Thoughts on To Kill A Mockingbird

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird. There was an entire program devoted to it at the State Bar Convention this summer and my daughter was assigned the book for her summer reading project. I decided to give the book another look. I was struck by the following passage. To me, it captures the ideal of what it means to be a lawyer and man of honor.

“Do you defend *******, Atticus?” I asked him that evening.

“Of course I do. Don’t say ******, Scout. That’s common.”

“’s what everybody at school says.”

“From now on it’ll be everybody less one—“

“Well if you don’t want me to grow up talkin’ that way, why do you send me to school?”

My father looked at me mildly, amusement in his eyes. Despite our compromise, my campaign to avoid school had continued in one form or another since my first day’s dose of it. . . .

But I was worrying another bone. “Do all lawyers defend n-Negroes, Atticus?”

“Of course they do, Scout.”

“Then why did Cecil say you defended ******? He made it sound like you were runnin’ a still.”

Atticus sighed. “I’m simply defending a Negro—his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She say’s they’re clean-living folks. Scout, you aren’t old enough to understand some things yet, but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man. It’s a peculiar case—it won’t come to trial until summer session. John Taylor was kind enough to give us a postponement. .. .”

“If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, they why are you don’ it?”

“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn’t, I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”

“You mean if you didn’t defend that man, Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you any more?”

“That’s about right.”

“Why?”

“Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will; you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change …. it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.”

“Atticus, are we going to win it?”

“No, honey.”

Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, pp. 99-101.

There is so much in this passage. I agree that every lawyer gets one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. For me, it was the case of a little girl who was in foster care and whose grandmother and uncle would not give up on her. I also like the idea that a person’s right to respect depends upon doing the right thing, even when it’s hard. Finally, I like the idea of fighting with your head. This is a book worth reading and re-reading.

Being Vigilant for Extremist Infiltration

Lately Americans have been especially vigilant about the threat from radical Islamists. Nearly 20% of all Americans now recognize that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. However, we must be vigilant for all dangerous influences. Consider this:

After 9/11, President George W. Bush gave a speech in which he stated that we were not in a war against Islam. Really? There are some Americans who would beg to differ. Recently there have been some Americans who have opposed building mosques anywhere in the United States and have suggested that they all go back to the Middle East. Why was our former President so soft on the Islamists?

And what about Sarah Palin? While she was governor of Alaska, an Islamic Community Center in Anchorage purchased land to build a mosque. Coincidence? I think not.

And what about Glenn Beck? How do we know that he didn't anglicize his name from Jihad al-Beckyi to better blend in with patriotic Americans? Has he produced his birth certificate? If he has, I haven't seen it.



And finally, what about Frank Zappa? How many Americans still remember his 1979 release Sheik Yerbouti? Is the Obama Justice Department monitoring his movements? If not, why not?

It is time that we increase our vigilance. Everyone could be and probably is an Islamist threat to America. And that includes you and me.

First Day of School

Another first day of school has come. Actually I got to see three different ones today. When I was out jogging this morning, I saw the elementary school kids waiting for the bus while their parents stood around drinking coffee. The elementary school kids looked so small compared to their backpacks. On the way back from my run, I saw the middle school kids. They did not need parents to wait for the bus with them. However, you could really see why they call it middle school. Some of the kids looked like they should be going to first grade rather than sixth grade, while one of the guys I saw looked like he could start for the Dallas Cowboys.

Finally it was time to take Stephanie for her first day of high school. She had spent the morning texting friends to make sure she knew where to go. We also gathered up her schedule and bus information. Stephanie was a bit jittery because she didn't know what to expect from the seniors. Kristen spent all summer telling her about what they did to "fish" on the first day of school.

Kristen spent the night at a friend's house so that she could get to school by 7:30. In order to discourage the seniors from engaging in mayhem, the school throws a party for them on the first day of school. Starting at 7:30, they could get senior shirts and breakfast tacos. They also gave them a junked car to smash (or at least I hope that's what happened). It will no doubt be the last day that Kristen makes it to school so early.



As we approached Austin High School, there was a traffic jam which could probably be seen from space. It did not help Stephanie's nerves to see cars with "Die Fish" soaped on the windows as well as an ambulance parked by the school. I agreed to drive her around to the front of the school so she could avoid the seniors congregated at the back, even though that meant a longer drive. I had to cut through the student parking in order to get close enough for Stephanie to be able to see the theater where the freshman were to meet. She summoned up her courage, smiled and was off to start high school.

