A Journey of Struggle & Hope
Jovito R. Salonga
UP Center for Leadership, Citizenship
and Democracy and Regina Publishing, 2001
Heroism is an object of fascinating study. Is greatness earned through lifelong devotion to a cause; a life of steadfastness and integrity that serves as a model to present and succeeding generations?
Or is heroism won by a fluke of history when, in one decisive hour or serendipitous opportunity, a leader responds to a call for sacrifice or for one audacious act that leads to a people’s awakening or a country’s liberation?
No doubt, Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights movement in America, was a modern-day hero.
But, one day, charges were raised that he plagiarized some sections in his doctoral dissertation – and, for this one revelation, his place among America’s greats was threatened.
To the rescue came a journalist who said that a hero need not be a “knight in shining armor.” All that is required, she stressed, was when an act of heroism was needed, the leader came forwards and risked his life.
That’s why, says one historian, many of the world’s – or the country’s – great men were “fortunate” to have died when they were young. If Alexander the Great, Simon Bolivar, John F. Kennedy, Andres Bonifacio, Gregorio del Pilar – to name a few – grew to a ripe age of 70 to 80, would each one’s greatness lose its sheen.
Is greatness a meteoric blaze in a dark sky whose momentary brilliance outshines an otherwise uneventful or checkered life?
Compare that to the country’s ambivalence about an outstanding general (who outlived all heroes of the revolution), despite his key role in defeating the Spaniards in every way and in winning our independence.
But, there is not ambivalence with this one heroic life. Featured in “A Journey of Struggle and Hope” is former Senate President Jovito R. Salonga.”
Here is a life that has spanned eight decades (he just turned 81 last Friday) – marked by a series of heroic acts through peaceful and turbulent periods, steadfastness to time honored virtues – and characterized by a superior mind, steely determination, a heart of courage, and a soul ever attuned to the Divine.
This autobiography is a riveting narrative about our country’s storied past. And, with the participation of the author, history comes alive like late-breaking news. On the outbreak of World War II, the author narrates:
“In the early morning of Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, I was rudely awakened by the radio announcement that Pearl Harbor had just been bombed by Japanese planes …I got up from bed, unable to sleep. If this means war, I said to myself, there may be no classes today and in the next few days …My hopes began to fade away. Japanese planes, with their zero marks, were in control of the air and no American plane was in sight. My brothers and I saw a light Philippine plane engage one Japanese aircraft in a brief dogfight and then fly away.”
(Move over, Ernest Hemmingway. You’ve found your match in the power of narrative – with a difference: Yours is fiction, Salonga’s is for real. Yours is art, his is life.)
Through this book, we are brought to the torture chambers of the Japanese (where the youthful Jovito was severely beaten for his role in the resistance movement).
We also know what being poor means, with the author’s unshod feet going to school. We feel the exhilaration of being on top of the class. We join hum and get seasick in a voyage by ship to America. Our hearts are warmed when, on the boat, he meets his beloved.
Immersed in his book, we are present at his court battles marveling at his brilliance. We note his strategy, timing and superb networking in his first foray in politics. We find ourselves thanking God for his adroit defense of Ninoy Aquino, first in his “underage” case; subsequently in his many other cases when Ninoy was detained – finding defense through the mastery of the law.
We know up close how he nurtures such mind with thirst for knowledge – here and abroad. We understand the depth and breadth of his legal training, including an illuminating distinction between Harvard and Yale (where he earned his master of laws and doctorate) in their approach to law practice.
And then we hear him exchange pained goodbyes with Ninoy just days before the latter was assassinated.
This is a very rich book on the verities of life, not delivered as homilies, but in anecdotes and snapshots. You finish this book once, and then you come back to it for its wellspring of inspiring true-to-life stories.
For example, after winning the case for Ninoy that should otherwise have disqualified him from becoming a senator, Ninoy was very appreciative.
Narrates the author: “Ninoy came to my residence to express his appreciation. He said he had brought a new car, which he wanted to leave with me. I smiled and said, ‘Ninoy, do not cheapen the little we have done for you.’ He knew I meant what I said. He did not insist.”
