My best friend, Christine, just found out she has passed the Minnesota Bar Exam. I’m thrilled for her not just because she’s my best friend but because her achievement required overcoming some very tough obstacles.
First, she’s an older student, having passed the bar at 50. Second, she is legally blind making her achievement that much more remarkable. Christine has never let her “disability” stand in the way of anything, but it hasn’t been easy either. The law school she attended was slow to meet her needs of enlarged print. In some instances she never got the textbooks with enlarged print, but Christine didn’t let that stop her and read what she had to. Taking exams at another location on campus because of accommodations was often a guessing game - would the Procter show up? But she persevered.
Even after law school more obstacles popped up. Taking the Professionally Responsibilities examine, she was told by the test administrators they weren’t a printing house and couldn’t provide the exam in the large print. They could give her double time, but that wasn’t what she needed. The bar exam officials had no problem accommodating her and she passed with flying colors.
Christine has been my best friend for 25 years, so I’m used to her overcoming obstacles that to a lesser individual would seem daunting. Taking the bar under normal circumstances is extremely tough - a two day exam process in Minnesota that is unbelievably stressful. But she passed with flying colors. This is a woman who has kicked the concept of "disability" in shins as she went on to prove others wrong and succeed spectacularly. She is embarking on a completely new career endeavor and I have no doubt Christine will make one hell of an attorney.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Are Minnesotans Really That Dumb?
That's the question my mom is asking as the endless recount for the winner of our Senate seat drags on. Al Franken has been declared the winner TWICE but Norm Coleman isn't giving up. Next stop, the Minnesota Supreme Court, and most likely after that, the U.S. Supreme Court. Ugh.
Mom's question stems from the number of spoiled ballots accepted, denied, or recounted. In Nebraska, if a voter spoils a ballot, they simply ask for a new one (There's a concept!). Admittedly, some of the spoiled ballots were absentee ballots, still, it's hard to fathom voters making the kinds of weird errors like voting for the wrong candidate that have occurred, but you'd have to live hear to get the full effect of voter stupidity.
For all the complaints and frustrations regarding the recount, there's one aspect not being mentioned and it's this: the only reason Norm Coleman became senator was due to Paul Wellstone's untimely death in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. Had the very popular Wellstone (and several others, including his wife, Sheila) not perished, Coleman most likely would never have become Senator from Minnesota.
We are currently the laughing-stock of the nation. Let's resolve this and move on.
Mom's question stems from the number of spoiled ballots accepted, denied, or recounted. In Nebraska, if a voter spoils a ballot, they simply ask for a new one (There's a concept!). Admittedly, some of the spoiled ballots were absentee ballots, still, it's hard to fathom voters making the kinds of weird errors like voting for the wrong candidate that have occurred, but you'd have to live hear to get the full effect of voter stupidity.
For all the complaints and frustrations regarding the recount, there's one aspect not being mentioned and it's this: the only reason Norm Coleman became senator was due to Paul Wellstone's untimely death in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. Had the very popular Wellstone (and several others, including his wife, Sheila) not perished, Coleman most likely would never have become Senator from Minnesota.
We are currently the laughing-stock of the nation. Let's resolve this and move on.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Is The Tomboy Dead?
This morning’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article “Tomboys in Tutus” asking where have the Tomboy’s gone? On the surface the story is about the dubious transformation of Dora the Explorer, the new version which will launch this fall. Gone are her shorts, backpack, sensible walking shoes, and thirst for exploring. The “classic Dora” is cited as one the few role models for girls not teetering on high heels, wearing too much make-up, and she’s marketed to pre-schooler’s of both genders. Dora is what used to be called a Tomboy.
Asking if the tomboy is an endangered species, the piece cites classic tomboys (and wonderful role models) like Scout Finch, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Hepburn, Althea Gibson, and another staple of preteen fiction, Harriet the Spy. The new, “improved” Dora is older, wears make-up, heels, and is no longer interested in learning about the world around her but rather in shopping. Is this an evil marketing ploy to turn girls from being bilingual adventurers to vapid shopaholics? Young girls don’t need the marketing driven pressure to wonder whether they’re pretty enough, stylish enough, and God forbid, thin enough at increasingly earlier ages.
