Lawyers

It hasn't been me out of town, disconnected, out of pocket this time... but the end result has been almost the same. I've been half here the last few weeks, but oh! the stories I can tell!!

A few weeks ago, the Texas Bar Association put out a plea for anyone who could pick up a pro bono case or three to please consider representing either children (as guardian ad litem) removed from the Fundamental Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) ranch in west Texas, or to represent one of the mothers trying to get back their children from state protective custody. My own personal live-in lawyer (daughter Lisa) ended up going out there to represent a few of the mothers.

By going "out there" I do mean Out There. You can look it up on the map, but trust me, while it's not out in the middle of nowhere, you CAN see it from there. Let's just say I didn't worry about her enjoying the night life too much on this trip. And she ended up with two clients, both women close to thirty (one on either side of it) and both women worried sick about their children who had never been away from home before.

A few days ago Jim Ramelis wrote a post on the incarceration of a Saudi rape victim by Saudi authorities. It was a shocking and sad case, but one of the things I noticed was the fact that there was a lawyer who was willing to be suspended, have his license confiscated, and face disciplinary action, in order to defend this Saudi women from obvious injustice. I've been reading a lot in the news about the bravery of lawyers willing to risk their jobs and their lives to fight for justice. Just a few weeks ago lawyers in Pakistan were fighting soldiers and tear gas to protest Musharraf's attempts to stiffle the rule of law. In the Tuesday edition of the L.A. Times, there was an article by Borzou Daragahi about lawyers in Iran who faced harassment for fighting for peaceful change inside Iraq through the legal system. That shows an admirable courage in a profession that one doesn't often think of when one thinks of activism.