This is not a self-centered chronicle of the author’s life. Familiar names naturally crop up in the storytelling, and their roles – and the events they triggered or influenced in our national life – are thus further illuminated. Some authors invent drama and pathos. For Salonga the author, that’s not necessary at all.
His life and the lives of his family, friends and associates had all the elements of suspense, conflict, tragedy, and triumph – surviving or ignoring death sentences, tortures, bombings, solitary confinement, betrayals, exiles – and escaping certain death by a hairline, landing on top of the Senate slate, and dismantling the huge foreign military installation of the world’s most powerful country amid a national mindset of dependence on a foreign power.
On the infamous Plaza Miranda bombing, considering that the senator was at death’s door, his account is a classic in understatement: “I didn’t know at the time that there were two grenades thrown and that one grenade did not explode. I felt a very heavy blow in my chest and could only mumble the words of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: ‘Father, Thy will be done.’ I passed out seconds after the blast.”
Don’t miss this moving account. It tells us much about quiet heroism, an indomitable spirit strengthened by a childlike faith in God, and a heart that holds no bitterness.
After surviving several surgical procedures, healing came by a miracle. Home at last in a wheelchair and with bandage hand and foot, he was lyrical: “There were many starts in the sky, a spectacle I had not seen for so long. I went to sleep brining with me the unforgettable memory of that starry night.: His was the peace the surpasses understanding,
Unlike a meteor that blazes briefly and is gone, Senator Salonga’s heroism is a fixed and steady star in the Philippine firmament, made luminous in this story book where history and biography blend – urging us to reflect on one truth found in every page of the book:
The triumph of the human spirit can be a lifelong, day-to-day event – if you just don’t surrender your mind to the pressure of peers, the roar of the crowd, or the decree of a tyrant; if your heart is consistently on the side of what’s right and just; and if your faith in the Unseen Hand that is active in history is as solid as a rock.
Is that possible at all? It has been so with the author.
Treat yourself to something edifying for a change – one that will even restore your faith in your won capability for greatness. Get hold of the book and get acquainted with a great man.
Sunday, June 24, 2001
Sunday, June 17, 2001
If you’re in a Job You Love, you'll not 'work' all your life
“Whistle While You Work”
By Richard J. Leider & David A. Shapiro
Berrett Koehler Publishers, 2001
A friend sent me a gift -- a coffee mug with these words from Dilbert, the cartoon character, now considered a 21st century sage: “Work can be very REWARDING. You should TRY it.” This mug is my daily reminder, whenever I pound on my computer for proposals to clients and for book reviews for the Inquirer.
We spend much of our time in work, career, employment, calling, public service, etc., and there are as many books as there are problems and opportunities for this magnificent preoccupation – from the workable pocket guides to psychological analyses to probing philosophical-theological ruminations on life’s calling.
Remember “Who Moved My Cheese?” (July 23, 2000) -- the inaugural piece of Executive Read close to a year ago? The reactions to the review and to the subsequent reading of the book itself showed one thing: Many of us are in the wrong job! And several have considering moving – or scampering away from their unproductive “cheese station” to a new one.
Being in the job you love was also discussed in a book earlier reviewed in this section titled “Business Is a Calling” (July 30, 2000), which was summarized thus: A business career can be a morally noble one. Written by a theologian, the book provided ethical foundations of being in or working for business enterprises.
These two books – one a modern-day light-hearted parable and the other a serious but earnest theological and philosophical treatise – now see themselves harmonized in a book whose title is playful -- “Whistle While You Work” – but whose sub-title is dead serious: “Heeding Your Life’s Calling.”
The book combines the narrative and essay forms as it brings us into the journey of re-discovering our work (or the things we like in our work) or in discovering what we really want to do in life.
It begins with a story of a group on an adventure safari in East Africa. In the middle of the wilderness, Tom, a successful New York lawyer, freezes, imagining a lion behind the bush, and says: “I just want to get out of here. I want to go back.”
To which Derek, director of the Voyageur Outward Bound School, replies with this line (which has served as the thematic line in the entire book): “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” The authors, who have switched careers midstream, connect such a statement to anyone’s career. They say:
“We see so many people who are ‘stuck’ in their current situation. They want out where they are. They fantasize about winning the lottery, about becoming a millionaire … about space aliens making contact with humanity and changing the entire world as we know it... But the simple fact is this: If we want to experience real joy in our work, there’s only one thing to do: get into it. And for us that means getting into the process of hearing and heeding our calling.”
