Quite often these days I find Facebook to be depressing, offensive, and/or disgusting.
But, this afternoon, I ran across a post that gave me just a little cause for optimism, like Pandora looking at the bottom of the box and finding Hope.
The post apparently went up yesterday, but it only burbled up into my news feed this afternoon. Mr. Zuckerberg took pity on me, I guess.
The picture above, and several others, were posted by Dawn Marie Gonzalez who also wrote, in pertinent part, "Many of the Associate Judge candidates met at the Erie Cafe tonight to celebrate our boot camp gauntlet experience together. Little did we know that Jim Thome would take our group picture with Jerry Reinsdorf!"
As you can see, someone also took a picture of Jim Thome taking the picture.
What makes this Facebook post special is not the presence of celebreties but, rather, the presence of good will and comradeship at the end of a campaign in which 50% of those running will lose. They could have easily fallen upon each other -- but here is evidence that they supported each other instead.
This solidarity is what can make---what should make---judicial campaigns special. Good luck to all of them.
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5 comments:
I wonder how many break through cases were yielded from this super-spreader event?
That’s no campaign. Getting petitions, that’s a campaign. Getting shaken down by jive turkey preachers and committeemen for money, that’s a campaign. Knifing opponents at early voting locations, that’s a campaign. This AJ process is pure hazing.
@Anon 8/31 at 9:13 p.m. -- I struggled with whether to pass your comment through. But it could have been meant humorously. I ultimately chose to take it that way. The Intertubes are so very bad at conveying tone.
As for you, Anon 9/2 at 7:18 a.m., it most certainly is a campaign. It's actually the third consecutive campaign for these 44 individuals, or at least the third distinct phase of a single, lengthy campaign: First, they had to campaign to the bar groups to secure positive recommendations. A lot of people have done that -- even I have, from time to time. Then, they had to campaign to the selection committee -- only they're not allowed to campaign. This may be the hardest campaign of all. In a dozen or so attempts, I've never made it through this phase to the short list. Then comes the last and most intense, and public, phase, the campaign to the very select electorate of full circuit judges. You call it hazing. I think that is yet to come (Traffic Court, perhaps). This is more of a fraternity/sorority rush -- but there's only one house taking pledges.
It's different than the campaign for an elected position, surely. But it's still a campaign.
I’ve run in multiple primaries and made one short list, without success, but I can report that the good will & camaraderie is common. It lasts beyond the campaign, since judges tend to bond with the newbies that came in with them. Lots of CJs meet as groups with “their class” to discuss the AJ candidates before voting.
It is easier and more essential for AJ candidates to be collegial, since 1) they really are running for themselves, not against each other, 2) a top priority of the voting CJs is getting newbies who are pleasant to work with. Back stabbers bring too much unwanted drama.
Most CI’s could care less.
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