“It’s that every now and again – not often, but occasionally – you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.”

In 1993 I was 17 years old and in my last year of high school.  While I didn’t have a strong idea as to what would be the focus of my collegiate career, I was certainly interested in the legal profession, at least from the standpoint of how it was dramatized in books, television shows, and movies.  So when the movie “Philadelphia” starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington was released, it was a no-brainer that I would go see it.  Aside from the basic plot point of Tom Hanks having AIDS and the lawsuit being brought against his employers for wrongful termination, not much else truly resonated with me at the time I saw the movie.  I remember that I didn’t particularly enjoy the movie, but I think a lot of that was because despite being a movie portraying the legal profession, it wasn’t a “whodunit” or a thrilling courtroom drama.  There was no smoking gun or dramatic cross-examination where the bad guy admitted his crime on the witness stand. 

For the most part I think I felt uncomfortable by the subject matter and its portrayal.  Remember that I was only 17 years old and there was still a lot about AIDS that was unknown, other than that Magic Johnson had it and even then it was unclear as to how he had contracted it.  Straight people don’t contract AIDS, right?

I happened to catch the end of the movie on television just last week and I was compelled to watch it.  As a candid admission, I don’t watch much television anymore.  The shows I used to watch are no longer appointment television for me and unless it is the Dodger game or MLB network, I pretty much won’t turn the television on.  But I happened to have the set on while folding up my clothes and I found myself glued to the screen for the final 15 minutes of the movie.

If you haven’t seen the movie or don’t recall it very well, in the last 15 minutes the senior partner of Tom Hanks’ character’s law firm is on the stand testifying while at the same time Hanks is visibly weakening at the plaintiff’s table, until he collapses on the floor of the courtroom, his condition exacting its final toll.  The trial concludes and Hanks passes away a short time later.  The final scene is the gathering after Hanks’ passing and footage of home movies of Hanks’ character as a young boy, his whole life ahead of him.

As I sat there watching the end of the movie and neglecting my socks and shirts, I couldn’t help but being moved.  The movie has not changed in 19 years, but it is clear that I have and, even more impressively, our society has.  Twenty years ago we didn’t know much about AIDS, but the belief was that if you had it, your time was short.  Drugs like “AZT” were unproven and society was still confused as to how it was contracted.  I remember being taught in junior high school health class that if you had a cut on your lip and you kissed someone who had AIDS who had a cut on their lip, you could contract AIDS.  I think many of us had this image of invisible AIDS viruses jumping between open cuts on lips like radio waves.  Many of us also believed that AIDS only affected same-sex couples and that so long as we weren’t in a same-sex relationship we were safe from infection.

I am cynical by nature.  With the vast number of foundations and charities that exist and the millions and millions of dollars that are contributed to cancer research or AIDS research or the like, I have always questioned how the funds are being used if terrible diseases like breast cancer and AIDS are still affecting so many people.  We have been seeing the red ribbons for decades (it seems) and yet the disease is still there; it isn’t eradicated yet.

We always ask what has been done lately; we so rarely have the ability to jump 20 years back and see just how much progress has actually been made.  But if you are interested, take another look at “Philadelphia.”  It is absolutely astonishing to see how far we have come in just a short 19 years.  The millions of dollars that have been raised to combat this terrible disease has paid dividends on top of dividends.  There is no cure yet, but it seems that so much more is understood about it and, more importantly, those people afflicted with it have so many more opportunities to live productive and fulfilling lives despite having the disease.  If I had told you 20 years ago that Magic Johnson would own the Dodgers in 2012, you would have called me crazy.  There seems no stopping him.

It’s the end of the Thanksgiving holiday and we have spent the last week, hopefully, thinking about what we are thankful for.  While I don’t know anyone off-hand afflicted with AIDS, I certainly have known a fair share of family and friends who have been afflicted by some kind of devastating disease.  And I must give a tremendous amount of thanks to all of the people who have donated, have studied, have researched and have contributed to the great strides that have been made in just the last 20 years. 

