Rehabilitation

Here’s to the crazy ones.


The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They are not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

-Written for the Apple's Think Different campaign

I think that this "Think Different" ad campaign serves to adequately describe my feelings about law school and why I even selected law as a career to begin with. My objective is to get society to "think differently" about the way we view ex felons and their re entry into society. I know many of you are wondering "Why in the hell is she in law school?" Or the million dollar question for the "sharper knives" is "How in the hell did she get into law school?" Well, "Inquiring minds would like to know." LOL. Outside of all the inquiring minds what lies at the heart of my thoughts are that I imagine the political status specifically relating to occupational licensees will endure for decades for the following reason: Our society lacks a mechanism to ascertain actual reform in offenders.  This mechanism would be similar to discerning what is in a persons mind-the last refuge of privacy.  To this day I do not understand why I committed my crime; when asked at various court hearings to say something in my behalf for their consideration, I said "I can not find any reason for your votes." Why? Because my time spent in prison seemed trivial to the offense- and to have some answer would have been like making sense out of non sense....   There were times when asked the same question, the rebel inside me just wanted to grab the seat of my pants and shout out like a bonafide gang banger "I guess because I refuse to die.  So for me its prolly gonna be thug life even though that's not what I want. Also I wanna send a shot out to all the convicts...stay up and lastly let the haters hate their just wasting their time." Or should have said something like "I served my time and don't owe the interest society has demanded. My kids couldn't afford to pay it either!"

So what does it take to prove good character? Well I am convinced that this would require knowing the minds of each state license board because having a good philosophy on life isn't good enough. 

To date this is the social rule in place: Green v. Missouri Pacific Railroad, 523 F. 2d 1290 (8th Cir. 1975), appeal after remand, 549 F. 2d 1158 (8th Cir. 1977). Apparently society has a great need to eliminate risks for greater rewards.