Defending the Public

This post has been a long time coming, and I'm sorry that I can't seem to get my act together to write much recently.  The new job takes a lot of brain space, even when I'm home and ostensibly doing something else... like cooking or reading or laundry.  I think about it a lot, and so far, I think that's a good thing. 

So, that new job.

A little over a month ago, I became a public defender.  This job is definitely what I want to be doing.  I didn't end up as a public defender as some people seem to.  I set out to be one, and I'm thrilled.  And in the short time I've been one, I've already become more sure that I'm doing something necessary and vital for our society, adding some weight to the high side of the scales of justice to bring them back into balance again.  

Of course, not everyone sees it that way.  I've already gotten the question -- from the waffle cart guy, from my dentist, from my law school buddy the assistant district attorney -- the question that every PD comes to expect:  How you defend those people?  

Those people.

Who are those people?  Them, over there, not like us.

So, while I'm happy to explain why I do what I do, I'm already really freaking tired of the assumption people make that they are somehow better than my clients.

My clients are poor, yes.  Many of them have committed crimes, yes.  Many of them actually committed the very crimes they were convicted of.  Bu they are human beings, and I help them.  Even if it weren't my job, it would be the right thing to do.

I am appalled by the way many people seem able to totally dismiss other human beings, to behave as though their poverty, their bad choices, their mental illnesses or their drug addictions have somehow rendered them beyond compassion and beyond help.  It frightens me how easily my clients are dismissed, how hard it is to convince others that the system cannot be fair and right for us if it is not also fair and right for everyone.  

I'll probably be writing a lot more about my work, at least to the extent that I am able to without disclosing confidential information or compromising my ability to do my very best and professional advocacy for them, but I just wanted to open with this because it's the most fundamental and basic thing about what I do, and even if I lose sight of it in the technicalities and specifics later on, it's here as a foundation: I help people.  Yes.  Those People.