Get up! Stand up!

Today I went to the Lawrence court house to offer moral support for a friend that is facing eviction. When I arrived at the front door there was a line that snaked its way out onto the sidewalk and down the street. Being a good American, used to being herded, I took my place at the end and sort of let my mind wander as we all made our slow shuffle to the infernal gate ahead. We were a motley assortment of the raggedy unemployed, young mothers pushing carragies, gangbangers or gangbanger wanna-bes, worried looking suburbanites shuffling papers, stubby bald dudes there to offer support, even an occasional suit and tie. I'm guessing that some small percentage of my line mates were not going home tonight, but I promise you that everyone in that line was going home at least one day older and a few hours poorer. There was another door, but that was a strictly suit and tie affair, a no waiting I have a law degree, door.

The woman and the babies mostly stayed on the first floor, family court. Restraining orders, child support, DSS stuff. There were way too many of them. I guess if you wanted to you could work up enough rage to get pissed at them. After all they were mostly spanish (illegal), mostly single (tramps), and mostly poor (lazy), mostly young (welfare queens) with their kids (bastards) in tow. You could get mad I guess, if you were Limbaugh, Hannity, or Beck. If you were simply evil. All I could do was feel sad. Most of them just looked beaten down. No one talked. No one smiled. Everyone just waited. Every once and awhile a little one would start crying, and there was a vague hum from the suits conferring at the corners of the hall, but it was almost eerily quiet. You didn't know, but you guessed that there were likely very few good out comes happening on the first floor. Once you bring the kids to court how is it going to get better?

The gangbangers all went to the third floor. They were mostly young, mostly hispanic, with a few whites and blacks in the mix. There was one teen in a suit with his Mom that looked as out of place as Obama at a tea party rally. Everyone over 30 seemed to be male, falling into 2 categories. Either they were in cheap suits ( don't woman lawyers do criminal cases?) or they looked like they crawled out of a dumpster. Apparently in Lawrence all crime is committed by young latinos and skid row bums.

The second floor was me and my friend. It was the only floor where people looked scared. There was a spanish speaking woman at a table which sported a sign that said "Free Legal Advice". It didn't say "free legal counsel". I guess a ten minute pow wow before you discuss complicated mortgage law in front of a judge is better than nothing. (Not!) Here everything was on the line. your home, which represents what? 10 years of your labor? 20? When you see people that are about to lose everything, who can't afford a lawyer, who get a 10 minute pow wow so they can take on the best lawyers that TARP money can buy you have to start looking around for Dante. The banks can't even always prove that the have clear title on the house. Shame on us.

Our case was moved to another day because the judge had to recuse himself. My friend, well, he makes himself known in the community. So today I'm not hungry. I need a recipe for the souls in limbo on the first floor. I need a recipe for the souls embracing hell on the third floor. I need a recipe for broken souls trying to hang on to their lives on the second floor. I need a recipe for my friend that is going to lose everything. There is nothing in any of my books or my smarty pants approach to life that is going to make today better for any of those people.



Egypt can't happen here. That's what everyone says. I say, "that building was full today." I say, " it was bad for everyone that walked through that door." How long does that line have to get before the tweets start? Change you can believe in? Obama's new chief of staff, William Daley, has millions in stock from JP Morgan Chase where he was an executive. The left hated on Chaney and Halliburton, as they should have, me I'm going to keep going and hate on Daley and Chase. Don't pick sides, you know what the right thing is.

"The lesser of 2 evils is still evil."