On the campaign trail

Last night I went to the Civil Air Patrol's Open House, and to a Grand Opening at Lofy Pursuits for their new gaming section, and to the American Legion. All the events were interesting, the recently received plane at the Civil Air Patrol, the new games at Lofty Pursuits (I tried to play one, it was fun, but I was terrible) and the dancing at the American Legion. I remember the people the best, though. I met the McPhersons at the Civil Air Patrol. Like me, they had just dropped in for the Open House. He spent 22 years in the Air Force, and then another 10 in the Navy. He was a jet mechanic, so we had a nice time talking about our duty time over in Jacksonville, he was at Cecil Field when I was at NAS Jax. He was born and raised here, but his wife is from Mississippi, a part ravaged last year by Hurricane Katrina. I also ran into Debbie Abrams, who used to work as a pediatrician for CHP, and was the first doctor I ever had to take a barfing kid to. That brought back some memories of my early days as a step-parent. I also talked to Marc Depuis, a native of Montreal, Quebec, who was cooking burgers.

At Lofty Pursuits, I of course talked to my long time friend and the owner, Greg Cohen, about his business, which has now been around for nearly 20 years. I talked with David Gilmore, who is a local private investigator, and his wife Andrea. I saw John Lyons, who reminded me that although his parents, uncles and sister were all lawyers, they couldn't so much as send an e-mail without him, since he does all their web hosting.

Actually, being out and about and talking with people, I feel much more like myself, and often forget I've been practicing law for 15 years. One woman said to me, "I've never even met a judge." That was true for me, too, before I went to law school.

Last I went to the American Legion, where they were having a fundraiser for a local veteran who is dying. Cocooned in State Government, you forget how hard long term illness is on families with limited insurance. There I talked to a couple in their seventies who had been married seven months. They met dancing, and were there to dance. I met another man who told me this was his first time out dancing in two years. I said that was a long time not to dance. He said his wife had been ill for some time, and then she died last May, and he hadn't really felt like dancing. He said that they had sung in the church choir together, and that he hadn't been able to go back since she died. He just couldn't sing.

I resolved to spend more time dancing with my husband. I went home at 9 o'clock, to discover that James was not in bed. Heads rolled. More tomorrow.

Rotary Club

I was at the Tallahassee Rotary Club yesterday to watch the award for the Frederick Clifton Moore to Dr. Larry Deeb. It was really nice. I sat with J. Rae Brown and his wife, Dean Penny Ralston from FSU, Dr. Luke Blanton and with Donna Thornton, who brought me along. It was especially nice for me to be there, because my Rotary sponsor, Jervey Kelly, had been an awardee in the early nineties. I like going to this Rotary club particularly, because so many people there remember Jervey, and I like to talk about him. Dr. Stan Marshall told me that he'd written a column in the Tallahassee Magazine about a year ago about Jervey's mission behind enemy lines during WWII. I continue to hope, nearly 20 years after being a Rotary Scholar sponsored by the club, that somebody will invite me to join.

F.I.R.E.

FIRE stands for the Florida Institute of Rehabilitative Education, which means it's the local charity that serves blind people and people who are visually impaired. I've sat on the Board of Directors since 2002. As usual with "good" works, I get more out of it than I put in. For example, I'm continually impressed by the drive and dedication of people whose lives have been affected by vision loss. I'm distressed by the limits, frequently irrational, that the sighted place on the blind, particularly in the area of employment. And I rejoice in our successes. Yesterday, local government officials voted to put a sidewalk on a major street to improve access to FIRE for visually impaired citizens.

http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/NEWS01/603280338/1010

Judiciary

Yesterday, I was at a CLE where one of the speakers was Alan Bookman, who is the current president of the Florida Bar. He said that there was a tension between the legislature and the Supreme Court over the Court's control of procedural rules. Several years ago, the Court decided that competency hearings should be held before trial rather than after, so that there would not be the cost and expense of a trial if someone was incompetent. Some legislators deemed that to be a substantive, rather than procedural change, and introduced legislation to move both procedural and substantive rules to the purview of the legislature. The Court believes the judiciary is best placed to determine court procedures.

Meanwhile, last year the Supreme Court certified a need for 110 new judges and 55 were put in to place by the legislature. This year the Supreme Court has requested 67 new judges. Bookman says that Florida judges have caseloads 30% higher than the average in other states.

Somebody told me today

That he was going to support me because he'd found that I was tough but fair while in Economic Crimes, and that I'd be a fair judge, even though he didn't think he'd agree with every ruling I'd make. Here is a guy that understands that by supporting me he'll personally get nothing at the end of the day, but will put his good name out there to say he'll support me. It's moments like this that make me happy I decided to run.

Reach to Recovery

The local paper had an article last week about volunteers who visit breast cancer patients. One of those volunteers visited me last year when I was recovering from breast cancer surgery, and I was grateful not just for the information provided, but because it came from a breast cancer survivor. Her survival made me believe I would be around years later, too. So I wrote a letter to the editor saying that I was grateful.

http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/OPINION02/603050334/1006/NEWS17

Tallahassee Rotary Club

I was a Rotary Scholar sponsored by the Tallahassee Rotary Club in 1990-91. I attended the University of the West Indies, and after I returned, I gave a talk to the club about my year overseas. During that talk in 1991, I used slides and a slide projector to show photos of where I'd gone and what I'd done. Today I returned to the club to talk about my work in consumer law. I used a laptop with powerpoint slides and a projector that only accepts digital information. My Rotary sponsor, Jervey Kelly, died in 1994, so he wasn't there, but I did see several people I knew through Jervey, like Luke Blanton, Stan Marshall, Judson Chapman and David Horton. The club has changed since I was there last, there are a number of women there now, and they've had a woman club president.