Near the end of my book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy, I wrote about a national holiday you may have never heard of, Law Day.
This is from someone on Malcolm Nance's Substack Podcast. "There once was a chump named Trump Who's head was stuck in his Rump It developed a boil He drilled it for oil And charged you to keep up the pump."
I have never heard of Law Day. I am getting ready to go to a rally in my city in Germany tomorrow for May Day, which is a national holiday here, and an Indivisible Day of rallying in the USA. No work, no school, no shopping, go rally.
Tonight in Walpurgisnacht. In my city there is a dance party Rave. I am sure there is more going on in Berlin. Walpurgisnacht is a traditional Northern/Central European festival, particularly in Germany, where folklore dictates witches meet with the devil on the Brocken mountain to celebrate the transition from winter to spring. It is discussed in the book "The Witches" by Roald Dahl, a book I read as a child along with Eleanor Estes, "The Littlest Witch" long before there were Harry Potter books, which I could see were influenced by these two books. In any case, my mom is from Braunschweig, which is by the Harz mountains where Brocken is, so I used to think about it as a child when were were mountain climbing up there. So, it is coming from when Northern Europe was Pagen I think.
Your conversation with your son is so telling about the young people who have grown up in this new century. They have no experience of anything different. When I speak with people in their 20s, I hear the same thing. They fear that there is no one to help them, so getting rich is the only way to keep one's head above water.
What are doing in our resistance needs to let them know that we have their backs and we won't go down without a fight. As a retired lawyer, I used to volunteer to reach out to classrooms to talk about the importance of a set of rules that applied to everyone and that we could rely on. When I first started in the mid-1980s, there were plenty of opportunities for lawyers and jurists. But in the early part of this century, there were fewer and fewer responses from teachers and schools that would allow discussions and presentations. We need to once again create the forums for these presentations and help those who are so disillusioned.
You think the same things I think although I haven’t done the volunteer work you have. I am in admiration. And I really agree with your assessment. Sometimes we older people deplore the lack of involvement by young people, but Robert Hubbell in response to a comment I made pointed out that many of them are trying to just keep their heads above water financially so participating in protest isn’t really possible. It’s a shame, I read about young people who don’t even know that the capital of the United States is Washington DC. One kid didn’t even know the United States had a capital. Boy we’ve got to turn that around somehow.
Thank you, Joyce! Great information about Law Day. Another good event to celebrate tomorrow, along with the May Day Strike and International Workers’ Day! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾
"Pick one thing" and do it well. Pick another if you can, but don't let go of the first. Small steps create the opportunities for bigger ones to follow.
The concepts presented in your book, which I read, must be part of civics education in our schools. Civics education must be part of our the curriculum at every grade from kindergarten through 12th grade, age appropriate of course. It should be compulsory i to receive advance degrees from all secondary education institutes.
Joseph, my favorite part of teaching was when I presented civics lessons with them. I was the Gifted Support teacher and I was required to develop my own curriculum for my K-12 students. I found that learning about government, civil communication, debate about current issues, and reading our critical documents challenged students and got them thinking about what should be happening in this nation and where they thought they fit in and what they could contribute. We could start that at a very early age with our children in teaching them to be good citizens of their family, neighborhood, community, and eventually state, nation, and the world. We could make it fun, interesting, and important!
When I was in high school, my social studies teacher covered thoroughly capitalism, communism, socialism. Today, in the state I live in, he would probably be fired unless he would agree to eliminate socialism and communism.
Mary, isn't that ridiculous that whiny white boys in power are scared of socialism and communism when the thing that is really going to do them harm is capitalism? Funny how that works!
I appreciate the education about Law Day. But it seems to me - not a lawyer - that for many lawyers, the law is something to be manipulated in the furtherance of a client’s goal. Every evil, corrupt, unethical, immoral act and order thar Trump has approved has been blessed by lawyers. What’s lacking is not respect for the rule of law. What’s lacking are legal ethics and integrity.
