Getting More Woke
My politics were always left-leaning. I was an escort on Saturday mornings at Planned Parenthood for a short stint after college. I wrote my “Why I want to become a lawyer” essay on the Rust v. Sullivan decision where medical providers who received any Title X funds could not even talk about abortion services (didn’t make a difference if the health provider provided abortion services). I served as an Election Judge in Chicago for a couple of terms (Side note: y’all better be nice to those working the polls next election. It’s a long day for them, and they don’t get paid much). I contributed to campaigns, traveled out of state to serve as a campaign poll watcher more than once, canvassed neighborhoods, and vetted donors so all contributions to the campaign were beyond reproach. I made sure that I had the local bar association’s judge recommendations with me in the voting booth, and I voted in every election, even those non-sexy, off-year municipal elections.
In other words, I thought myself as a pretty well-informed, active voter and citizen.
Then the results of the 2016 Presidential election.
We are in troubling times, and every time I turn on the news, my level of shock and dismay about the current administration’s actions and Congressional inaction increases. I feel like I have been asleep at the wheel. I cannot imagine how people who may not have been very active in politics before 45 was elected are feeling.
As a lawyer, even one who has chosen an alternative career path in compliance, I feel an immense weight of responsibility to help ensure the safety of the Union from the harmful actions of the administration.
I make no claims that I alone can solve all the problems. Great legal minds and practitioners have been busy defending the Constitution against the administration’s attacks in these past 109 days (it’s only been 109 days?!). What I am hoping is that my small contributions to the effort will help. Every phone call I make to my members of Congress, every witness slip I complete, every retweet of a piece of investigative journalism, every request for a quick look-up of relevant statutes/regulations, every referral to activist organizations, every protest in which I serve as a Legal Observer — I have got to believe it will make the difference that I want to see.
I’m woke. This time, it’s for real.