Sad Things On My Mind.

I've had a few things on my mind.



If you bicycle and you can make out the white bike amidst the flowers and candles you know what this is. A boy on his bike was hit by a car and killed on Easter in the crosswalk at an intersection near my house. He was thrown 100 feet. The car, a Mercedes Benz, did not stop.
Did. Not. Stop.

Friends of the boy, who would have graduated from high school this June, keep the flowers fresh and the candles lit.

I pass by this corner every day.

Then there was this on Patriots' Day in Boston.



Not in my neighborhood, but it still seems to matter.
More people were probably killed in Damascus that day. But

But

I have nothing to follow that but.

And then this.

Walmart, H&M and Gap: Do your part to stop the murders of garment workers in BangladeshHere is a report on conditions in Dhaka Bangladesh, prompted by the Tazreen Fashion fire last November, and why they are so hard to change.

There is so little I can do about any of this but at least I try not to buy new clothes.

How To Dress For The Revolution

Vogue Options 8575, of course. Here I am attempting an action shot and nearly running down DS in the process.



I actually never ride without a helmet, but here I'm wearing my National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer hat because my plan for the day included checking out the Los Angeles version of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles. I didn't get to City Hall until around 7 p.m., having put 25 miles on my bicycle and a delicious roast beef sandwich from the Coffee Table Bistro in Eagle Rock into my stomach, but the revolution was still going strong when I finally arrived. (Obviously, when the revolution succeeds I am toast!)

As far as I could tell I was the only Legal Observer there but that was not a problem: our role is to insure that any police interference with free speech is documented by careful neutral witnesses. There was nothing to Observe because the LAPD had agreed not to bother the protesters unless there was trouble, and there is seldom trouble at a demonstration until the police show up. This group is particularly orderly (anarchists notwithstanding), making a really serious effort to entertain all views and operate by consensus. They have about a dozen committees (I listened to them report at a general assembly) including one working on a list of demands. I love them all!

I spent a couple of hours wandering around talking to people. I spoke to several old Baby Boomers quietly taking it all in who told me they had been waiting their whole lives for something like this. As have I.

Learning All The Time

One of the wisest things I've ever read about teaching--especially teaching law--is that it is very good for a professor to take lessons in something difficult in one's spare time--a new language, piano, auto mechanics, etc. The idea is never to lose touch with what it is like to be utterly bewildered and unable to master a new skill despite great efforts to do so. I think sewing might fit the bill for me. Today's example: I have now made Simplicity 2580 three times, each time using the same traced version of the pattern, each time without major mistakes. The only real difference among these three versions is the fabric:

Opus 1: a hearty cotton jersey:
Does she have her hoodie on back to front?

Opus 2: a much thinner, limper cotton-poly jersey:
Look! That was supposed to be a cowl neck! Who knew?

Opus 3: silk jersey from yesterday:
This one's only decent because I tucked it into my bra--otherwise it sags below my underwear.

So, just as when my students ask me a question about law and I answer with a question, the answer to "will this fit?" is "what are you making it out of?"

Sigh.

Mourning Has Broken

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - Jessica Dovey

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr

ht Rosemary Wessel
Corrected, 5/4/11.

May the Fourth be with you.

Fabric Shopping in LA's Fashion District

I spent half of November on jury duty. Despite being a lawyer and law professor, I was empaneled on the jury in a medical malpractice case tried in Downtown Los Angeles. This is the third time I've served on a jury in the 17 years I've been teaching law; plus once when I was a practicing lawyer I put in 3 months (once a week) on a federal grand jury. I love sitting on juries--observing trial techniques (or lack thereof) to enrich my teaching, and then being astonished and impressed when the non-lawyer jurors start to deliberate. I forget how warped my perceptions have been by my legal training and experience.

Anyway, we were summoned at 10 one morning but after we jurors had sat around in the hallway for a half hour or so we were told we would not be needed until 1:30. So I hopped a bus down to the fashion district which, despite living in Los Angeles for 25 years, I had never seen.

What fun! I'd way rather wander around Santee Alley and Maple Ave. than plod through Disneyland again. These crappy cell-phone pics don't do it justice, but I'm posting them anyway because I FINALLY figured out how to liberate the pics from my phone!



I marched bravely into Michael Levine and was completely overwhelmed.



Eventually I got my eyes to focus and managed to buy some grey rayon-poly doubleknit, with which I plan to make a suit or dress to hang in my office to change into after I've cycled to work or when I've forgotten to dress up, and some yummy gold, rust, black and metallic stuff for a dressy-ish T.



AND to find my way back to court to sit in judgment with my peers. (Defense verdict at the end of the week.) A good day.

On Sewing Us Together

and not tearing us apart.

Court Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Ban in California
By JESSE McKINLEY and JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: August 4, 2010
A federal judge struck down a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, handing a temporary victory to gay rights advocates in a legal battle likely to be settled by the Supreme Court.

Yes, yes.