Lunch

A few weeks ago, I met a woman named Mia who used to work at the public defender's office. She took me to lunch yesterday so I could basically pick her brain and figure out if public interest law is really for me. Interestingly enough, we ended up talking about the issues that I mentioned in my first post... I've been wondering if feeling hatred towards the justice system was an inevitable by-product of working as a public interest lawyer. 

It was nice to talk to Mia because she has experienced injustice on several levels, but still believes that the system itself is based on admirable ideals. And its different because its not me, an idealistic student who hasn't experienced the kind of hardship that makes people jaded... these ideas are coming from a person who has plenty of reasons for feeling that the system doesn't, and can't work. The whole point for her though, is that it is a lawyer's obligation to fix the problems within the justice system so that it can actually become the institution it was meant to be, and that they are powerful because they can teach their communities about the rights that they have. She knows that there are problems, but still acknowledges the things about institutions like the courts and the police that are admirable. 

For example, she spoke with a transgendered woman who was harassed by a police officer. After he left, the officer's partner came back and handed her a complaint form, telling her that she didn't have to tolerate that kind of abuse. I can imagine that it must be difficult for someone to directly challenge a person that they work with, especially when it comes to a fellow officer, but I think actions like this have helped really redeem the police in my mind. I never harbored any hatred towards them before, but I never really thought of them independent of the context where they pull me over or beat the crap out of people. Now I guess I know that there are some out there that are not just likable, but are actually proactively supporting change.