Rediscovering Reading

Every once in awhile I shock myself by sitting down with a good book and truly enjoying myself. I got far too wasted last night and have absolutely no ambition to go out tonight and be social. Briana is gone, so I dont have to feel like I am missing anything major by being anti-social either... So in the face of a Friday night home alone, I started to wonder if I would begin to feel lonely. I picked up one of the many books I have been meaning to get to, and have completely enjoyed myself in that moment. I should make more time for reading for enjoyment (as much as I enjoy reading Civil Procedure).

I had a really good talk with Will yesterday. I base my friendships on moments when people need me or I need someone else, and he needed to hear from me just about then. Some dick friend of his had written a horribly mean email about him and forwarded it to a bunch of friends, essentially causing Will to question his relationships. There isnt much I could tell Will except that he is a fantastic friend, and that I miss him a ton. Its funny because I feel like I grew so much for knowing him. I had spent the last week listening to music he exposed me to, having political thoughts that he had swayed me towards... even watching the O.C. which was our guilty pleasure senior year. The more I think about it, the more i get pissed off at the person who maliciously went after one of my best friends.

I sat in domestic abuse court Thursday morning. It was both interesting and intriguing. The judge was compassionate and respectful to the defendants, but I saw him exercise his wrath a few times too. One guy had violated a no-contact order by calling the victim from jail, and the judge just about went ape-shit. What was even more interesting for me though was that of the 15 or so defendants that I saw, only one was white. Domestic Abuse statistics really cover all demographics, so why there was such a racial discrepancy here, I dont have any idea. But my observation was more focused on the system: Here are all these black defendants sitting in front of a white judge, prosecuted by a white ADA, led in by white bailiffs, reporting to a white probation officer, being defended by a white PD. The only black people in the system other than the defendant were the two court reporters, who have little interaction in the proceedings.

I went to a diversity dinner a couple of weeks back, and one of the speakers, a black judge, talked about the fact that if there is the appearence that justice isnt served, then the court systems have failed and justice will fail. The courts can be perfectly fair, but if defendants think that they are getting a bum rap because of their race, then they will not respect what they have done nor the punishment that they receive. The system will fail. Judge Zimmerman, the judge I was visiting, said that it is important to him that in respecting the defendants and being patient with them, he hopes that everyone who walks out of the court will know that they deserved their punishment because of their actions, not because the judge was white. Especially noticiable was that even with a packed docket, Judge Z took the time to greet each defendant with "Good Morning Sir," and really tried to make sure he was pronouncing everyone's names correctly. This was pretty cool to watch.

Anyway, I am starting to feel like I need to crack the whip on myself about classes. I missed a full day today, and have been failing to pay attention in Contracts and Civil Procedure lately. Not good. That is definitely going to catch up with me. Damn you Snood/Freecell/PartyPoker.com/AIM/email/Slate.com. See? Just too many distractions.

As for now, I am ready for bed, happy to have refound the contentment in a good book, and thinking of all the good friends I have. Warm and happy thoughts. Nice.