What is this country coming to?
May 8, 2020
This is the saddest day of my professional life as a lawyer. From the day I graduated from law school, I have always respected the rule of law. I quit my first job with a Wife and child and no other job in sight because I refused to sign an affidavit I did not know to be true. My parents and Barbara’s parents had to send money to us each month so we could live. When I finally got a new job, I earned $440 per month.
Finally, when earning the grand sum of $500, but now with two children, knowing almost no one in Florida, and knowing very little about how to be a lawyer, I hung up a shingle in Hollywood, Florida. I began to build a practice that almost everyone in my legal community said was impossible to do.
In 55 years, I have never done anything I thought was unethical or failed to try to do my best for my clients, but always within the reasonable bounds of advocacy. I never misled a client or a judge.
By many standards, I became a success. My colleagues recognized me as an outstanding lawyer and in 1990 elected me President of The Florida Bar. I have always been proud of being a lawyer and am still working full time after 55 years. Being a lawyer is very much a part of my essence. Put on my tombstone “Husband, Father, Grandfather, Friend and Lawyer” and that’s everything there is to say about me.
As those who have read my posts know, I am a liberal. I do not like or respect The President and I think four more years of a Republican administration will destroy the Federal Judiciary as I want it to be. Okay, millions of people think differently than I, and although I do not agree, I accept these differences of opinion. After all, we are supposed to be a free country governed by the rule of law.
This morning I realized that all of this has been destroyed. Former National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn pled guilty in open court. Both the President and Vice President said he lied under oath and had to be fired at the time. As of today, however, they say he is a great American, the FBI are “scum”, and they committed “treason”. Our Attorney General is a disgrace, and our President is worse. How can our citizens expect that justice will be served?
I am beyond sad.
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Happy Mother's Day.
A change of pace on Mother’s Day. My Mother was a Fox. That is how I got my middle name.
The Fox family were German Jews who came to America virtually on the Mayflower. There is rarely a day that goes by that I do not think of my Mother. When I am asked, at a parlor game or on Facebook, to name a person, alive or dead, with whom I would want to have dinner, my answer never changes—-“My Mother”.
Hortense Ruth Fox was not educated past high school because at that time in our culture, women rarely were. Yet, she was one of the smartest people I have ever met.
Almost all the good things about me were taught to me by my Mother. The bad things about me, I learned myself.
She treated everyone she met with respect notwithstanding their station in life. There was not a prejudiced bone in the body. She loved most all kinds of music, particularly the opera and the theatre. I started going to the theatre at the age of five and the opera not much later. My Mother and I would listen regularly to the Texaco broadcasts from the Met. Her favorite singer was Renata Tebaldi.
She taught me how to be married with advice such as “never make a decision before you consider how that decision affects your Wife”
I have known Barbara over 61 years. She knew and loved my Mother and would say that if she ever had to escape from me, she would run to MY Mother. Many things bind Barbara and me, who will be very happily married 60 years this coming March. One of those things is our mutual love and respect for my Mother. There is not another woman in the world I could meet who knew my Mother. That is a great foundation for any successful marriage.
My Mother was about 6 feet tall. She had the most beautiful hands, with long tapering fingers. My Mother was as elegant a lady as ever existed. She died way too early, and if I could rewrite history, it would be that she lived long enough to teach our children all she taught me, and to see how Barbara and I have done.
Happy Mother’s Day
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May 11, 2020