Gathering Petitions

In Florida, you have the choice of paying a qualifying fee to have your name placed on the ballot, or to qualify by petition. For most local offices, it is cheapest and easiest to qualify by petition. For example, to qualify to run for school board in Leon County, you need to gather fewer than 400 petitions to appear on the ballot, although the Elections Supervisor's Office recommends you gather more in case some signatures don't qualify. As County Court Judge is a County-wide race, I need 1,712, and the Supervisor's office recommends turning in 2,140. If I don't qualify by petition, the qualifying fee is $4,680. So we're gathering petitions. If you're reading this and are registered to vote in Leon County, do e-mail us and we'll get a petition to you. We have to submit our petitions by April 11, 2006 at noon.

Having a Merry Christmas

The guy in the office next door to me was bemoaning the fact that his kids are all big now and Christmas is not the same. My house holds a six year old who is enjoying everything about the season, the toys, the singing, the extra time with Mum and Dad, the time away from school, everything. So I am trying to enjoy this little bit of time with my family before the new year starts and the campaigning takes up more of my time.

Voice of Democracy

Every year, the VFW sponsors a local essay contest for high school seniors to write about an issue involving the democratic process. This year's topic was "How I Demonstrate My Freedom" and the winner was the student body president from the local Catholic High School, John Paul II, Evan White.

I had the pleasure of being present, along with about 100 other VFW members and guests, at the award ceremony on Friday evening. It was a great pleasure to see this young man articulate so cleanly his appreciation for his freedom. The other veterans there I think also liked his obvious sincerity, and we were all glad that his parents and principal and friend came to watch. It was heartwarming.

Here's the coverage from the Tallahassee Democrat, which includes a link to Evan's essay.
http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051218/NEWS01/512180334/1010/NEWS17

County Court Mediators

This week I attended a continuing education session for County Court mediators and had the opportunity to talk to several experienced mediators. I was extremely impressed with the professionalism and dedication of these volunteer mediators. The administrator told me that the mediators in Leon County consistently have statistics for volume and agreement that lead the state. I would be proud to be a judge working with such volunteers.

Soccer Mom

Now I am a soccer mom. On Wednesday I leave work fifteen minutes early so that I can pick up my kid and deliver him to the soccer field by 5:30 pm. I stand on the sidelines with the other soccer parents and watch the kids practice, and try to keep warm. The temperature today is 52 degrees and falling. At least I don't worry about the kids becoming over heated. I talk to the other parents as we watch our children chase after the ball and wonder whether I will really be doing this for the next ten years. At a minimum, I refuse to buy a van.

It makes me think about Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Counsel leading the team that recently indicted "Scooter" Libby. One of Fitzgerald's friends said he was so involved with his work that he put lasagna in the oven and forgot about it for three months. Such quaint stories are never told about soccer moms. I am a Special Counsel at the state level, currently heading a RICO investigation into a billion dollar corporation, but I still have to leave 15 minutes early on Wednesday to take my kid to soccer practice. The rest of my life would not take kindly to being forgotten about for three months.

Chinese School

On Sunday afternoons, my six year old son attends Chinese school. I send him because one of my great regrets in life is that I do not speak a foreign language fluently, and I know if he learns now, he will speak good, perhaps even accentless, Chinese as an adult. The school is run by the local Chinese Association of Tallahassee and uses donated space at the University. His teacher, Miss Joy, is a delightful native Chinese speaker with a background in early childhood education. So we are very fortunate. Already I notice that when I try to say something that I've heard in his class, he corrects me, and I do not understand the difference between what I've said and what he is saying, and I know that I'm simply not hearing the tonalities of the language.

It is interesting to experience this type of deafness, this type of "mind-blindness." I will never really be able to help him with his homework. It makes me appreciate the experience of immigrants who stuggle with language barriers and watch their children grow up and away from them into a new language and culture. To the extent we introduce our children to places we can't follow, we lose control over them, but I suppose we will always lose control over them at some point anyway.

Funny, I now know a little bit about how my mother felt when my sister announced she wanted to become a physicist. My mum, who was raised in rural Saskatchewan without electricty or plumbing, said, "You can't do that, I don't even know what it is." Everybody wants their children to have opportunities, to have access to more, to be more than the previous generation. It's just that exposure also means that the children become more cosmopolitan, and make choices that we don't understand, because we don't know anything about the area they explore.

Turkey Trot

In my first race since I had breast cancer earlier this year, I ran the 5k at the Turkey Trot this morning. My family came, 6 year old James and I did the 1 mile first, and then I ran the 5k by myself. Well, by myself with about 1500 other people. I talked to a guy who said that last night there were over 1800 entrants for all four distances (1 mile, 5k, 10k and 15k), and there had to be a couple of thousand people there today. It was amazing. I ran well, for a duffer, every split was better than the last, I finished at about 30 minutes and was very happy. At about 2 miles I started thinking about how lucky I was to even be running and got a bit choked up, but collected myself and ran on. I felt glorious as I waved at Jim and James before I ran into the chute.

The weather was spectacular, David Yon is a race organizing genius, I saw scores of people I knew, and then went off and ate an enormous breakfast.

Happy Thanksgiving.

My newest case

Last week I had a subpoena served on Florida Metropolitan University, a for profit university that is a subsidiary of the California company, Corinthian, Inc.

Here is the Reuter's report:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=209249+21-Nov-2005+RTRS&srch=corinthian

Veteran's Day

Last week my first grade son brought home a form from school, asking him to list all of the veterans in his family. I asked him who were the veterans in our family, and he said, "Nobody. I don’t know. Grandpa?" I was quite surprised that he didn’t know I was a veteran. So on Veteran’s Day I took him to the American Legion breakfast, where we were greeted like returning prodigal family members and invited to ride on the float. During the course of the day, I spoke to veterans from World War II to the Gulf War, and I was struck by two things: First, I felt sincerely welcomed by every veteran I encountered, which was a sea change from my experience as a female Navy avionics technician in the 80s; and second, with the passing of the Greatest Generation, the smaller group of veterans that follow them will have to take their place in the ranks of Veteran’s organizations to ensure that those who serve are not forgotten. I hope that other veterans here in Leon County will reach out to do their part in the coming years.