Remembering Christian Victims of Hitler

Adolph Hitler became Fuhrer of Germany on this day, August 19, 1934. He had previously been Chancellor. However, on this date, the positions of Chancellor and President were combined into a single position. His thousand year reich lasted only eleven years, but was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions.

It is fitting on this day to remember some of his victims. While Hitler was a vicious anti-Semite, he was also anti-Christian, rejecting the notion of a Jewish Jesus who preached love of neighbor. He attempted to co-opt the church into something pagan and nationalistic. While many Lutheran and Catholic Germans went along with the regime, some had the courage to oppose it and paid with their lives. Christians in occupied territories felt the vengeance of the Nazi machine even more intensely. This post recognizes ten Christian martyrs of the Nazi regime in order of their deaths.

I chose Christians even though other groups suffered more severely because I am part of this group. By looking through this lens, the atrocities of the Nazi regime are no longer something which happened to someone else, but something personal, which could have happened to my family if they had remained in Germany or Norway during this time.

2/19/37: Dr. Friedrich Weissler

Nationality: German
Religion: Evangelical Church

Dr. Weissler was a Geman lawyer. He was dismissed from his position as a judge in March 1933 due to his opposition to the Nazis. He worked with the Confessing Church, which was the Protestant opposition to the German state church. At Pentecost 1936, the Confessing Church issued a memorandum to Hitler condemning anti-Semitism, concentration camps and state terrorism. The memorandum was read from the pulpits on August 23, 1936. It stated:

If blood, race, nationhood and honour are given the rank of eternal values, so the Evangelical Christian is compelled by the First Commandment, to oppose that judgement. If the Aryan human is glorified, so it is God's word, which testifies the sinfulness of all human beings. If - in the scope of the National Socialist weltanschauung - an anti-Semitism, obliging to hatred of the Jews, is imposed on the individual Christian, so for him the Christian virtue of charity is standing against that.

The Gestapo blamed Weissler for leaking the memorandum to the foreign media, an erroneous charge. However, because he was a Protestant of Jewish descent, he was sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp without a trial. He was tortured to death from February 13 to 19, 1937. He became the first lethal victim of the German campaign against the churches on the Protestant side.

7/18/39: Paul Schneider

Nationality: German
Religion: Evangelical Church

Paul Schneider was a German pastor who spoke out against the Nazis from an early date. He was arrested for the first time in June 1934 when he rebuked a Nazi official for invoking Horst Wessel during a Christian funeral ceremony. By the spring of 1937, he had begun the process of excommunicating parishioners who swore allegiance to the Nazi party. He was arrested for two months and forbidden to return to his parish. He returned to preach and was arrested once again. This time, he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. While in the Concentration Camp, he earned the wrath of the authorities for continuing to preach against the Nazi regime and for refusing to remove his beret in honor of Hitler’s birthday.

On July 18, 1939, he was executed by lethal injection.

8/14/41: Maximilian Kolbe

Nationality: Polish
Religion: Catholic

Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic friar who founded and supervised a monastery near Warsaw, a radio station and several publications. He also founded a monastery on the outskirts of Nagasaki which survived the nuclear blast there.

After his area was occupied by the Germans, he was briefly arrested. When he returned, he and his fellow friars began to organize a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, including 2,000 Jews. He spoke out against the Nazi atrocities by amateur radio and in his publications. Early in 1941, he wrote:

No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?

On February 17, 1941, he was arrested and sent to the Pawiak prison near Warsaw. On May 28, 1941, he was deported from Pawiak to Auschwitz. In the summer of 1941, there was an escape from the camp. Ten prisoners were selected for execution in reprisal. One of those chosen cried out that he had a family. Father Kolbe volunteered to take his place. The prisoners were taken to underground cells where they were deprived of food and water. After two weeks, Father Kolbe still had not died, so he was killed with an injection of carbolic acid.

He was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church on October 10, 1982.