Amy, it is true that Trump has surrounded himself with the most corrupt unethical lawyers he could find. He learned that from his daddy's buddy Roy Cohn, a super corrupt lawyer. It's also true that a bunch of similar lawyers have been recruited for and approved by our senate and state legislative bodies for judgeships/justices who are also corrupt or at least less than ethical, but the vast majority of lawyers are people who want to do their best for their clients. A stronger set of ethics would possibly help, but educating young people and the rest of us about what lawyers are charged to do, how they can be ethical while defending a murderer or a stock broker who is doing illegal things would help more. Stronger ethics classes in law school and in school in general say from Kindergarten onward is important too. Every profession has its bad actors and I suspect they can be recruited by those in power to do harm to others for the benefit of those who hired them, but the vast majority in every legitimate profession are good people. Our media just loves to pump out the negatives and one rarely sees the good folks, the vast majority, probably because they see it as boring or something. Honoring and even covering those ethical/good folks would also improve our understanding of lawyers and other legal positions.
While I agree every profession has its bad actors, the only profession that handsomely rewards its practitioners for succesfully manipulating the rules on their client’s behalf is the legal profession. It is the reason I chose not to go to law school. 99.9% of lawyers don’t get to choose their clients. Yet they are ethically bound to use the law to advocate for their client. A lawyer’s personal ethics are irrelevant. What they believe is fair or just or ethical or moral is irrelevant. All that matters is finding a law or a way of reading the law that benefits their client. Because that’s the “rule of law.”.
As an attorney, you are ethically bound to zealously represent your client, but no one forces you to take that client.
(Unless you work for the public defender’s office. Yes, most of your clients have done what they are accused of. But IMO it is not your job to get them off, even though you might. Instead, it’s to ensure that the other side proves their case beyond a reasonable doubt.)
Attorneys are also supposed to keep each other in line; if you see a colleague violating ethics rules, you’re supposed to rat on them.
Amy, I am just not sure it is true that lawyers have to ignore their own ethics to defend a client. Everyone deserves a competent defense (although a lot don't get it because of their financial situation). I do think there need to be some serious reforms when it comes to the legal profession, but I don't know about that 99.9% figure. I have met too many lawyers in my life who are good people who will do their best for their clients. There are so many different kinds of lawyer and many within each branch who are ethical. Maybe one of the reforms might be the size of law firms so that when there is a bad group or boss/partnership, it can't affect so many other lawyers.
One problem is that our legal system is adversarial. What if, instead of lawyers trying to win, people sat down and figured out what would be just in the circumstances?
I am at Graham Platner HQ in Ellsworth, Maine. Staffed by young people committed to the law and process. Knowledgeable and strategic. These next generations are very heartening. And working hard to reach their peers.
Janet Mills just suspended her Senate campaign. Graham Platner is running effectively unopposed to defeat Susan Collins.
Dancing for 45 min and now back to the hard work of winning the Senate majority.
Please get on board. Maine and the nation need you.
I have 4 sons, the oldest born in 1989 and the youngest in 2003. I find it is my oldest son who is the most cynical. He was a Bernie bro during the days of the occupy movement but after 10 years of health care and housing his generation can’t afford he is out of hope. I look back at the years of my adulthood-Reagan was shot during my senior year of college-and wonder how our generation let the promises of this democratic republic built on the idea of freedom and justice for all slip away. Thank you Joyce for keeping me in the fight for what is right.
I have a BA in History and my minor was Political Science and I (a Boomer) have never heard of Law Day. I live in Louisiana, and right now I am so disappointed in this state that I understand completely how your son feels or felt about Democracy. Thank you, Joyce.
Unfortunately, it isn't just the young who see little value in democracy--it's also substantial numbers of all the other post-WW II generations: the 77 million who voted to install Heritage Foundation's Turd Reich and the 90 million or so who could vote, but who didn't care enough to do so in 2024.
When my father was educated (born 1932) Civics was one of the subjects. Now there is a call for teaching logical thinking. I do propose that we not only need both but basic life classes such as financial understanding and practices and practical home skills.
Now when any personal whoopsie happens it can echo down one's entire adult life, derailing a lot of things, and we tend to make those mistakes young.
I don't know where we are going from now, but the practical can be a good guide. We may be able to learn from what we are losing. maybe
Yes! Civic education is critical. It was my civics class that changed my life. In 9th grade civics, in February 1968, our teacher, a veteran of WWII, gave us an assignment that for the month of February, we would have to keep a journal of the Vietnam War, at least one paragraph each day describing something that happened that day related to the war. We could get it from watching the evening news or from a newspaper or from a weekly magazine. I, being a kind of over achiever, got to work. There were 29 days that month. I had learned to type, so I typed at least a half-page each day. It was during the Tet Offensive by North Vietnam. A lot of Americans and Vietnamese were killed. A lot of things were destroyed. As I read, listened, and wrote, my attitude toward the war changed from going along because it was "saving the Vietnamese people" to this war is a horrible thing and we need to get out of it and help the Vietnamese people to rebuild their nation. It really was that class, that assignment that opened my eyes. Before that, I didn't really pay much attention other than that the war was going on. I had been a history not at least since I was 8 years old or so, but became a history fanatic after that year. Other young people should have the chance at a life-changing civics-related event as I did. I think we would have more informed voters and people less likely to go along with voting for bullies if they learned what democracy is and could be.
Joyce I agree it is sad that todays youth have not had the education from your generation on back thru mine as I am mid 70's in age. It is disheartening to see what this administration has been able to do in such a short period of time. But there's hope when you see what hungary has been able to do. We have to keep fighting. Jack Hopkins addressed this today with the same positive that we must continue our fight for freedom.
This is from someone on Malcolm Nance's Substack Podcast. "There once was a chump named Trump Who's head was stuck in his Rump It developed a boil He drilled it for oil And charged you to keep up the pump."
I have never heard of Law Day. I am getting ready to go to a rally in my city in Germany tomorrow for May Day, which is a national holiday here, and an Indivisible Day of rallying in the USA. No work, no school, no shopping, go rally.
I have to ask my sister, in Berlin, what she's doing tomorrow.
Carole, she probably knows, but there is this going on.
https://www.tip-berlin.de/stadt/politik/demos-berlin-1-mai-2026-uebersicht/
Tonight in Walpurgisnacht. In my city there is a dance party Rave. I am sure there is more going on in Berlin. Walpurgisnacht is a traditional Northern/Central European festival, particularly in Germany, where folklore dictates witches meet with the devil on the Brocken mountain to celebrate the transition from winter to spring. It is discussed in the book "The Witches" by Roald Dahl, a book I read as a child along with Eleanor Estes, "The Littlest Witch" long before there were Harry Potter books, which I could see were influenced by these two books. In any case, my mom is from Braunschweig, which is by the Harz mountains where Brocken is, so I used to think about it as a child when were were mountain climbing up there. So, it is coming from when Northern Europe was Pagen I think.
Your conversation with your son is so telling about the young people who have grown up in this new century. They have no experience of anything different. When I speak with people in their 20s, I hear the same thing. They fear that there is no one to help them, so getting rich is the only way to keep one's head above water.
What are doing in our resistance needs to let them know that we have their backs and we won't go down without a fight. As a retired lawyer, I used to volunteer to reach out to classrooms to talk about the importance of a set of rules that applied to everyone and that we could rely on. When I first started in the mid-1980s, there were plenty of opportunities for lawyers and jurists. But in the early part of this century, there were fewer and fewer responses from teachers and schools that would allow discussions and presentations. We need to once again create the forums for these presentations and help those who are so disillusioned.
You think the same things I think although I haven’t done the volunteer work you have. I am in admiration. And I really agree with your assessment. Sometimes we older people deplore the lack of involvement by young people, but Robert Hubbell in response to a comment I made pointed out that many of them are trying to just keep their heads above water financially so participating in protest isn’t really possible. It’s a shame, I read about young people who don’t even know that the capital of the United States is Washington DC. One kid didn’t even know the United States had a capital. Boy we’ve got to turn that around somehow.