The discussion begins with “The Call,” the authors say, with this insightful truth: “Calling is the inner urge to give our gifts away. We heed that call when we offer our gifts in service to something we are passionate about in an environment that is consistent with our core values.”
That said, the book proceeds to hold the reader by the hand for the journey that makes a difference in his or her career forever. First, the reader is asked to re-visit his or her childhood dreams with the question: “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Before life became complicated, and before we were thrust into a job by accident, what was actually our dream job?
Then the book brings us to an eye-opening discussion on what we want in a “calling card” – from the perfunctory use of business cards to a soul-searching effort to find out what one really wants to do as a “calling.” The calling card of one of the authors identifies his job as “Uncovering Callings.”
In sum, the book is your career counselor as you come prepared for changing horses midstream or for enriching your present career with the things you have passion for. Ann Anderson, for example, a physician, has this imaginary calling card which says, “Seeing Possibilities,” as she works with children. Arthur Rouner, president of Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation, has this “calling card”: “Building Bridges”.
This book is not your usual job counseling session. It brings you back to what pumps your adrenaline or what makes you passionate. We know somehow that our associates have their passions somewhere outside their work – photography for a systems manager, painting for a construction executive, humanitarian service for an engineering consultant, and playing with a band for a legislator. A faculty member with a Ph.D. now lives with the Mangyan tribe to share the good news of life abundant. We act on instinct. Now this book shows us why.
Our real calling is a call for us to give our gifts away. If this book does not move you to change jobs, you will deepen your involvement in a job you love because, after all – since you have fun doing it – you have not actually worked all this time.
By Richard J. Leider & David A. Shapiro
Berrett Koehler Publishers, 2001
A friend sent me a gift -- a coffee mug with these words from Dilbert, the cartoon character, now considered a 21st century sage: “Work can be very REWARDING. You should TRY it.” This mug is my daily reminder, whenever I pound on my computer for proposals to clients and for book reviews for the Inquirer.
We spend much of our time in work, career, employment, calling, public service, etc., and there are as many books as there are problems and opportunities for this magnificent preoccupation – from the workable pocket guides to psychological analyses to probing philosophical-theological ruminations on life’s calling.
Remember “Who Moved My Cheese?” (July 23, 2000) -- the inaugural piece of Executive Read close to a year ago? The reactions to the review and to the subsequent reading of the book itself showed one thing: Many of us are in the wrong job! And several have considering moving – or scampering away from their unproductive “cheese station” to a new one.
Being in the job you love was also discussed in a book earlier reviewed in this section titled “Business Is a Calling” (July 30, 2000), which was summarized thus: A business career can be a morally noble one. Written by a theologian, the book provided ethical foundations of being in or working for business enterprises.
These two books – one a modern-day light-hearted parable and the other a serious but earnest theological and philosophical treatise – now see themselves harmonized in a book whose title is playful -- “Whistle While You Work” – but whose sub-title is dead serious: “Heeding Your Life’s Calling.”
The book combines the narrative and essay forms as it brings us into the journey of re-discovering our work (or the things we like in our work) or in discovering what we really want to do in life.
It begins with a story of a group on an adventure safari in East Africa. In the middle of the wilderness, Tom, a successful New York lawyer, freezes, imagining a lion behind the bush, and says: “I just want to get out of here. I want to go back.”
To which Derek, director of the Voyageur Outward Bound School, replies with this line (which has served as the thematic line in the entire book): “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” The authors, who have switched careers midstream, connect such a statement to anyone’s career. They say:
“We see so many people who are ‘stuck’ in their current situation. They want out where they are. They fantasize about winning the lottery, about becoming a millionaire … about space aliens making contact with humanity and changing the entire world as we know it... But the simple fact is this: If we want to experience real joy in our work, there’s only one thing to do: get into it. And for us that means getting into the process of hearing and heeding our calling.”
The discussion begins with “The Call,” the authors say, with this insightful truth: “Calling is the inner urge to give our gifts away. We heed that call when we offer our gifts in service to something we are passionate about in an environment that is consistent with our core values.”
