All Together Now! 1 - 2 - 3 - What Are We Fighting For?

Theresa L. F. Levings
Badger & Levings, L.C.
Kansas City

When the shooting stops, the war of ideas will have just begun.
He stepped before the lawyers and judges assembled. Without notes, his words flowed for 25 minutes. His message was serious and urgent. He came to ask us for help.

The questions Mr. Justice Kennedy posed that day are what many of us have been asking since September 11: What principles underlie American democracy? What values do Americans share?

We've brought out the flags from the attic and we've joined in the chorus: The United States of America is the greatest nation in all of history. But what is it, exactly, that distinguishes the United States from other great places, other governments, other peoples? And even if we can answer these questions, can our children?

Believing that Americans cannot convince the rest of the world to democracy's "rightness and its moral necessity" unless we are able to understand and articulate the "first principles on which we are united," Justice Kennedy conceived "Dialogue on Freedom." With the help of the American Bar Association and lawyers across the country, he has begun to "convene conversations" with students on three specific topics: "American Identities and Constitutional Values" (what it means to be an American in a diverse and pluralistic country); "Individual Freedoms, Democratic Participation, and Other Cultures" (rights and responsibilities of the individual and "whether principles of individual liberty are compatible with the values of other nations"); and "American Civic Values in a Global Age" (a look at the world and the image of the United States in it).

Is this important work? Is it really necessary?

An encounter in the elevator a few weeks after the Kennedy speech answered this question for me. There stood one of Kansas City's most distinguished criminal defense lawyers. This man is known not only as a brilliant trial lawyer but also as a man of humility, good humor and the highest integrity. In exchanging the usual lawyer talk about how busy we have been, I remarked that I had been reading a lot about him and one of this clients in the news. The case had become a national story as well as a local one and involved emotionally charged issues that touched all parts of our community. Trial was months away. My friend, this veteran in the courtroom and the public arena, indicated that the experience had been very draining. One low point, he said, was when he received a letter from some local middle school civics teachers who said they appreciated very much his wife's contribution to the PTA but they could not understand how he could possibly represent this awful person. "Doesn't anyone understand the rule of law?" he asked me.

If our adults do not, who should teach them? If our children do not, who should teach them? Justice Kennedy believes lawyers, above all others, must meet this challenge. We have the knowledge, the understanding, the love of the law. We see the vital link between our system of justice and our nation's greatness. Will we use our training and talents to join ranks in the war of ideas?

When September 11, 2002 rolls around, The Missouri Bar will open its 123rd Annual Meeting in Kansas City. Missouri Chief Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. and I will be inviting you to join us that evening for an opening reception and for the next day and a half as well. We are planning a whole new look and feel to our Annual Meeting to make it more to your liking—a good mix of topics important to all lawyers and seminars focused on specific areas of practice; lots of social opportunities and no long dinner banquets; a celebration of what makes ours a profession; a time of fellowship and reflection for judges and lawyers together on the health of our profession and of American justice. We plan an opening session that Thursday morning with national and local experts on one of the pressing legal and social issues of the day: individual freedoms and privacy vs. national security. Another topic that morning will include "Lessons from Enron: A Lawyer's Duty of Independent Judgment."

On September 11, 2002 I hope to see Missouri lawyers in Kansas City happy to see one another and ready to rededicate themselves to the rule of law and to our role in teaching our citizens what it means. We are charged to do so:

Rule 4:

Rules of Professional Conduct

Preamble: A Lawyer's Responsibilities

. . . As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education. A lawyer should be mindful of deficiencies in the administration of justice and of the fact that the poor, and sometimes persons who are not poor, cannot afford adequate legal assistance, and should therefore devote professional time and civic influence in their behalf. A lawyer should aid the legal profession in pursuing these objectives . . . .

We also are working on how to bring Justice Kennedy's "Dialogue on Freedom" to Missouri's young citizens. When the plans are complete, I will be asking you again: Do you care? What are you willing to do to help? Plan now to be in Kansas City September 11-13.