Thank you, Joyce! Great information about Law Day. Another good event to celebrate tomorrow, along with the May Day Strike and International Workers’ Day! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾
"Pick one thing" and do it well. Pick another if you can, but don't let go of the first. Small steps create the opportunities for bigger ones to follow.
The concepts presented in your book, which I read, must be part of civics education in our schools. Civics education must be part of our the curriculum at every grade from kindergarten through 12th grade, age appropriate of course. It should be compulsory i to receive advance degrees from all secondary education institutes.
Joseph, my favorite part of teaching was when I presented civics lessons with them. I was the Gifted Support teacher and I was required to develop my own curriculum for my K-12 students. I found that learning about government, civil communication, debate about current issues, and reading our critical documents challenged students and got them thinking about what should be happening in this nation and where they thought they fit in and what they could contribute. We could start that at a very early age with our children in teaching them to be good citizens of their family, neighborhood, community, and eventually state, nation, and the world. We could make it fun, interesting, and important!
When I was in high school, my social studies teacher covered thoroughly capitalism, communism, socialism. Today, in the state I live in, he would probably be fired unless he would agree to eliminate socialism and communism.
Mary, isn't that ridiculous that whiny white boys in power are scared of socialism and communism when the thing that is really going to do them harm is capitalism? Funny how that works!
It is ridiculous and so tiresome. They will fight one another to curry favor with DJT and others like DJT and Epstein.
I appreciate the education about Law Day. But it seems to me - not a lawyer - that for many lawyers, the law is something to be manipulated in the furtherance of a client’s goal. Every evil, corrupt, unethical, immoral act and order thar Trump has approved has been blessed by lawyers. What’s lacking is not respect for the rule of law. What’s lacking are legal ethics and integrity.
Amy, it is true that Trump has surrounded himself with the most corrupt unethical lawyers he could find. He learned that from his daddy's buddy Roy Cohn, a super corrupt lawyer. It's also true that a bunch of similar lawyers have been recruited for and approved by our senate and state legislative bodies for judgeships/justices who are also corrupt or at least less than ethical, but the vast majority of lawyers are people who want to do their best for their clients. A stronger set of ethics would possibly help, but educating young people and the rest of us about what lawyers are charged to do, how they can be ethical while defending a murderer or a stock broker who is doing illegal things would help more. Stronger ethics classes in law school and in school in general say from Kindergarten onward is important too. Every profession has its bad actors and I suspect they can be recruited by those in power to do harm to others for the benefit of those who hired them, but the vast majority in every legitimate profession are good people. Our media just loves to pump out the negatives and one rarely sees the good folks, the vast majority, probably because they see it as boring or something. Honoring and even covering those ethical/good folks would also improve our understanding of lawyers and other legal positions.
While I agree every profession has its bad actors, the only profession that handsomely rewards its practitioners for succesfully manipulating the rules on their client’s behalf is the legal profession. It is the reason I chose not to go to law school. 99.9% of lawyers don’t get to choose their clients. Yet they are ethically bound to use the law to advocate for their client. A lawyer’s personal ethics are irrelevant. What they believe is fair or just or ethical or moral is irrelevant. All that matters is finding a law or a way of reading the law that benefits their client. Because that’s the “rule of law.”.
As an attorney, you are ethically bound to zealously represent your client, but no one forces you to take that client.
(Unless you work for the public defender’s office. Yes, most of your clients have done what they are accused of. But IMO it is not your job to get them off, even though you might. Instead, it’s to ensure that the other side proves their case beyond a reasonable doubt.)
Attorneys are also supposed to keep each other in line; if you see a colleague violating ethics rules, you’re supposed to rat on them.
Amy, I am just not sure it is true that lawyers have to ignore their own ethics to defend a client. Everyone deserves a competent defense (although a lot don't get it because of their financial situation). I do think there need to be some serious reforms when it comes to the legal profession, but I don't know about that 99.9% figure. I have met too many lawyers in my life who are good people who will do their best for their clients. There are so many different kinds of lawyer and many within each branch who are ethical. Maybe one of the reforms might be the size of law firms so that when there is a bad group or boss/partnership, it can't affect so many other lawyers.
