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PerspectivesinLaw 13 - 25 Jan 2008 - Main.BarbPitman
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| | I’ve been having a hard time in this class, and would like others’ input. While this class is by far my favorite, it is also the most frustrating. I’m not sure how to look at what I consider to be stereotyping, judgmental views, and bifurcated ways of thinking: Good law versus bad law, pink skin versus non-pink skin, complacency and greed versus (what I assume is meant) altruism and righteousness. I’m probably not the most articulate person to be making the points I’m about to make, but please understand I mean no offense – I’m only trying to understand and be understood, and, through this classroom experience, to learn some non-academic things along the way.
Do I like money? You’re damned right I do. Why? Because, in this society, it opens up options and is the main instrument that one is forced to use in order to produce resources that one needs and prefers (in other words, those things that make life a heck of a lot easier). I don’t care about status, social position, or wealth per se (despite what may be unintentionally implied by the sentence about being a secretary as opposed to a lawyer in the profile at http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2007/December07/2010profiles.) The reason I applied to Columbia instead of law schools in my state is because I assumed (and I think rightly so) that on balance, there is too good a chance I will be unemployed after law school if I’m not able to tell prospective employers that I went to what this society considers a “top” law school. If I had chosen to go to a law school in my state (in my case, Indiana University), I would be paying $15,784 in tuition this year; at Columbia, I am paying $42,024. Yes, I’m paying up-front almost three times per year in tuition what I could be paying. But I, employers, and the law schools know that my chance of recouping that financial outlay is by far greater if I have the Latin equivalent of “Columbia” at the top of my diploma instead of “Indiana.” Frustrating, but real. | | | Clearly all of this is easier to say when you are warm and full than starving and on the streets, but it is the best response I have to what you were talking about.
-- TheodoreSmith - 24 Jan 2008 | |
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Thanks for both of your comments. In response, I would say that I know that when I have not been in a position to meet my own needs, I have found that the physical, mental, and emotional distractions and exertions that have resulted from this have kept me from being in a position to help others, let alone myself. I believe that if I can position myself to not have to worry as much about meeting my financial obligations and physical needs, then I am in a better mental, physical, and emotional position to see outside myself and my own concerns and help others. In other words, the best chance I have to help others in what I consider to be a meaningful way is to help myself. One could say that this is a rationalization, and perhaps that is right, but in defense, I would say that I believe I know my own limitations and inclinations on this matter, because I have been in various financial positions over the years and realize what my responses have been. And I wouldn't say that I define myself by my externalities -- my externalities have a way of defining me (and what I do).
-- BarbPitman - 25 Jan 2008 | | | |
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