7/26/42: Titus Brandsma

Nationality: Dutch
Religion: Catholic

Father Brandsma was ordained in 1905 and earned a Ph.D. in 1909. When the Germans invaded Holland, the church instructed that sacraments not be given to Catholics who supported the Nazi regime. Father Brandsma incurred the wrath of the Nazis when he delivered a letter from the Catholic bishops to Catholic editors enjoining them from printing Nazi publications.

Father Brandsma was arrested on January 19, 1942 and sent to Dachau. When his health began to fail, the Nazis used him for biological experiments. He was executed by lethal injection on July 26, 1942.

He was declared Blessed, a preliminary step to sainthood in November 1985.

8/9/42: Edith Stein

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. In 1922, she converted to the Catholic faith. She was a teacher until 1933, when she was forced to resign because of anti-Semitic legislation. At that point, she entered a monastery. Her order transferred her to the Netherlands to avoid Nazi persecution. On July 26, 1942, the Reichskomissar ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts in the Netherlands. Edith and her sister Rosa were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. She was gassed on August 9, 1942. She was canonized by the Catholic Church on May 1, 1987.

11/15/43: Bernhard Lichtenberg

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Father Lichtenberg was a Catholic priest. As early as 1933, he encouraged the church to intervene against Anti-Semitic legislation being passed. When he was placed in charge of the Relief Office of the German episcopate, he assisted many Catholics of Jewish descent in emigrating away from Germany.

After Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, Father Lichtenberg began to pray daily from his pulpit in the St. Hedwig Cathedral for both Jews and Jewish Christians. He was denounced by two women students who heard him praying for the Jews and was arrested on October 23, 1941. When they searched his home, they found a proclamation which he planned to deliver on the upcoming Sunday. It stated,

An anonymous slanderous sheet against the Jews is being distributed to Berlin houses. This leaflet states that every German who supports Jews with an ostensibly false sentimentality, be it only through friendly kindness, commits treason against his people. Let us not be misled by this un-Christian way of thinking but follow the strict command of Jesus Christ: ‘You shall love you neighbor as you love yourself’.

In 1942, he wrote a letter to the chief physician of the Reich protesting the euthanasia program, stating,

I, as a human being, a Christian, a priest, and a German demand of you, Chief Physician of the Reich, that you answer for the crimes that have been perpetrated at your bidding, and with your consent, and which will call forth the vengeance of the Lord on the heads of the German people.

In May 1942, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment on account of abuse of the pulpit and insidious activity. Toward the end of his sentence, he was given the option to be released if he would refrain from preaching. Instead, he asked to be allowed to accompany the deported Jews and Jewish Christians to Lodz, Poland to serve there as a pastoral minister. He was ordered interred at Dachau Concentration Camp, but died while waiting to be deported.

On June 23, 1996, he was awarded the title of Blessed, a preliminary step to sainthood.

On July 7, 2004, he was recognized as a Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

2/17/44: Franz Kauffman

Nationality: German
Religion: Protestant

Franz Kaufmann was born to Jewish parents but was baptized a protestant. In 1936, he was dismissed from his post with the German government based on his Jewish origins.

He was protected from deportation because he was married to an Aryan woman and had raised his daughter as a Christian.

Beginning in 1940, he was active in the Confessing Church, the protestant opposition to the German state church. He joined an underground group which provided false identity papers to fugitive Jews.

He was arrested in October 1943. On February 17, 1944, he was taken to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp and shot. Before he died, he was asked why he did what he did. He replied:

My deep roots in a Christian standpoint, and my mature years, have no doubt given me a heightened awareness of the need and suffering that can afflict the individual more or less through no fault of his own. That made me, unintentionally, a focus and meeting point for Jewish fugitives. I could not disappoint their trust and their hope that I could give them, including giving emotional support. I offered my help not because they were Jews, but because they were people, in need and afraid.

1/23/45: James Helmuth von Moltke

Nationality: German
Religion: Lutheran

James Helmuth von Moltke was a German aristocrat and lawyer. He was a great nephew of a famous von Moltke who was a general for Bismark. He married a woman from South Africa and had friends in England, France and elsewhere. Prior to the war, he practiced as an attorney in London for a time.

As war approached, he was a legal advisor in the Abwehr, the German military intelligence. After he was arrested, he wrote, “Ever since National Socialism came to power, I have done my best to mitigate the consequences for its victims and prepare for a change.”

