Once Upon a Time in the President's Law Firm or: Why (Sadly) the Focus of This Blog is No Longer Going to be Politics

Yea, yea, I know - it's been intermittant these days. Didn't start out that way though.

I'd been writing for GratefulWeb for a little over a year I think when the editor asked me to host their blog. For various reasons, he wanted the blog to focus on politics. Barack was running for president and, though I was already focusing on music/teaching, I minored in Political Science and started what became a 10 year legal career in Barack's firm in Chicago. We actually started there at about the same time. I didn't hang out with him/we weren't close friends, but I did learn a great deal about law from him and from the other attorney's in the firm. The managing partner, who managed his personal affairs to an extent during the campaign, did become a life-long friend and influence. I had the rare opportunity of talking to him at length after both the Democratic Convention Speech and the Election.

Anyway, me hosting a political blog seemed an obvious choice.

I could, and probably should, tell some really fascinating stories about what watching the attorney's there was like -- we, (it takes a firm like it takes a village) really did fight some serious evil in the world - and usually won. Suits against Dole and Nabisco for unfair labor practices (and good god it's gruesome to know what they do) and the re-districting of the voting zones in Chicago were every-day things. And I do believe that the firm still is one of the few places doing that sort of thing and meaning it. I knew them - it wasn't just about money - some people, believe it or not even lawyers, really do give a shit. Thank God.

I hate to say I didn't want Barack to win - but I didn't. And the reason was and remains that, it seemed to me, he was getting into a mess too big for anyone to fix/was destined to take the fall for said mess when it didn't get fixed, that sort of thing. I'd rather have seen Hillary go down - she helped make it, after all. And I can't stand her.

But he did win so that's that. And what I thought (and worse) appears to be happening.

I've taken the no comment approach up till now and still will from here forward. I'm not going to answer questions about what he's like or whatever else people might ask. That wouldn't be cool and people need to form their own opinions and can do it without my input. I will say that he was a genuine and obviously brilliant person who, when I knew him, truly did care about teh things you hear him talk about at his best and truly worked to give people a voice who otherwise would not have had one. The attorney's at the firm had/have great power compared to the average Joe and they truly did use it for good. Not enough people do that and I admire those still doing it now.

Unfortunately, I don't recognize the man in the White House. Guantanamo is still open, Habeus Corpus is not restored, nor is the rest of the Constitution for that matter, wiretapping is still ok...

This is not what we should expect of a Constitutional attorney.

What that set of contradictions says about the State of the Nation I don't want to discuss.

It would be innappropriate for me to speak my mind about all of this, it really would. I can no more do that to someone I once worked with than I can write about what I don't believe in.

So I'm not going to - no more political blog.

I'm sorry to be posting this right on the heels of such nice compliments from readers. You'll like what comes next, promise.