For me, there are
moments where nothing in the world is beautiful and everything is colorless,
muddied. Those are the days when I happen to glimpse at the front page of
the Philadelphia Inquirer to see that yet another young, Black male was
penetrated by an uncaring, unfeeling bullet, or the days when I happen to
flip through to Fox News only to hear that yet another child, under the
ever-watchful eye of the Department of Human Services, was severely abused
or murdered while that eye was closed and a back was turned. Those are the
moments when I peer out of my window to see a momentarily God-like drug
dealer bless his addicted client with her escape, her salvation, and her own
slow death. Through
my summer internship, I have had many of those moments – I have had daily
interactions with a glaring sort of human suffering, the suffering that is
begot by poverty, racism, sexism, and classism. These –isms have had
irreparable impact on our impoverished communities of color. Those whom I
serve have been forced into making unwise and unproductive choices and
mistakes because of the limited amount of choices that they had to begin
with, and have been unable to achieve or perceive of the opportunities
available to the more fortunate. Many of them are a part of or have been
witness to vicious, oppressive cycles – those of poverty, drugs, teen
parenthood, abuse, prison, unemployment, alcoholism. They come from broken
environments, desolate neighborhoods filled with hopelessness, frustration,
and desperation. They have been stripped of identities and individuality,
and instead handed deformed consciousnesses, unequal education, and few
opportunities. As varied as the circumstances of my clients’ lives are, so
are my emotions on any given day, ranging from empathy to sorrow, optimism
to disillusionment, rage to compassion. But just as my clients’ varied
circumstances usually stem from the same sources, the same -isms, one source
and one emotion drives me, wakes me up each morning to go into work – that
of passion. My passion is for fighting, changing, and slaying inequality,
oppression, and suffering.
That passion has
found the perfect outlet in the public interest work that I have been able
to do at Community Legal Services in the Family Advocacy Unit this summer.
Every day I am able to share a space with those who inspire me with their
own tireless passion, and our combined zeal allows us to administer subtle
chinks and blows to the iron wall of the systems that block communal growth
and progress. Out of the abyss of negative labels, out of the sea of harmful
circumstances that threaten to pull them below, we extend our hands daily to
help pull them back up, to get them over the ledge. We leave it to them to
climb back onto their own two feet, but we acknowledge that everyone needs
that supporting hand sometimes. Once on their feet, they encounter a mirror
that reflects awareness and choice, tools they may not have had previously
because they had never been allowed an informed choice. It is of their own
volition to trade in that reflection for reality, to grasp the image that
stands before them, to make awareness and choice their own, but we serve as
supporters, companions, guides, and advisors to that trade.
Malcolm X cautioned
that one must “be very careful about letting others make up your mind for
you.” At my internship, I have learned to help others find choice,
empowerment, and agency in their own lives and within themselves without
simply giving it to them or creating it for them. I have learned that the
lawyer does not have to be superior to the client in their dealings, but
that it is a partnership where both work collectively to find resolution.
Empowerment is shared equally between the attorney and client; it is not
unilaterally handed to a helpless client by the good graces of her
pansophical attorney. We are not authorizing clients to take control of
their lives and we should not be hubristic enough to believe that we hold
the power to do so. Instead we show them that the possibilities of access,
choice, and agency exist, and in turn, we are empowered daily to help
improve the conditions of our communities, empowered daily to break down the
inequitable social, political and legal systems, and empowered daily to
confront, redefine, and reconcile our own biases and preconceived notions
about those we are serving to open the doors of the legal system for justice
that is truly undiscerning.
I am often asked
why I chose to embark on this particular journey of serving the community
when a law degree gives me nearly infinite possibilities, many of which
could net me a comfortable income. Unfortunately, from the perception of
many, a lawyer’s job is synonymous with a large income, television-like
courtroom drama, and the defense of the supposedly immoral and depraved.
Why, then, did I choose to do public interest work? There may be infinite
possibilities for this degree, but for me, in my proverbial heart, mind,
body, and soul, there quite simply is no choice amongst those possibilities.
In fact, I feel as though I am the choice, one of the many chosen, one of
the many whose life experiences have placed them along a path that they find
nearly impossible to divert from. It is not simply a commitment to
supporting or giving back to the community, it is an incomprehensible,
internal pull, an inexplicable connection that can neither be ignored nor
severed. It is my humanity, my human experiences, and my interconnectedness
to other humans whom I most identify with that forces me to attempt to
improve our lot. Some people allow such experiences to jade them, or perhaps
they become consumed by them, while others let their experiences drive them
and give them purpose. I have capitalized on one of my many purposes this
summer, and I plan to continue to do so in my future career as a public
interest attorney.