One problem is that our legal system is adversarial. What if, instead of lawyers trying to win, people sat down and figured out what would be just in the circumstances?
Excellent article and analysis of our need to connect with and provide information and encouragement to all, but especially to the younger generation!
I am at Graham Platner HQ in Ellsworth, Maine. Staffed by young people committed to the law and process. Knowledgeable and strategic. These next generations are very heartening. And working hard to reach their peers.
Janet Mills just suspended her Senate campaign. Graham Platner is running effectively unopposed to defeat Susan Collins.
Dancing for 45 min and now back to the hard work of winning the Senate majority.
Please get on board. Maine and the nation need you.
Graham Platner | Democrat for U.S. Senate .https://www.grahamforsenate.com/.
I have 4 sons, the oldest born in 1989 and the youngest in 2003. I find it is my oldest son who is the most cynical. He was a Bernie bro during the days of the occupy movement but after 10 years of health care and housing his generation can’t afford he is out of hope. I look back at the years of my adulthood-Reagan was shot during my senior year of college-and wonder how our generation let the promises of this democratic republic built on the idea of freedom and justice for all slip away. Thank you Joyce for keeping me in the fight for what is right.
I have a BA in History and my minor was Political Science and I (a Boomer) have never heard of Law Day. I live in Louisiana, and right now I am so disappointed in this state that I understand completely how your son feels or felt about Democracy. Thank you, Joyce.
Unfortunately, it isn't just the young who see little value in democracy--it's also substantial numbers of all the other post-WW II generations: the 77 million who voted to install Heritage Foundation's Turd Reich and the 90 million or so who could vote, but who didn't care enough to do so in 2024.
When my father was educated (born 1932) Civics was one of the subjects. Now there is a call for teaching logical thinking. I do propose that we not only need both but basic life classes such as financial understanding and practices and practical home skills.
Now when any personal whoopsie happens it can echo down one's entire adult life, derailing a lot of things, and we tend to make those mistakes young.
I don't know where we are going from now, but the practical can be a good guide. We may be able to learn from what we are losing. maybe
This is getting my day off in a way that hasn't happened much lately. Thanks for being so fair minded and determined.
Yes! Civic education is critical. It was my civics class that changed my life. In 9th grade civics, in February 1968, our teacher, a veteran of WWII, gave us an assignment that for the month of February, we would have to keep a journal of the Vietnam War, at least one paragraph each day describing something that happened that day related to the war. We could get it from watching the evening news or from a newspaper or from a weekly magazine. I, being a kind of over achiever, got to work. There were 29 days that month. I had learned to type, so I typed at least a half-page each day. It was during the Tet Offensive by North Vietnam. A lot of Americans and Vietnamese were killed. A lot of things were destroyed. As I read, listened, and wrote, my attitude toward the war changed from going along because it was "saving the Vietnamese people" to this war is a horrible thing and we need to get out of it and help the Vietnamese people to rebuild their nation. It really was that class, that assignment that opened my eyes. Before that, I didn't really pay much attention other than that the war was going on. I had been a history not at least since I was 8 years old or so, but became a history fanatic after that year. Other young people should have the chance at a life-changing civics-related event as I did. I think we would have more informed voters and people less likely to go along with voting for bullies if they learned what democracy is and could be.
Joyce I agree it is sad that todays youth have not had the education from your generation on back thru mine as I am mid 70's in age. It is disheartening to see what this administration has been able to do in such a short period of time. But there's hope when you see what hungary has been able to do. We have to keep fighting. Jack Hopkins addressed this today with the same positive that we must continue our fight for freedom.
Thank you for teaching me a new thing. I did not know May 1st was "Law Day" in the States.
In my country, Belgium, May 1st is the socialist holiday on which we, the workers, are not working but celebrating.
Thank You, Joyce Vance!