May 22 2009
A Legacy Of Dissenting Opinions
“I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us.” Edward R. Murrow spoke those words in 1958 during a notorious speech in which he railed against the very institutions that allowed him to attain his legendary notoriety and success. “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information,” Murrow insisted. I agree.
Murrow began that speech with the famous line, “This just might do nobody any good.” This blog, too, might just do nobody any good. And, as per usual, it will probably end up insulting the very institution that allowed me to attain levels of notoriety reaching the coveted SBA “Most Likely To Make A Sarcastic Comment” Award. Yet, a week from graduation, it seemed to me suddenly important to impart a few feelings on the topic of legacy.
It always seemed to me that a law school was a place to train advocates. Black’s Law defines an advocate as a person who assists, defends, pleads, or prosecutes for another. Is that what we’ve done? Or have we trained people to be wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent? Have we trained them to look adversity in the eye and tell it where to go, or have we taught them to not to rock the boat – keep the waters calm at all cost – owing to our own built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information?
I realize the line between advocacy and complaining is a blurry one, and I am quite guilty of helping to blur that line. I realize there is a time and a place for “correct” answers and a totally different time and place for honest ones. But it always seemed to me that when the cause was right, the risk of blurring that line and being honest was one worth taking. Whether it was our excessive waste of paper, gender issues, the need for a strategic plan, the quality of the education, or the direction of the school in general, all those causes seemed awfully worth the risk of expressing a dissenting opinion.
And a legacy of well-placed dissenting opinions is one legacy I hope the Charter Class leaves behind. “Dissent: it makes the good things better and the bad things crumble.” Sometimes dissent sounds an awful lot like whining and other times it’s audacious enough to widen the eyes and raise the eyebrows of giants. But more often, dissent is the only form of communication with any power whatsoever to achieve any real change. Making the comfortable uncomfortable and getting the complacent off their “wealthy surpluses” is the only real way to accomplish much of anything an awful lot of the time.
Yes, the boat will rock. Yes, eyebrows will raise. Yes, people will get awfully uncomfortable and shift uneasily in their chairs. But, if the cause is right, the risk will be worth its taking. And maybe – just maybe – instead of churning out wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent yes-men, we’ll churn out some advocates instead.
Our history will be what we make of it, Elon. From one member of the Charter Class to those who remain, here’s to hoping the legacy my class left behind will help in some small way to make that history great.
3 Responses to “A Legacy Of Dissenting Opinions”
Kerri,
I appreciate what you have had to say on this blog over the past year. However, I think too often you hold yourself out a little to “holier than thou”. We come to law school expecting dissent and, in fact, encourage it. That is what will allow us to have jobs and make any institution better. However, I think too often you have gone about it the wrong way.
The person yelling the loudest isn’t always heard the most clearly. I don’t know you well but I do know that many of my friends and colleagues have lost your message through the theatrics that you display. I’m not sure that we would have agreed with the majority of some of your claims but we surely would have at least respected you despite your differing opinions for doing it in a constructive manner.
You didn’t simply rock the boat, you tried to flip it upside down and drill a whole in the bottom of it. You made it, at times, a difficult place for everyone to be. You are always quoting awards that you won from SBA and during your first year but you could also win the award for the person to quit on your class. Are you telling me that is “starring adversity in the face and telling it where to go?” My class reps were great. I was one of the few people who listened to the SBA audio so I know that you walked out of student government because you didn’t get your way. There is no doubt that you feel passionately about your views but, in my opinion, your weakness is your failure to understand the passion of others.
I think you are a smart girl and will get a good job one day and I hope that you will put in a good word for the coming classes. However, you need to check some of your methods at the door. The volume of your voice doesn’t clarify your points. Instead, you muddy it by doing things like posting, or at least helping, flyers around school making outrageous claims. I couldn’t agree more that we always need to be evolving to ensure that we are better tomorrow than we were yesterday – I’m just not so sure that your methods have always been the most helpful or constructive.
I hope my dissent to your ways at least comes across respectfully.
Dissenting Respectfully
From the outset let me state that I appreciate remarks such as these, just as I appreciated remarks such as these made beneath innumerable Facebook posts, each of which I responded to with what I hoped and intended to be a fair measure of respect for whatever opinion the given remark expressed, regardless of how noxious I found it to be.
While I choose not to devote this time and space to defending myself against the accusations contained in the comments of unknown persons, I would be more inclined to clear up what seem to be some unfortunate rumors and beliefs via some other means of communication.
Regarding the more meritorious points of the above remarks, I will say, and regrettably admit, that not until my graduation day did I recognize the presence of a bad attitude that permeated the very enthusiastic one with which I began my legal journey. I’m not sure where, when, or for what reason(s) this negative attitude overtook the ball-bouncing zaniness with which I began, and I regret the delay in my realizing its effects. Alas, I can’t go back and change it, thus leaving me to realize it, beware of it, avoid it for the future, and move on.
I also cannot accurately or fairly reflect on what portion of my opinions was the product of a bad attitude, what portion the product of genuine and legitimate disappointment with policies in desperate need of change, and what portion was an explosive combination of both. I cannot claim with any honesty or integrity an unawareness that my remarks were obnoxious to some, inappropriate to others, and simply annoying to many more.
Yet I also cannot apologize with any integrity for making Elon, at times, a difficult place to be. As a runner, it is only through difficulty and discomfort that I improve. The same holds true in life. Change is not generally a result of ease and comfort, as Murrow pointed out in his 1958 speech. If it were, I assure everyone that I, just as passive-aggressive and adverse to adversity as anyone else, would certainly have pursued less controversial means to certain desired ends.
In the end, perhaps my acerbic words achieved nothing. Perhaps they bit the hand that fed me. Perhaps they cast my school – a school I love enough to fight for it and with it and in it – in a negative light, thus making life more difficult and less comfortable. Perhaps I went way too far way too much. Perhaps I wasn’t even attempting political correctness and perhaps more people than not were disappointed in my approach. Perhaps I should have started all my blogs with, “When you do ___, it makes me feel ___”. Perhaps my blogs shouted too loudly at too many people and perhaps my claims were outrageous.
But, in the words of Murrow, “If what I have to say is responsible, then I alone am responsible for the saying of it.” For all my failings and for all the failings of my tactics and theatrics, I remain proud that I fought, albeit imperfectly, for the issues in which I believed. I remain proud that positive change, perhaps only coincidentally, followed my words at least some of the time. I remain proud that I seemed to encourage as many people as I managed to disappoint, annoy, or outrage. And I remain prouder still that I chose to do so under my own banner, come hell or high water. Like Murrow, I was responsible for the saying of it, and I’m proud of it.
Thank you again for your remarks. Whoever you are, best of luck to you.
Long live Elon!
Kerri L. Sigler
Charter Class, 2009
And just to prove my point, here’s a quote from one of my favorite Buddhist monks:
“Obstacles can be a form of liberation…Difficulties are required for success.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh~