An Appeal to Reason

When I picked the title of my blog, An Appeal to Reason, I thought it was a clever title.  It had the word "appeal" in it to describe the type of work I do, but it also focused on the process that one uses to write a brief. Looking back, the title was not particularly descriptive of the purpose of the blog, which was to advise trial attorneys on how to preserve their cases for appeal. Over time, I found that many of my clients were reading the blog to get a sense of who I was. They were not interested in my tips; they were laypeople looking for some justice.

As we enter 2017, I feel that providing tips to trial attorneys seems so insignificant, although I am hopeful that trial attorneys will get involved in the fight. We are facing so many potential catastrophes from climate change, droughts, lack of clean water, refugees reshaping the world, wars on everything from drugs to women's reproductive rights, that publishing tips to a small group of people has little interest for me now.  

But the title An Appeal to Reason is significant. I want to appeal to reason and hope that we can turn around this growing tidal wave of hate, racism and discrimination. We fought so hard as a country to give people fundamental rights, such as voting and making choices about their future, that I am not willing to go back to the Dark Ages when being different was a death sentence. And women were controlled by men. And religious freedom means freedom only when you believe what I believe. I look at our progress and I just cannot go back.  

Ever since it was announced that Trump had been elected, many of us have depressed. This is not the world we want. (I suppose I can't speak for everyone, but the people I talk to agree.) So, now is the time to speak out.  If we don't vote, if we don't speak out, we deserve what we get. The question is: do we deserve Trump?