While I was visiting friends about a month ago, a discussion dealing with social current events ensued. More specifically, a discussion about war ensued.
I began the discussion by asking my friend if he'd ever heard the late Utah Philips talk about who's really responsible for the killing that takes place during war. Philips recorded his thoughts in a narrative he entitled "The Violence Within".
My friend hadn't heard this narrative, so, as I happened to have my laptop with me at the time and I had loaded the talk onto the laptop, I played it for him.
At this point, it may or may not be relevant to know a little about my friend and the ways in which we're of a like mind as well as the ways in which we are not.
If you've ever participated in a political poll you know that, at the end, the pollster asks about your educational background. The question is usually a multiple choice question. To paraphrase, the questions asks:
What is your level of education?
a) Graduated from elementary school
b) Graduated from high school
c) Attended some years of college
d) Have a college undergraduate degree
e) Have a post graduate degree.
I have 59 college credits. I don't even know how one goes about obtaining 59 credits. If I could find a real easy course worth one college credit, I may be able to get an Associate's Degree in Generality. So, I always check the box that says "some college".
My friend, on the other hand, is a graduate of The Coast Guard Academy and is a Maritime Lawyer. He has been on both sides of oil company litigation. Much of what he's done has depended upon the financial rewards of taking a particular position at any given time. In other words, as with most of us, my friend, in the pursuit of employment, has, for the most part, accepted positions which offer the best wages and benefits. In his defense, if there is any needed, my friend, in his capacity as a lawyer, has always been on the front lines of ensuring that the American judicial premise of "innocent until proven guilty" is upheld. Although it's been very difficult to find an oath for lawyers with as much universality and weight as the physician's Hippocratic Oath, there is a set of ethics that The American Bar Association has published to help guide the integrity of legal representation. The following is but a sample of those ethics:
