Law school has taken me in some surprising directions. At all times it has stretched, challenged and taught me. I had a class this semester in legal research. The idea was to learn how to use legal databases like Lexis Nexis and WestLaw more effectively, and indeed, I did learn those things. But what a surprise to learn so much more.
I just finished my pathfinder for my research class. Ok, I didn't finish, because these things are never done, but I have stopped working on it. The topic ended up being about the homeless and the current state of the law regarding issues that affect homeless persons.
I know the reasons behind poverty, homelessness and related issues are complicated. I see no easy answers, only more questions. I feel the guilt that you might expect at reading and writing about being wretchedly poor, sleeping on the streets, spending one's whole day figuring out how to get fed, warm and safe; all while sitting in my warm house, with a full cupboard and health insurance. Don't get me wrong, I worry on a regular basis about money-how to pay for law school, hoping my car will last until school is done, and how I'm going to survive. But I have some prior experience of being poor, and the sense to understand the difference in what I worry about now as opposed to what the guy who sleeps across the street in the overgrowth worries about. So many people make Hobson's choices every day in order to survive, and the well-off stand in judgment, cloaked in self-righteousness.
Knowledge is painful, it's responsibility, it is a choice all in itself. Tonight it all feels like too much.
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