He used his legal skills to engage in bureaucratic infighting to avert the worst abuses of the Nazi regime. He intervened on behalf of prisoners of war and to oppose the killing of civilian hostages in occupied territories.

By 1941, he was convinced of two things: that the Nazi regime was violating international law and basic human rights and that it would be defeated. Among other things, he was aware that the deportation of the Jews was not simply a re-location at an early date. He raged against members of his family who collaborated with the Nazis.

While continuing to work at his government job, he met with leaders of the opposition. While he opposed the assassination of Hitler, he and his group, known as the Kreisau Circle, made plans for a post-defeat Germany. He also used his diplomatic connections to attempt to make communication with the West.

In January 1944, he warned a friend that he was under surveillance by the Gestapo. For this, he was taken into protective custody. The failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler on July 20, 1944 brought Moltke under suspicion. He was tried for treason in January 1945.

Among the charges brought against him were that he had discussed matters of state without having a member of the National Socialist Party present and that he had a defeatist attitude.

During his trial, the judge stated, “one thing Christianity and we National Socialists have in common, and only one: we demand the whole man.”

He was executed on January 23, 1945.

One legacy which von Moltke left the world was his extensive correspondence with his wife. His letters provide an inside view of what it meant to be an opponent of the Third Reich, as well as what the war looked like from the German side. One terrible irony is that the anti-Hitler plotters faced death not only from the German regime but from allied bombing raids. While they sought the defeat of the Nazi regime, the very attacks which would bring about that end placed them in peril as well.

2/2/45: Alfred Delp

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Alfred Delp was a Catholic priest who was a member of the Kreisau Circle with James Helmuth von Moltke. His role was to teach Catholic social teaching to the group. Father Delp was arrested on July 28, 1944. He was offered release if he would leave the Jesuits, but he refused. He was sentenced to death for treason and hanged on February 2, 1945. The judge who condemned him was killed in an air raid the next day.

His last words, spoken to the prison chaplain were “In half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.”

4/9/45: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Nationality: German
Religion: Lutheran

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young pastor when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer gave a radio address warning that Germany was slipping into an idolatrous cult of the Fuhrer. He was cut off in mid-sentence. Bonhoeffer was one of the founders of the Confessing Church in March 1934. The Barmen Declaration adopted by the Confessing Church proclaimed that Christ and not the Fuhrer was the head of the church.

After his authorization to teach was revoked in August 1936, he founded an underground seminary. He began meeting with members of the German resistance in February 1938. Although he briefly taught in the United States during 1939, he returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer before the start of the war.

Back in Germany, he was forbidden to speak in public and required to report to the police. Through his contacts with German military intelligence (the Abwehr), he became convinced that Hitler should be assassinated. Bonhoeffer and his brother in law, Hans von Dohanyi, were involved in an Abwehr operation to help German Jews escape to Switzerland. He traveled abroad to rally support for the opposition under the cover of the Abwehr.

On April 6, 1943, Bonhoeffer and Dohanyi were arrested in a turf war between the SS and the Abwehr. After the failure of July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler failed, his connection to the conspirators was discovered. He was tried by the SS on April 8, 1945 and was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945.

The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote:

I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Sensitivity and the Ground Zero Mosque

After the initial criticism of plans to build an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero raised questions of bigotry and hypocrisy, opponents have taken a new tack. Yes, Muslims have freedom of religion and the right to private property. However, it just wouldn't be sensitive to build a mosque so close to Ground Zero.

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said:

At its essence, our position is about sensitivity. Everyone -- victims,opponents and proponents alike -- must pay attention to the sensitivities involved without giving in to appeals to, or accusations of, bigotry. Ultimately, this was not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center would un-necessarily cause some victims more pain. And that wasn't right.

When you frame the debate in terms of sensitivity, it all seems so reasonable, but is it? Sensitivity is such a subjective standard that it can used to disguise almost any motivation, whether noble or crass.

A few examples.

In the 1950s, the University of Texas fought a rear guard action to limit entry of African Americans into the school. One of the ways they did this was to only allow black students into classes which were predominately male, such as engineering. That way, white girls would be spared the insensitivity of having to attend classes with the "coloreds." What passed for sensitivity in the 1950s appears as plain old bigotry today.

