Ever since I watched Up in the Air, I have been dying to travel as much as possible. Hence, when my boss told me that she wanted all of the incoming law clerks to attend one of two upcoming Saturday board meetings, I naturally chose the one in Columbus, OH. I had to go there anyway on Sunday to work at our booth at ComFest, so I figured it would make for a nice weekend trip. Despite making several trips to Columbus throughout my life, I had never really had the chance to go and explore the city on my own because I had always gone either as a student during high school or a chaperone of students during my teaching years. Sheila came along so that she could study for the bar while I worked, and we decided that we would go out for a date in Columbus on Saturday night… Read the rest of this entry

We watched The Cove a few nights ago. The Cove is a documentary about the mass slaughter of dolphins in Japan in the village of Taiji. I was pretty excited about watching it; we don’t watch documentaries very often, and I think that stinks because there are SO many great documentaries out there! I knew that it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at this past year’s Academy Awards; it beat out Food, Inc., which is very highly regarded by just about everyone except factory farmers, so I had high hopes.

I don’t know if “enjoyed” is the right term for my viewing experience. The Cove’s subject matter certainly was heavy, and it was definitely hard to watch. Those of you who have followed us for quite awhile know that we swam with a very nice dolphin named Tetich while we were in Cozumel on our honeymoon, and I felt awful during our viewing experience because Tetich may have been obtained through this horrible trade. Furthermore, I also felt a bit overwhelmed because this is yet another issue about which I should be concerned and informed. As I get older, I have learned about so many issues that demand activism and attention, and I have struggled a lot with whether or not I should focus my attention deeply on one area in the hopes of becoming an expert or if I should try to gain a general sense of expertise about a variety of issues. Just in the past few years alone, I have learned a boatload about the injustices committed by Israel against the Palestinians thanks to one of Sheila’s amazing and courageous professor and mentor, the horrible state of America’s juvenile justice system through my Juvenile Law class, a great deal about poverty and the law through my experiences at Legal Aid, much about animal rights abuses from Sheila’s sister, and a ton of other random assorted issues through other random life experiences.

Although I did find it tragic and slightly overwhelming, I also found The Cove to be incredibly inspiring. The main character in The Cove, Richard O’Barry, first became famous because he was the trainer of Flipper the dolphin on the TV show “Flipper” many, many years ago. Along with the show, O’Barry did a lot of other things to popularize marine life and encourage the creation of places like Sea World. However, when he learned that the industry was actually treating dolphins horribly and that captivity had an enormously negative effect on the dolphins’ well-being, O’Barry repented of his ways and became an advocate for dolphins. I have a hard time admitting that I’m wrong over stupid, dumb things in life, and I was blown away by O’Barry’s willingness to admit he was wrong and to dedicate his life to eradicating the harm that he helped create. I was also impressed with his boldness—due to his repeated advocacy and crusading, O’Barry has become a well-known figure in the Japanese village in which this heinous murder of dolphins occurs, and he is constantly harassed by the police and fishermen who are trying—hopefully in vain—to maintain the veil of secrecy that allows thousands of dolphins to be slaughtered each year. I don’t think O’Barry made a single move in the film during which he was not followed by Japanese policemen. Nevertheless, O’Barry continues to raise awareness about this important issue and he refuses to allow their harassment to deter him. At one point in the film, O’Barry walks into a meeting of the International Whaling Commission with a digital photo frame around his neck that had surveillance footage of the whale slaughter on it in the hopes that it would spur the representatives into rejecting Japan’s lies and implementing regulations to end this practice. He didn’t run in screaming; O’Barry simply walked in and allowed the horrible images to speak for themselves, and I don’t even think he yelled when he was forcibly removed by security. I found this entire sequence to be incredibly powerful, and it reminded me of my old activist days at the start of the second Iraq war when I walked around campus with pictures of dead Iraqi civilians taped to my body in an effort to encourage the burgeoning anti-war movement in Cleveland. Nowadays, most of my activism is done more quietly; I help individual people obtain justice through the legal system and I work to help protect people’s civil rights and civil liberties. Was I a more effective activist back then? I don’t know; I struggle with this issue a lot, and I spend a lot of time and energy trying to find the right balance between being challenging\provocative and being reasonable enough to gain the ear and attention of people. What I do know is that I only have a limited amount of time on Earth, and I need to be doing all I can to help create a more just and fair society while I’m here.

As they do in most years, the Oscars got it wrong with Best Picture this past year. However, I am immensely grateful that they got it right with Best Documentary and selected The Cove as the winner of this award. It’s not easy viewing, but it’s definitely worthwhile viewing. I am hopeful that their award will help kick-start a movement that will end this terrible practice and allow the intelligent, harmless dolphins to live in peace and be treated humanely and decently!

I don’t know about my hubs, but I’m having a great weekend. Yesterday was studying all day, followed by surf & turf date night and The Blind Side. We both loved both dinner and the movie!

Our menu…

Scallops Provencal (what are scallops, anyway?) and Pepper-Crusted Tenderloin with Mushrooms and Asparagus

"You're banned from Surf & Turf Night!"

We had a long conversation afterward about how our foodieism is our biggest obstacle to vegetarianism :-p We did rent Food, Inc. .. we’ll see if that gets us a little further along in the journey toward good/sustainable/ethical eating.

Today was orientation for the organization where I’m doing my fellowship (Building Hope in the City), a shopping trip to the West Side Market , studying until late, then a movie in, courtesy of the Cleveland Heights Library Studying for several hours a day every day is not so bad when life is pretty simple otherwise.

Not much else to say.. feeling boring these days!

This is me rocking out to Bon Jovi.

This is me… rocking out to Bon Jovi.

And this is me… rocking out… to Bon Jovi.

Can you tell that I like rocking out to Bon Jovi? This July the 12th, I will be rocking out to Bon Jovi, live!!! I have about 7 or 8 bands that I want to see before I kick the can, and Bon Jovi is one of them. I’m so psyched!!

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Life has just been kind of crazy with BarBri for me and the ACLU for Joe. I’ve never been so slow with answering e-mails, posting photos, etc.! Joe used to always say that he didn’t like having the whole attitude of living for the weekend, because every day of the week presents obligations and challenges, and so every day should have a bit of enjoyment as well. I didn’t agree with him until barbri, since I have assignments for every day of the week. I’m realizing that I should be taking bits of fun where they find me instead of burning out and putting all my energy into my hopes for a couple days off. I’ve also calmed down so much – the bar is so heavy in the back of my mind that I haven’t gotten worked up over the silly bickers and hurt feelings that used to throw me for a loop! I just can’t let anything get to me. Dare I say.. it’s kind of nice! :-p