President's Message

Citizen Lawyer
Privilege Begets Obligation

by Gary L. Bakke

Wisconsin lawyers are privileged people. By accident of birth we are privileged to live and work in one of the most comfortable states of the most comfortable country in the most comfortable generation in the history of the world. In the million years of human existence, only a miniscule fraction of our brethren have enjoyed the nutrition, health, safety, freedom, and knowledge that we take for granted. What I have described so far applies to most of our citizens, not only lawyers. But as lawyers, we are among the privileged of the privileged.

For many of us a part of that privilege is that we make our living dealing with the everyday problems of everyday people. We struggle with everyday pro bono decisions, burgeoning accounts receivable, and clients with limited understanding of the legal system. In return, we are rewarded with the knowledge that we make a real difference in the lives of real people every day. The opportunity to witness and assist in the daily struggles of others is a constant reminder to us of how fortunate we really are.

We live in a meritocracy. Our society allocates a disproportionate quantum of nutrition, health, safety, and sometimes freedom to the brightest and most able of our citizens. We have all grown up with the understanding that this is the natural way of things – that the opposite, socialism, was an abject failure with its economic theory of "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need." I didn't question our meritocracy until I started to worry about the future of my special needs son who may never successfully do kindergarten work. Does he deserve less health care, less food, poorer housing, and less security because his Brazilian mother abused alcohol during her pregnancy? Why? Your client with an IQ of 90 deserves only 10 percent of the good life enjoyed by you with your IQ of 130? The neighbor who had neither the cultural expectation nor the money to attend college, much less graduate school, deserves less health care? People who live in homeless shelters, get their clothing at Goodwill, and receive groceries at the food shelves deserve their plight, right?

Neither you nor I can change the world, but we can do our part. As citizens of this wonderful state, we have a special obligation. As lawyers, we have a special opportunity to contribute to society with our professional training. The next time a pro bono opportunity presents itself, think about the privilege that you enjoy and share a morsel with one in need. Welcome the opportunities to enhance diversity, assist the disabled, and promote justice to those in need. It's not an obligation; it's a privilege that will make your life richer.

In closing, let me relate a story that I found at the end of a remarkable little book entitled Synchronicity.¹The author relates an event where the audience had just viewed a home video about Auschwitz created by a Holocaust survivor. In spite of the author's experience, the video was one of love and hope. At the end of the video, an image appeared of two birds sitting on a bare branch and the following message was printed:

"'Tell me the weight of a snowflake,' a coal-mouse asked a wild dove.

"'Nothing more than nothing,' was the answer.

"'In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,' the coal-mouse said. 'I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow – not heavily, not in a raging blizzard – no, just like in a dream, without a wound and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing you say – the branch broke off.'

"Having said that the coal-mouse flew away.

"The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for awhile, and finally said to herself, 'Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world.'"
...

1 Jospeh Jaworski, Synchronicity, San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996. The author is the son of Leon Jaworski, the Nixon impeachment prosecutor.

Wisconsin Lawyer