Much of the international community (by which I mean Europe) considers Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to be insensitive. Should Israel forsake its security because some Belgians have had their sensitivities offended?

I have a real problem with someone saying yes you have the legal right to do something, but we think you shouldn't because it is insensitive. In this case, the proposed Islamic center is intended to replace a Manhattan mosque which has outgrown its space. The existing mosque has been there for 30 years and is twelve blocks from Ground Zero. There is no indication that the existing mosque has any ties to radicals.

If it is insensitive to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, would it have been insensitive to build one on the existing site, which is twelve blocks away? If it would be insensitive to allow a new mosque to be built within twelve blocks of Ground Zero, would it be insensitive to allow an existing one to remain in place? If the families of the victims of 9/11 said that it would be insensitive to allow mosques in the home towns of any of the victims, would we be required to honor their wishes? Where does it end?

Fareed Zakharia has an excellent piece in Newsweek. He points out that after 9/11, it became the policy of the United States government to provide support to the non-radical elements of the Muslim community. He points out that if this mosque were in a foreign country, the U.S. would probably be paying for it. This brings up two points. First, isn't it insensitive to tell Muslims who have had a mosque in Manhattan for 30 years that they are not welcome in their own country? Second, if we drive out the non-radical elements of the Muslim community, who will be left? Would our insensitivity give rise to the very thing we fear?

To me, it comes down to rights, not sensitivities. This is about freedom of religion and freedom of private property. Denying those fundamental American rights would be insensitive.

Post-script: When I went off to college, I noticed that there were some people who were always getting upset and demanding apologies. In time, I came to believe that some people just enjoy being upset. There wasn't much of a point in placating them, because they would find something else to be offended by. I think there is a parallel here. If you cave in to the most easily offended, you will be doing a lot of caving in.

Why I Will Not Be Voting for Rick Perry

Rick Perry will probably elected to yet another term this November. However, he will have to do so without my vote. At one time, I respected Perry as a conservative leader. No more. Here is why.

1. Rick Perry has become a professional politician. He has served as Agriculture Commissioner, Lieutenant Governor and Governor for the past twenty years. He has spent more time in the Governor's office than anyone else. One reason that many conservatives favor term limits is that life-tenure politicians tend to forget what it is like to have to make a living in the private sector. The longer the time in office, the greater the temptation toward corruption and arrogance. That seems to be the case with Rick Perry. During his tenure, he has grown wealthy on sweetheart land deals. After the Governor's mansion burned down, he rented a $10,000 a month home at the taxpayer's expense. Governor Rick is living high off the hog while I am struggling to pay my bills.

2. Rick Perry never saw an execution he didn't like. As a Christian, I have qualms about the death penalty. I am realistic enough to believe that death penalty and guilt don't always go together. Rick Perry had a rare chance to commute a death sentence recently. Under the law of parties, an accomplice to a murderer is treated the same as if he had pulled the trigger himself. In one case, the accomplice received the death penalty while the actual murderer received life in prison. The Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is usually a rubber stamp for prosecutors, recommended that the death sentence be commuted. Rick Perry said no. In another case, it appears that the State wrongfully executed an innocent man based on junk forensic science. Rick Perry still insists on the dead man's guilt and shuffled the Forensic Science Commission just as it was about to release a report on the case.

3. Rick Perry is not a very truthful person. PolitiFact Texas tracks statements by and about public figures. Rick Perry has had eight statements rated true or mostly true and twelve statements rated false or pants on fire, a category for ridiculous lies. He accused Bill White of profiteering from Hurricane Rita but couldn't back up the statement. Perry accused Bill White of race-baiting when White said that he wanted to be a servant rather than a master. Of course, Bill White, the former Sunday School teacher, was merely using Christian imagery. Finally, he accused White of presiding over the construction of a large abortion clinic, when the truth was that White did nothing other than be mayor at the time that Planned Parenthood was building its clinic. I realize that politics is a contact sport. However, someone who claims to be a Christian could run a more positive campaign and try to get his facts right. To me, this goes back to point number one. Once you are addicted to government power, you will say or do anything to hang onto it.

I don't think I'll be running out to join the Democrat Party anytime soon. There are too many issues that we don't see eye to eye on. However, Rick Perry is one Republican that I will not be voting for again, whether it is in the 2010 election or the 2022 election when he is running for Governor for Life.