That said, the book proceeds to hold the reader by the hand for the journey that makes a difference in his or her career forever. First, the reader is asked to re-visit his or her childhood dreams with the question: “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Before life became complicated, and before we were thrust into a job by accident, what was actually our dream job?
Then the book brings us to an eye-opening discussion on what we want in a “calling card” – from the perfunctory use of business cards to a soul-searching effort to find out what one really wants to do as a “calling.” The calling card of one of the authors identifies his job as “Uncovering Callings.”
In sum, the book is your career counselor as you come prepared for changing horses midstream or for enriching your present career with the things you have passion for. Ann Anderson, for example, a physician, has this imaginary calling card which says, “Seeing Possibilities,” as she works with children. Arthur Rouner, president of Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation, has this “calling card”: “Building Bridges”.
This book is not your usual job counseling session. It brings you back to what pumps your adrenaline or what makes you passionate. We know somehow that our associates have their passions somewhere outside their work – photography for a systems manager, painting for a construction executive, humanitarian service for an engineering consultant, and playing with a band for a legislator. A faculty member with a Ph.D. now lives with the Mangyan tribe to share the good news of life abundant. We act on instinct. Now this book shows us why.
Our real calling is a call for us to give our gifts away. If this book does not move you to change jobs, you will deepen your involvement in a job you love because, after all – since you have fun doing it – you have not actually worked all this time.
Sunday, June 10, 2001
Use fresh communication strategies to connect people to your vision
“The Leadership Solution”
by Jim Shaffer
McGraw-Hill, 2000
The book is frank and direct about one observed fact: “Communication functions in many companies are not really communications. They devote most of their time to formal media and channels.” What?! Can you say that again?
This is the shocking observation of Jim Shaffer, one of the world’s leading communication and change management consultants, in his book, “The Leadership Solution.”
You may think that, at first glance, the author is making an outrageous conclusion – not founded on facts. But, when you read on about what he calls “connecting the dots,” you will conclude that he truly knows whereof he speaks – and he has, as social scientists will say, “empirical evidence” to back his statement.
How many times have we asked CEOs if they have a communication program, and they invariably say: “Oh, yes, we have a media department and we have a pool of writers that crank out news materials everyday.” Or, this confident answer: “We have a hotshot PR man or broadcaster, recently retired from a well-known media institution, and he takes care of our communications needs.” Or, for internal communications, one CEO would say: “Well, we have this glossy newsmagazine that has even garnered an industry award as the best employee publication hereabouts.”
With such answers, what else can you say? The well-staffed department, the hotshot retiree, or the multi-awarded publication seem to be the end-all and be-all for the communication requirements of an organization. But, somehow you feel with your gut (and with some familiarity with corporate strategy) that there must be more that is required than a team of wordsmiths, a maverick media creature, or a glossy glitzy piece of literature that, yes, has managed to be beautiful and elegant year in and year out. No objections to these, actually.
But, the book says, we have to have real communication. We must match what we say with what we do. This is nothing new really, except that the book has shown tables that are excellent for planning the verbal and the non-verbal elements in a communication plan.
Actually, the book comes fresh – not because of such obvious communication elements – but because it gives us fresh ideas on audience analysis (example: we must treat our employees as volunteers, as we inspire them to “buy into our vision”). The book also forces us to think through a new communication policy dealing with the natural tension in a “communication continuum” – and how we balance the “need-to-know” policy to a “full disclosure” mindset.
The author does not endorse the military notion that only those who need to know should be informed. And he believes in one manager who has made it a policy to inform his employees first – “because they will soon know about it anyway.”
The book introduces ways to connect people to strategy, and introduces the concept of “line of sight.” It is actually a situation when people can see a direct line between the organization’s goals and what they do.
Is the book’s title misleading? No, because the book has put together a package of insights, findings and research data that proves that real effective leadership has to master the science and art of communication – and thus appropriately quoting Larry Bossidy, chairman of Allied Signal, who said: “Communication isn’t separate from the business; it’s the way we do business.”