Imagine how much more progress can be made in the next 20 years?  Although I don’t see any reason to wait that long, if you catch my drift.

Have a great week.

Advertisements

“Those goddamn Kennedys are gonna destroy this country if we don’t do something about this!”

Friends:

As many of you know, I was a history major in college.  At the time, I viewed it as a means to an end, a discipline that would hopefully prepare me for law school.  Lots of reading and lots of writing.  Along the way, however, I actually began to enjoy history.  Sure, when you are younger it seems that history is just dates and events, but what actually became more interesting to me were the befores, durings and afters of those events.  In a weird sort of way, studying history has actually made me a more effective attorney; because you cannot analyze facts and circumstances in a vacuum.  You must first decipher how we got here, then determine which course of action will provide the most preferable outcome.  History is, interestingly enough, fraught with people who focused on the during and didn’t pay appropriate attention to the afters.  In fact, some of our enemies started out as allies.  For example, Russia, one of our allies in World War II, became our most feared enemy only a few years later.  Was it because we didn’t think further enough into the future as to the ramifications of our “friendship?”

Despite my interest in history, however, there are aspects of it which have always been off-limits and verboten.  Specifically, anything associated with President Kennedy and his term in office. 

For whatever reason, one which I cannot fully explain or comprehend, the years of Camelot are nightmare-inducing for me.  If I had to guess, I would say that the vast majority of my sleepless nights are because of the Holocaust and the Kennedy assassination.  I think we can all agree that the Kennedy presidency was particularly eventful and historical.  From the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Space Race, President Kennedy found a way to have an eventful two and a half years in office.  But the circumstances of his assassination have always loomed large in any studies of those years in office. 

Yet there is one aspect of his Presidency and his life in general which fascinates me and of which I am desperate to learn more.  No, it isn’t his relationship with Marilyn Monroe.  It’s his relationship with his brother, Robert. 

I haven’t studied the relationship in great detail, but simply from some of the movie dramatizations I have seen and books I have read, it appears to me that JFK and RFK had a bond and connection that some might find to be unusually close.  I find that utterly fascinating. 

You may ask why this, of all other aspects of the Kennedy Presidency, captivates me so.  The answer is—because I am an identical twin.  No, I know that JFK and RFK weren’t twins, but at times it seemed that their relationship was much more symbiotic.  Have you seen any of the movies?  Perhaps you’ve seen the movie “Thirteen Days” with Kevin Costner about the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I had a chance to see the movie again just the other day and the portrayal of the relationship between the brothers was staggering in its intimacy and closeness.  But it wasn’t anything overt in the dramatization.  It was far more subtle—quick glances between the two, isolated and private huddles, and understated gestures.

At times we feel that it is us against the world, that there is no one out there that we can count on or depend on; that the weight of the world rests square on our shoulders and there is no helping hand or friendly face around.  I am sure that President Kennedy felt that way as well, however he knew that despite everyone else in the world who may have second-guessed him, felt that he was unqualified for the job, or just plain ill-prepared to run the nation, his brother was right there with him.  It wasn’t JFK against the world; it was he against the world with his brother right behind him. 

I have never been alone.  I lived with my brother until I was 26 years old and even then, I moved out in order to move in with my wife.  Phil and I have a bond that I doubt people understand or will ever comprehend.  And since I have never been alone, I don’t know how the other 99% of the population lives.  I don’t know what it is like to not have that built-in support system there; to not have that synergy that is forged not just by blood but by a shared language, a shared interconnection.  So I am fascinated when I see instances of similar relationships.  Look, I already know that being an identical twin makes me a freak of nature.  But to what extent?

I doubt that I have done a sufficient job of explaining what the relationship between my brother and me is like.  The way we can speak without words but by eye contact; the way we know what each other is thinking and can sometimes even feel the same sensations.  I sometimes feel like I am the only person on the face of the earth who feels this way and has this type of connection.  I sometimes even wonder if Phil feels it, but I am pretty sure he does.  But does it exist anywhere else in the world?

