on rights.

So nobody is probably going to even this see this blog, but I just wanted to take a second to address something really disturbing I read in the news yesterday. It was an article about an Iranian woman, a fellow blogger, named Fariba Pajouh, who has been held in solitary confinement by the Iranian intelligence ministry for over three weeks. Ms. Pajouh worked for a reformist newspaper, and her arrest is an obvious attempt to silence the voice of opposition. My sympathies go out to her and her family, and I hope she is freed soon. It is hard to believe that such blatent violations of human rights are happening every day. I guess that forces us to question whether freedom of speech is a basic human right. Should it be one of the prioritized rights that each society promise to its citizens? By prioritized, I mean to say that I do feel that some rights are more important than others. In our country, for example, I think due process is more important than owning a rifle. Not that I'm against the right to bear arms (heck! the men in my family have always been hunters), but I don't think it is thee most crucial. I suppose it's only natural for my discussion of human rights to lead to the Constitution. Since I've already wandered down this path, it's interesting to consider the order of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights. Right there, at number one, freedom of the speech and freedom of the press. In making the new nation, the framers of the Constitution felt it was a priority to protect these freedoms, and perhaps it's one of the rights we take for granted. In Zambia, the editor of The Post has also been imprisoned for sending photos of a woman giving birth outside of a hospital to the vice president and health minister. Sadly, the newborn did not survive the birth. The editor did this in order to demonstrate the failings of the nation's health system, but was charged with distributing obscene materials. Really? You leave a woman with no choice but to give birth in the streets, and then call it pornography when faced with the reality of the consequences?

Cases like these demonstrate the necessity to protect rights such as freedom of speech, press, and due process. But how to intervene or influence the basic rights and values of other nations seems a precarious task to undertake. The challenge does not mean that we can turn a blind eye.

motivation.

Thank you to the student organization who did not vote for me to be the committee chair of their newsletter. I won't be bitter. I'm a writer, and yes, I really wanted that committee chair. And although I did not realize that we were going to have to give a little shpeel about ourselves and why we wanted respective positions, I delivered an off-the-cuff little run down of who I was and my experience and goals for the newsletter, and I think it did the job. Got'er done. Smiling faces looking back at me, expressing approval. I mean, it was no Obama speech, but it was good, if I might say so. And the other female gave her shpeel with less enthusiasm, albeit she did have comparable qualifications, and was voted the 1L committee chair for the newsletter. Seriously, I'm not a sore loser, but first off, she ran for two positions, lost the other, and had a second opportunity to expound on her qualifications. And secondly, I think people have a bias against stylish females, and tend to think they're not as serious professionally speaking. Well that did it for me. It's like I have to work harder to prove myself a competent, intelligent young lawyer. I wonder if things would be different if I shaved my head, and went for the full-on feminist, activist look. Seriously, I think the election would have taken a different twist. But that's ok. I will take it as even more motivation to work my ass off and assert myself.


Week 2 is going really well. It's nice having a small section with 35 people. We're forming a little fam, and I see us becoming a great support network throughout the year. Hopefully we'll get good and drunk together a few times also.

My favorite course at this point is Contracts. Surprise! I never would have expected that. Well, I guess I like all of my classes in different ways. Constitutional Law is challenging, but very intellectually engaging, and Torts is fun because we think up all of these crazy hypotheticals for situations when people can be held liable for things. My professor is this hilarious, gregarious, highly respected torts scholar, that is just impossible not to love. Or at least laugh with several times each class.

This has been the densent 2 weeks of my life. But in a good way.