This is a persuasive work that underscores the strategic value of communication to make your firm competitive. Listen: “We are not going to win because of our technology… We’re not going to win on technique … Instead we must create organizations that are, as the name implies, organic: comfortable with change and embracing an ethos of changing, manifesting the life force that resides only in our people – free moral agents, not cogs, in a machine” (John Guaspari, “Across the Board”).
Jack Welch is also quoted to prove the value of communication to effective leadership: “Leadership means more vision, more communication. We like people who are passionate about what they are doing … who have a vision about where they want to go … and can communicate that vision to the people they want to get there with.”
Leaders must communicate beyond words. The book concludes with this suggestion: “Top management must think of themselves as actors in a silent movie. No one can hear a word you’re saying. You have to communicate completely through your actions. You have no words, only behavior with which to communicate.
by Jim Shaffer
McGraw-Hill, 2000
The book is frank and direct about one observed fact: “Communication functions in many companies are not really communications. They devote most of their time to formal media and channels.” What?! Can you say that again?
This is the shocking observation of Jim Shaffer, one of the world’s leading communication and change management consultants, in his book, “The Leadership Solution.”
You may think that, at first glance, the author is making an outrageous conclusion – not founded on facts. But, when you read on about what he calls “connecting the dots,” you will conclude that he truly knows whereof he speaks – and he has, as social scientists will say, “empirical evidence” to back his statement.
How many times have we asked CEOs if they have a communication program, and they invariably say: “Oh, yes, we have a media department and we have a pool of writers that crank out news materials everyday.” Or, this confident answer: “We have a hotshot PR man or broadcaster, recently retired from a well-known media institution, and he takes care of our communications needs.” Or, for internal communications, one CEO would say: “Well, we have this glossy newsmagazine that has even garnered an industry award as the best employee publication hereabouts.”
With such answers, what else can you say? The well-staffed department, the hotshot retiree, or the multi-awarded publication seem to be the end-all and be-all for the communication requirements of an organization. But, somehow you feel with your gut (and with some familiarity with corporate strategy) that there must be more that is required than a team of wordsmiths, a maverick media creature, or a glossy glitzy piece of literature that, yes, has managed to be beautiful and elegant year in and year out. No objections to these, actually.
But, the book says, we have to have real communication. We must match what we say with what we do. This is nothing new really, except that the book has shown tables that are excellent for planning the verbal and the non-verbal elements in a communication plan.
Actually, the book comes fresh – not because of such obvious communication elements – but because it gives us fresh ideas on audience analysis (example: we must treat our employees as volunteers, as we inspire them to “buy into our vision”). The book also forces us to think through a new communication policy dealing with the natural tension in a “communication continuum” – and how we balance the “need-to-know” policy to a “full disclosure” mindset.
The author does not endorse the military notion that only those who need to know should be informed. And he believes in one manager who has made it a policy to inform his employees first – “because they will soon know about it anyway.”
The book introduces ways to connect people to strategy, and introduces the concept of “line of sight.” It is actually a situation when people can see a direct line between the organization’s goals and what they do.
Is the book’s title misleading? No, because the book has put together a package of insights, findings and research data that proves that real effective leadership has to master the science and art of communication – and thus appropriately quoting Larry Bossidy, chairman of Allied Signal, who said: “Communication isn’t separate from the business; it’s the way we do business.”
This is a persuasive work that underscores the strategic value of communication to make your firm competitive. Listen: “We are not going to win because of our technology… We’re not going to win on technique … Instead we must create organizations that are, as the name implies, organic: comfortable with change and embracing an ethos of changing, manifesting the life force that resides only in our people – free moral agents, not cogs, in a machine” (John Guaspari, “Across the Board”).
Jack Welch is also quoted to prove the value of communication to effective leadership: “Leadership means more vision, more communication. We like people who are passionate about what they are doing … who have a vision about where they want to go … and can communicate that vision to the people they want to get there with.”
Leaders must communicate beyond words. The book concludes with this suggestion: “Top management must think of themselves as actors in a silent movie. No one can hear a word you’re saying. You have to communicate completely through your actions. You have no words, only behavior with which to communicate.
