What it's all about...

Another Report From the Road...

Last night, on The Majority Report I was asked why I wrote the book. The answer I gave had a lot to do with the outrage I felt at the treatement of my clients. But "Why did you write the book" has another answer and that is: To try to inspire people to do our righteous work. I've often told myself that if for the 3 year shelf life of the book, even three or four people read it and are inspired to either become public defenders or remain public defenders for another year or two, then in the aggregate, I will have given 25 years of (other people's) service for my two year investment. That would make me really happy.

So you can imagine how heartened I was to come across
this post from "Boni et Aequi- the PD blog":

Indefensible

I was sitting under my desk when I realized that right next to me was the book I had ordered (thanks to Blonde Justice)had not only arrived but was right beside me. It was the evening after a particularily bad trial where I was at war not only with the prosecution, but with my client, and my irritable judge. It was a day when I could have ever so easily walked away from my work. A day where I was progressing quickly through the stages of burnout. Indefensible, that book underneath my desk, brought me back into the fold. It reignited my passion for my work. And for that, I thank its author David Fiege.

To be frank, the book didn't teach me much about law. But, I don't think it is supposed to. When I picked it up, I already knew how dreadfully f$#%ed up the system was. I alredy knew how hard it was to be a public defender. I already knew how on bad days I started to see it as us and them, and not empathize the way I should.

But, what it did give me, what I needed more than anything that day, was to be reminded that a) it ain't just me out there and b) the way I feel today is normal and ok, what I do is important, what I do is a big part of who I am, and as long as I don't give up, I'm allowed to have a bad day or two.

Yes you are.
Thanks for that.