A Trial Lawyer's Birthday Wish - by Bob Vogel

I wish you didn't need me. I wish I had to find other uses for my skills and training. I wish that people could sit down and air their differences and care about each other enough to work them out in love. I wish that our society truly believed in and applied the golden rule: do unto others as your would have them do unto you. I wish that love could rule the planet. That is my wish.

But, the world in which we live abides by a different motto: me first. In the cacophony of our commercial society, we can no longer hear one another. In the accelerating cascade of images, we have lost sight of each other. We become more and more alone. We are more and more vulnerable. We are more and more likely to grab onto anything that will make us feel part of the whole again. So we buy our way in, or don't, and feel left out.

Our culture is driven by the force of greed. Our self-worth is measured against how well we acquire wealth and material objects. What property we own is what matters. How much influence we have over others is considered the greatest power. To have much and to have a position of influence is considered the American Dream - and, by extension, the dream of most of Western Civilization.

From this derives all the ills of our society. The desperate, the disenfranchised, the isolated, the extremists, the zealots all explode from this nucleus of greed like a great, nuclear explosion. And from this explosion also appear the greedy, the exploiter, the soulless corporate overlord, the overreaching and grasping politician, the heartless prosecutor, the blind, devastating sentences in todays' courts, the tort reform that enslaves every individual and allows for more and more oppression. All derives from this.

As long as our society is driven by these things, you will need me. And I will be there. I will be there to say no to the prosecutor for you, to say let's see what 12 honest citizens will say about your unfounded, exaggerated accusations. I will be there to say no to the insurance company attorney, and point him, also, to the jury box, showing him the 12 honest citizens who don't care about his earnings per share but do care about other people and don't see them just as numbers on some actuaries tally sheet. I will be here to say no to anyone and any entity that wants to oppress you or I until they put me in the ground or until you don't need me anymore.

Truly, I wish for a society in which you don't need me, because that would be a wonderful place to live.

With love,

Bob Vogel
Trial Attorney
rlvogel@robertvogellaw.com