Sunday, June 03, 2001
Lawyers weave stories that spell life, liberty or death
“Ladies and Gentlemen
of the Jury”
Michael Lief, H, Mitchell Caldwell &
Ben Bycel Simon and Schuster
(Touchstone Edition), 2000
The impeachment proceedings against former President Joseph Estrada gave us a ringside view of how lawyers argue, refute or prove a point – and even how they fumble, grope for words and commit verbal slips (like that atrocious mispronunciation of “your witness,” of you know what I mean).
We applauded when irrepressible Joker Arroyo reminded a distinguished senator that, as a matter of policy, he did not relish arguing with no-lawyers. Was it an act of kindness, implying that Joker wanted to spare the “uninitiated” the weapon only lawyers know that would surely demolish the poor guy? Was in intellectual hubris?
We had grudging respect (although short-lived) for one defense lawyer with his effective (not brilliant, as others put it) use rhetoric and storytelling to buttress his case. This same lawyer always found himself on the wrong side of justice or political fence, and we were not impressed.
As we watched and listened to these legal gladiators, we asked: Have they really been gifted with an extraordinary ability for logic, and woe to those who dare cross their paths? Do lawyers always argue till we all faint in boredom or sheer exhaustion?
I have food news for you. Not all lawyers go into fits arguing endlessly or into scoring debating points without let up. Some of them tell inspiring stories that touch our hearts, move us to tears, and stir in us something true and noble.
Or they give us gripping narratives that awaken our commitment to justice and jolt us into the realization that if good men do nothing, as the saying goes, evil will triumph.
The book, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury,” will make us and our children fall in love again with the legal profession.
In the book, subtitled “Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law,” tem masterpieces of outstanding lawyers moved juries and tribunals to send criminals to the gallows, free the innocent, save an outstanding lawyer from the ignominy of disbarment, bring justice to a defenseless victim, uphold crusading Davids and bring down haughty Goliaths.
The books starts with the moving account on how a multi-country tribunal tried and judged the Nazi criminal s. Read it, and you will come away thanking God that there are indeed lawyers – who may argue from legal points – but who win the case because they give a heart-wrenching or soul-stirring narrative about the unrelenting quest of the human heart for what is right and what is just.
The book is not only a collection of outstanding summation pieces; it gives readers a background for every piece, including a short biography of every featured legal luminary. The reader, therefore, understands the piece even more and places it within its historical context.
What emerges, though, is one compelling truth. The world has not changed. There are lawyers who twist or conceal the truth, or who conceal lies under the tapestry of truth,
And there are lawyers, thank God, “who weave throughout their closing arguments a thread of justice and righteous conviction” – and who therefore catch these liars in the ignoble act of lying.
This is a heartwarming book. Instead of cold legal points, we read masterpieces in rhetoric, facts woven into a moving story, and legal points subsumed in the higher laws that non-lawyers can understand,
Read the summation of Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson who filed charges against Adolf Hitler’s fellow architects of genocide. After being appalled by the enormity of their crimes and the ferocity of their campaigns, be inspired by Jackson’s assertion that justice be done, appropriately couched in these concluding lines:
“If you were to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say there had been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime.”
(How we wish our Ombudsman would read up on Jackson, and in due time, finally deliver the same lines on a celebrated case of presidential plunder, whatever the verdict!)
You will read the piece of legendary trial lawyer Clarence Darrow who was threatened with disbarment due to jury tampering (a term that refers to an attempt to bribe or influence the jury).
His spirited defense is instructive for lawyers and non-lawyers about sidestepping weak points and concentrating on strong points. You have to read the book to know if the acquitted himself well.
The summation of lady lawyer Clara Shortridge Foltz is a must-read for women’s movement. She fought all her life to allow women to have the right to be lawyers and to have legal education.
Remember Gerry Spence, who had the fame or notoriety of defending Imelda Marcos? You will understand why he won – with that “bird in the hand” analogy – with this “mesmerizing summation.”
This book gives the reader a ringside view of history in courtroom drama and storytelling at its finest – with a difference: “There is one vital difference between yesterday’s storytellers and today’s advocates,” the authors say.