And then I see how JFK and RFK were.  Maybe they didn’t have a connection on the same level of identical twins, but it sure seems like they got awfully close.  I guess I can deal with the issues of the assassination and the nightmares that may be attendant if only to learn more about the relationship.  That fascinates me as an historian but also as a twin.

“United States government just asked us to save the world. Anybody wanna say no?”

Friends: 

I think that it is fair to say that we live in scary and dangerous times.  For as much as we may want to deny or ignore it, the world around us is frightening, especially for us as Americans.  In fact, it is likely the case that there are more people in the world who hate us and wish us ill than there are who appreciate us and respect us.  Our allies may be few and far between.  It is a scary time to be alive.

I am reading a novel right now which is a fictional account of an investigation into the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October, 2000, less than a year before the World Trade Center tragedy.  While I know that the events and characters are made up, the spite with which certain peoples and groups hold Westerners and, specifically, Americans, is certainly legitimate.  The idea that there are people out there who wish us harm for no reason other than the country of our birth is harrowing.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the imaginations of writers have on occasion became realities, whether it be journeys to outer space, Big Brother, or nuclear submarines.  Look around, though—so much of our current entertainment is premised on the utter destruction and devastation of our country and our world.  Just look at the shows on television, movies in the theater, or books on the bestseller lists.  The apocalypse is great entertainment.  But given the fiction of our past becoming reality, are we closer to Armageddon than we may like to admit?  With so much firepower at the disposal of our enemies, could it really happen?

I think we all would like to think that it wouldn’t, that it couldn’t.  But…?

Given the state of our world and the terrors that seemingly could occur at any time, I have often wondered if there might have been a better time to be alive than the present.  Kind of a weird thing to consider, I know.  I mean, seriously… how could we live without Honey Boo Boo?

Yet, looking back on the history of our country and our world, I don’t know that there really was a better time to be alive.  Thinking back to our parents’ generation, there were times when the belief was that a nuclear bomb would hit America at any time, that the Russians were ready and willing to start World War III, a true war to end all wars, the war that would wipe out all existence from the face of the earth.  The generation before that was faced with yet another possibility of devastation, that from attack on American soil from both directions, the east and the west.  World War II was a total global conflict which, if extended and further intensified, could have resulted in the invasion of America by our enemies. 

At all times during the world’s history, there has been the threat of attack, invasion, disease, famine, weather, earthquakes, and oppression.  Whether it be threats from the outside or threats from within, I hesitate to find a time in which everything was just peaceful and perfect.  It seems that no generation has lived or may in the future live in this world without the constant and looming possibility of peril.  It seems that we as human beings are no different from the animals that joined Noah on his Ark.  There are predators everywhere, the fittest will survive, but in the end, we may be nothing more than just animals.  For as much as we as human beings pride ourselves on the attributes and traits which set us aside from the animals, our ability to feel compassion, to create great works of art and music and literature, to communicate at the highest level and to harness the powers of nature for tremendous technological advancements, it seems that the basest of animal instincts and urges may just be a damned fact of life.  I think that, of all things, may be the greatest of tragedies and, hope against all hope, our world’s supreme downfall.

I guess we as a society can only hope that if it is going to happen- if the animal instincts of humans do take over and our ability to rationalize and empathize is overtaken- that it happens to another generation at another time.  Not now.  I have too much of life still left to enjoy.  And if we could also spare our children’s generations, and their children’s generations, and their children’s generations… and maybe a few generations after that… well?

But getting back to my initial proposition… I wouldn’t want to live in any other time in our world’s history.  I don’t think my life would be complete without the Kardashians and Taylor Swift.

To quote that greatest of Americans and ambassadors to the world, Jerry Springer:  “Take care of yourself, and each other.”