It doesn’t sound particularly appealing.
Leave Memphis Friday afternoon. Drive to Nashville. Pack a new bag. Catch a flight to Charlotte. Race through the airport from Gate E35 to B3. Catch a flight to Mrytle Beach. Catch a 45-minute long shuttle to a North Carolina resort. Carry your bag up the steps to a second floor room at 12:30 in the morning. Get a few hours sleep and go to a windowless ballroom. Hang around a few hours to give a speech to a room full of people who had a similar ordeal to get there. All the while knowing that you have to reverse the process the next day in an effort to get home for a meal with the family on Father’s Day.
But the drudgery evaporated when I heard Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, USMC, speak at Saturday’s luncheon of the North Carolina Advocates of Justice Annual Meeting. Who is Col. Couch? He was the Gitmo prosecutor – a career prosecutor – who refused to prosecute a terrorist who had been subjected to torture. Read more here.
Col.Couch reminded me again why we should to be proud to be lawyers. If you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak seize it. If you ever have an opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for his service to our country and profession, do it.