are willing to stand up to bullies; whether that bully is a landlord, bank, or company. The law is the bulwark against hate and harm, against greed and abuse of power. Now, I watch my beloved Law and its Courts undermined by those bullies by Republicans in state legislatures and the U.S.Congress, by Republican governors and secretaries of state and states attorneys general who support a bully as their fund-raising cheer-leader to cover their own dark deeds. The alternatives are not to choose between two evils; but, to choose good over evil. To choose love over hate. I watch the silent white supremacists alongside them allow them free rein. People of Color, Native Americans, immigrants have always known the Law favored the wealthy and powerful, majority of them white men. Now, we all recognize the system that has been in place for so long. As a nation we are reaping what we allowed to be sown. I still do not understand the hate that has allowed this to go on for so long. But, I will still fight such hate with love; until my dying breath…then beyond.
I know how to survive bullies. I am not worried for myself. I watch my country try to survive the bullies, those they eat dinner with at their private clubs who are shocked by what they see…what the oppressed have always seen. Yet, they stay silent or act entertained. Or worse yet, they choose to ignore what they have not wanted to notice. It is my countrymen whom I hope will uphold its constitution, its citizens I hope will stand up to bullies and vote them out of office before it is too late. The power of bullies’ wealth can be overcome by our numbers, if we vote. That is a big if. Mobilize, register, transport and assist voters to the polls. Write Letters to the Editors. Speak out on social media to friends and family. Meet your neighbors and recruit their support for the efforts it will take to stay the course of a democratic republic. I do not understand the hate. I never will. It does not matter. What matters is I will not allow hate to rule my country, nor anyone in it. I choose love, a love embodied in a country which puts no man above the law, and believes all men are created equal, with unalienable rights. I took an oath to uphold the constitution. I took an oath to love.
Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
COLOR BLIND JUSTICE
A loose grip is also confining;
its implied threat still real.
Shackles are not needed
to confine the body and the soul.
Only part of the story is told by polls.
The majority of Americans
would see us all free.
One grip, by one arm,
one threatening voice to hold me down
for simply being Black or Brown;
for gender choice, or a soft woman’s voice
the gripping fear of one can drown
an entire nation.
And, bring it to its knees
along with those like me.
The gun held against the spine from behind
is just as confining as the chains of slavery.
The raised fist, laws on the books
to force a life-threatening pregnancy
are equally destructive to me.
It has never been about the numbers
the justices rulings proclaim,
when the majority would see us free.
It is about the fawning few who reek of power,
wealth and greed and seek to control
the likes of you and me.
Blindness is a convenient tool
of those who refuse to see
threats now made so openly,
on the streets and airwaves,
on social media, in open courts
and at political rallies.
The narrative of the fascists of old
has not grown cold over the centuries.
It has grown hotter, and now is so bold
even judges blindly embrace its hold.
HELP US ON OCTOBER 18th.
This is difficult to write for several reasons.
First because I have chronic fatigue syndrome, sometime called ME, CFIDS, and now, similar to long Covid. I became very ill and disabled from my illness 36 years ago. I was told then I would be lucky to walk again, likely need a wheel chair or cane. Great medical care from osteopathic manipulative medicine and acupuncture, years of pushing physical boundaries allow me to walk, for short distances. I can care for myself at home. I taught myself to read and write again by writing in a journal every morning. Despite brain fog, I developed a blog. My earliest efforts were poems. Gradually, I re-learned grammatical forms. Dyslexic imagery means my written words are sometimes corrupted. Lately, ChatGP has stolen even more of my words when it fails to recognize dyslexic word forms and alters words I do not always catch. My eyes and my brain take a while to catch up. Still, I must write to connect to the larger world I once participated in with gusto.
I practiced law as the Associate Director of Legal Affairs for Ohio University and Assistant Attorney General for the state of Ohio. In my spare time I taught law as an adjunct Associate Professor to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. I taught Business Law, School Law, Vocational Education Law, Law and Medicine (at O.U.medical school), and created courses and taught Social Welfare Law and a race relations course. I co-founded OU STARS, training and mentoring students to run race relations programs and workshops. I visited other campuses, community organizations and political groups and lectured on law as it applied to them. I love the law. I love the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights. I loved teaching and sharing my love of law with every audience available to me.
It was difficult to be sidelined from such an active life sharing the love of the law. It is difficult now to watch the hatred of the law spewed from the lips of a president, vice-president, Secretary of State, Director of Homeland Security, every federal agency, Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader. Watching the dismantling of the Rule of Law is almost too painful to write about. Watching the Supreme Court ignore centuries of stare decisis, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and every legal norm makes me want to scream until my throat is raw. it makes me tremble in disgust. Nightmares steal my sleep. I watch my country dissolve as it laws are twisted, debased, ignored and stomped upon. The only thing capable of holding together a nation dedicated to personal freedom is the law assuring no person is above the law. Otherwise disrespect and hatred toward other persons fueled by our animal nature inevitably leads to anarchy and self-destruction. We must hold the line against this administration and those who have tried to take and hold power only for themselves. To do so they must destroy the rule of law. That is what see every day. That is what I mourn every moment. Thank God for lawyer Marc Elias. He holds our hope and beliefs in his legal briefs.
The media giants, universities, Republican state and local leaders are silent or complicit in the destruction. Worse, the voters, including family-friends-neighbors, pay little attention to what is happening. Or. worse, support what is happening. I do not know how to find forgiveness. I pray for grace to do so. Finally, my church is realizing it must oppose such forces. However, its last few decades has seen it fully supporting those destroying our freedoms because of its unwillingness to acknowledge the right of women to control their own bodies. The right of women to hold sexual power. Nothing threatens a misogynistic organization more than women holding power in their own hands. At last, heroes like Fr. Pfleger of Chicago have seen enough. They are speaking out. An answer to my prayer. I keep praying!
On October 18, I shall join millions of Americans our government has labeled traitors and evil people as we American freedom-lovers celebrate NO KINGS DAY. I ask you to join us, wherever you live. Will it place you at risk? The federal government leaders want you to think so. They want you afraid to stand up for the Constitution and laws which govern our democracy, and protect it from autocracy. We are stronger the larger the groups. If you are unable to stand on the street beside us, drive by and honk in support. If you cannot do that, encourage all you know to join us in any way they can. Please do not sit there and shake your head. Please do not lose hope. Please do not be afraid. We are stronger than we know. Never listen to those who tell you that you will never walk again, never speak nor write again, never advocate for change again. You can. You must. Help us!
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as American patriots, AUTOCRATS, bible, caste sytems, common cause, faith, fascism, First Amendment, freedom of expression, homeland security, ice, INDIVISIBLE, Jesus, judiciary, kings, law, lawyers, love, Marc Elias, middle class, resist, rule of law, SCOTUS, Trump administration, WRITING