Year's end, and a story

The school year is wrapping up, and the impending weight of finals draws nearer. Everyone wants it to be summer already, but we don't want to have to go through finals. Perhaps a bit like Frodo and Sam, in the Lord of the Rings, not wanting to go towards Mordor, but being inexorably drawn there by their larger purpose.

Along with finals, the end of the year also means end of the year dinners and elections for officers for student groups for next year. Given that law school is 3 years, and that by your 3rd year, you often aren't on campus very much anymore (often, doing clinicals--legal work under the supervision of attorneys/professors, or credited externships, or simply apathy), it's the second year law students who do most of the work. The first years (1L's) don't know enough, and are also usually scared of taking on any extra responsibilities.

So, basically, an entire new group of officers comes in every year. APALSA, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association had their elections, which I wasn't able to attend. So did the King Hall Intellectual Property Association. I attended that one, and managed to escape being given an office.

The Christian Legal Society only has 5 1L's, so all 5 of us will be officers next year (the school requires every student group to have at least 5 officers). I'm kind of glad. It's a chance for people to know that I'm a Christian. Not that I've denied my faith, or been ashamed of it. But in my relationships with other law students, many do not know that I am. Though I do make it a point to openly pray before every meal.

I was at the Good Friday service at my church today, and I heard the following story:

An elementary school teacher was teaching a creative writing class. The exercise she had was for her students to write the ending to a story that she would begin for them. The beginning was the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper. During the year, an ant was industriously working every day to store up food for the winter. The grasshopper, on the other hand, didn't store any food at all, instead enjoying the outdoors. The winter came, and the ant was now in his home, with all the food he'd stored in the past months. The grasshopper was hungry, and went to the ant's house, and begged him for some food.

One student raised his hand and asked: "Teacher, can I draw a picture?"

"Yes, you can, but you must first write the ending to the story."

The students were given some time to finish, and handed in their work at the end of class.

Afterward, the teacher went through the classwork, reading what the students had written. Some had said that the ant said ok to the grasshopper, and that they spent the winter sharing the food that the ant had gathererd. Other students had written another ending: the ant said, "No, I only have enough food for myself--there's not enough for you, too." And the grasshopper left the ant's home and starved to death.

Then she got to the ending of the student who had raised his hand. The ant gave all his food to the grasshopper, and the ant went outside and died.

Below was the student's drawing of a hill with three crosses.

Quick things

OK, this really has to be quick, because it's late at night, and I need to go home soon. Otherwise, I'll fall asleep here in the computer lab at school.

What's going on with me lately: I'll be working in Sacramento this summer as an unpaid intern with the California State Public Defender's Office. Most, if not all, of what they do is deal with death penalty conviction cases. Most likely, I'll be a part time intern with them, helping various staff attorneys with their cases by doing various tasks, some of which may be rather unsophisticated. E.g. inputting info into a computer. But I'll also hopefully do some legal research and writing. Don't know yet whether I'll be meeting any of the clients.

I'm also applying for part time summer research assistantships, to help professors do their research. I just found out today that one position I applied for has already been filled (by someone other than me). I'll be applying for another one sometime this week.

Housing: My roommate and I would like to again be roommates next year, possibly with 1-2 new people, but we need to find a place. Davis housing is pretty crazy, in that we're already a bit late in looking for places for this coming September!! The vacancy rate during the school year is something less than 1%, I've heard. One more thing I'll need to do.

Finals: are next month. We only have about 3 1/2 weeks of class left, until about the end of April. Then about a week long study period, then final exams over 2 weeks. So the atmosphere is getting more stress-filled. Our finals will be worth anywhere from 50% to 90% of our overall grades for the entire year (both 1st and 2nd semesters), so you can see why.

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(this is how I indicate a break in a flow of thought in my notes, which I take on my notebook computer)

Stuff from today: I was at a panel discussion today, given by 2 professors here, as well as the dean of McGeorge (a law school in Sacramento, which is the only other ABA recognized law school in the area).

The discussion ranged a bit, but mostly was on America's treatment of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, as well as others. "Detainees" = "unlawful combatants" So some of it explained why they're unlawful combatants, instead of prisoners of war. Much of it was about how federal courts, and the system as a whole (including international courts) isn't well prepared to deal with situations that are arising. (One question: does the Constitution extend only to the physical borders of US land, or does it extend to wherever the flag is flown?

One panelist highly recommended reading a New Yorker article about John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban", so I found it on the web, and you can read it here.

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This past weekend, I had the chance to attend the Asian Law Caucus dinner in San Francisco. It was held in a large ballroom at the Hyatt Hotel. Various "important" people there. Lots of lawyers, some political people. I heard that the SF mayor, Willie Brown, stopped by, though I didn't see him. There was a federal judge there. A local reporter was one of the presiders, and there was a videocamera set up.

I was reminded of a quote I read on someone's homepage, that went something like: "I will not let the glory of this place overshadow the greatness of my God." Or something like that.

The best part of the dinner for me, though, was the chance to shake hands with Fred Korematsu. If you don't know who he is, find out. There's an article about him here.

OK, time to go home.