“Where the bard sat at the foot of the king and entertained, the lawyers’ storytelling has the power to put evil men to death, to free the innocent, and to make whole the injured.” Take a bow, attorneys at law!
of the Jury”
Michael Lief, H, Mitchell Caldwell &
Ben Bycel Simon and Schuster
(Touchstone Edition), 2000
The impeachment proceedings against former President Joseph Estrada gave us a ringside view of how lawyers argue, refute or prove a point – and even how they fumble, grope for words and commit verbal slips (like that atrocious mispronunciation of “your witness,” of you know what I mean).
We applauded when irrepressible Joker Arroyo reminded a distinguished senator that, as a matter of policy, he did not relish arguing with no-lawyers. Was it an act of kindness, implying that Joker wanted to spare the “uninitiated” the weapon only lawyers know that would surely demolish the poor guy? Was in intellectual hubris?
We had grudging respect (although short-lived) for one defense lawyer with his effective (not brilliant, as others put it) use rhetoric and storytelling to buttress his case. This same lawyer always found himself on the wrong side of justice or political fence, and we were not impressed.
As we watched and listened to these legal gladiators, we asked: Have they really been gifted with an extraordinary ability for logic, and woe to those who dare cross their paths? Do lawyers always argue till we all faint in boredom or sheer exhaustion?
I have food news for you. Not all lawyers go into fits arguing endlessly or into scoring debating points without let up. Some of them tell inspiring stories that touch our hearts, move us to tears, and stir in us something true and noble.
Or they give us gripping narratives that awaken our commitment to justice and jolt us into the realization that if good men do nothing, as the saying goes, evil will triumph.
The book, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury,” will make us and our children fall in love again with the legal profession.
In the book, subtitled “Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law,” tem masterpieces of outstanding lawyers moved juries and tribunals to send criminals to the gallows, free the innocent, save an outstanding lawyer from the ignominy of disbarment, bring justice to a defenseless victim, uphold crusading Davids and bring down haughty Goliaths.
The books starts with the moving account on how a multi-country tribunal tried and judged the Nazi criminal s. Read it, and you will come away thanking God that there are indeed lawyers – who may argue from legal points – but who win the case because they give a heart-wrenching or soul-stirring narrative about the unrelenting quest of the human heart for what is right and what is just.
The book is not only a collection of outstanding summation pieces; it gives readers a background for every piece, including a short biography of every featured legal luminary. The reader, therefore, understands the piece even more and places it within its historical context.
What emerges, though, is one compelling truth. The world has not changed. There are lawyers who twist or conceal the truth, or who conceal lies under the tapestry of truth,
And there are lawyers, thank God, “who weave throughout their closing arguments a thread of justice and righteous conviction” – and who therefore catch these liars in the ignoble act of lying.
This is a heartwarming book. Instead of cold legal points, we read masterpieces in rhetoric, facts woven into a moving story, and legal points subsumed in the higher laws that non-lawyers can understand,
Read the summation of Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson who filed charges against Adolf Hitler’s fellow architects of genocide. After being appalled by the enormity of their crimes and the ferocity of their campaigns, be inspired by Jackson’s assertion that justice be done, appropriately couched in these concluding lines:
“If you were to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say there had been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime.”
(How we wish our Ombudsman would read up on Jackson, and in due time, finally deliver the same lines on a celebrated case of presidential plunder, whatever the verdict!)
You will read the piece of legendary trial lawyer Clarence Darrow who was threatened with disbarment due to jury tampering (a term that refers to an attempt to bribe or influence the jury).
His spirited defense is instructive for lawyers and non-lawyers about sidestepping weak points and concentrating on strong points. You have to read the book to know if the acquitted himself well.
The summation of lady lawyer Clara Shortridge Foltz is a must-read for women’s movement. She fought all her life to allow women to have the right to be lawyers and to have legal education.
Remember Gerry Spence, who had the fame or notoriety of defending Imelda Marcos? You will understand why he won – with that “bird in the hand” analogy – with this “mesmerizing summation.”
This book gives the reader a ringside view of history in courtroom drama and storytelling at its finest – with a difference: “There is one vital difference between yesterday’s storytellers and today’s advocates,” the authors say.
“Where the bard sat at the foot of the king and entertained, the lawyers’ storytelling has the power to put evil men to death, to free the innocent, and to make whole the injured.” Take a bow, attorneys at law!
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