Having recently read To Kill a Mockingbird, I loved the depth, sense of adventure, and thirst for knowledge of Scout, who many say author Harper Lee based on herself. That led to me to consider my own eight nieces ranging in age from 23 to four. While some took the “girly route” focusing on clothes, make-up, and hair color, most are a combination of tomboy and girly-girl. Like Scout, Em punched more than a few boys in the nose when they dared tease her, and Hollynn gives her three older brothers a run for their money in intelligence and standing up for herself, thank you very much. But they both loved dolls and dress up.
I then thought of my youngest brothers three daughters 11, 8, and 4. My sister-in-law wondered if Katrina (their middle child) would be her “girly-girl”, not that there’s anything wrong with pink tutus and frills. But my “girly-girl” niece surprised both her parents at her first soccer game, by growling at the opposing team prior to game time. I still think marketers need to seriously back off with the warped images of what girls should aspire to, but my nieces give me faith the tomboy is far from dead.
Asking if the tomboy is an endangered species, the piece cites classic tomboys (and wonderful role models) like Scout Finch, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Hepburn, Althea Gibson, and another staple of preteen fiction, Harriet the Spy. The new, “improved” Dora is older, wears make-up, heels, and is no longer interested in learning about the world around her but rather in shopping. Is this an evil marketing ploy to turn girls from being bilingual adventurers to vapid shopaholics? Young girls don’t need the marketing driven pressure to wonder whether they’re pretty enough, stylish enough, and God forbid, thin enough at increasingly earlier ages.
Having recently read To Kill a Mockingbird, I loved the depth, sense of adventure, and thirst for knowledge of Scout, who many say author Harper Lee based on herself. That led to me to consider my own eight nieces ranging in age from 23 to four. While some took the “girly route” focusing on clothes, make-up, and hair color, most are a combination of tomboy and girly-girl. Like Scout, Em punched more than a few boys in the nose when they dared tease her, and Hollynn gives her three older brothers a run for their money in intelligence and standing up for herself, thank you very much. But they both loved dolls and dress up.
I then thought of my youngest brothers three daughters 11, 8, and 4. My sister-in-law wondered if Katrina (their middle child) would be her “girly-girl”, not that there’s anything wrong with pink tutus and frills. But my “girly-girl” niece surprised both her parents at her first soccer game, by growling at the opposing team prior to game time. I still think marketers need to seriously back off with the warped images of what girls should aspire to, but my nieces give me faith the tomboy is far from dead.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
To Kill a Mockingbird
For my American Legal Systems class, we had the opportunity to read To Kill a Mockingbird. Having never read the novel, I did so over spring break. Reading the book as an adult, it’s easy to how the book won a Pulitzer Prize and why it’s considered nothing less than a masterpiece that still rings true today.
First, much of the story centers on Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of rape in whom Atticus Finch represents. Atticus knows he most likely will lose the case due to racial prejudice, and he does. The story takes place in Alabama in 1935 and it struck me as no less than amazing we were able to elect the first African-American president less than 75 years later.
Second, Entertainment Weekly has a “Heroes and Villains” issue this week. Number 19 under Heroes is Atticus Finch. Why him? According to the magazine, “In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and in the movie with Gregory peck, Atticus transforms quiet decency, legal acumen, and great parenting into the most heroic qualities a man can have.”
Third, Scout Finch, through whom the story is told, is a great role-model for girls. Even in 1935 Alabama, you know she will shatter preconceptions about what a girl should be and make her own, unique mark on the world.
First, much of the story centers on Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of rape in whom Atticus Finch represents. Atticus knows he most likely will lose the case due to racial prejudice, and he does. The story takes place in Alabama in 1935 and it struck me as no less than amazing we were able to elect the first African-American president less than 75 years later.
Second, Entertainment Weekly has a “Heroes and Villains” issue this week. Number 19 under Heroes is Atticus Finch. Why him? According to the magazine, “In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and in the movie with Gregory peck, Atticus transforms quiet decency, legal acumen, and great parenting into the most heroic qualities a man can have.”
Third, Scout Finch, through whom the story is told, is a great role-model for girls. Even in 1935 Alabama, you know she will shatter preconceptions about what a girl should be and make her own, unique mark on the world.
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