Not Related to Law School (yet)

Word of the day (thanks to E--now I just have to think of the appropriate insult that recruits it): barratry.


bar·ra·try ( P ) Pronunciation Key (br-tr)
n. pl. bar·ra·tries

1. The offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically groundless ones.
2. An unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner.
3. Sale or purchase of positions in church or state.


The L-dog posted a link to an interview about blogs with Joe Trippi, campaign advisor for Howard Dean. This quote hit home for me:

Our biggest hurdle is getting people over the disbelief that they can make a difference. And the one place where I think people are starting to get over that disbelief is on the Internet: because the sense of community they're getting when they go onto a blog, or when they participate in responding to something like the FCC, more and more people every day are starting to realize, "Hey wait a minute, we do have the power to do something here." They saw it with the FCC and how Congress reacted. I think people are seeing it in our campaign too.


Why did this hit home? Because I'm used to being on the fringes. I always write my congress-critters and senators about things that upset me. I think this may be one of the first times that I was part of a mass swelling of support for something that actually changed. Even though I heard about Congress's (do I really need that last s? Strunk and White says I do, who am I to argue?) position on Media consolidation, I assumed it was because it was good law. It never occurred to me that Congress took their position as a result of constituent feedback.

So maybe the hurdle is to make people realize they can make a difference. I'm proud that I did something that mattered this time around. May I continue to do so...