Combating negative PR

• Author: Michael J. Knight Sr.
• Pages: 8-8

Addressing a redress

I found “Truth and Reparations,” April-

May, page 9, fascinating. I have not en-

tirely made up my mind on reparations.

As a white male, I have emo-

tionally vacillated between

two poles over time. Liane

Jackson’s article, though,

made me really examine my

own thoughts again. On the

one hand, it has always been

tempting to cling to the idea

that I didn’t participate—at

least not intentionally—in

slavery and everything that

came after. I am not even

sure if my ancestors did. So

why should I pay for it?

On the other hand, as I get older, I

 nd it impossible to deny the ongoing

societal effects and legacy of slavery,

institutionalized racism and so many

other related problems—and that I have

undeservedly enjoyed a white privilege

to varying degrees throughout my life

(it is a hard-to-come-to realization that

you didn’t earn everything you have

entirely on your own merit).

I do not pretend to know what the

“right” answers are—or to presume the

“right” answers will be right for every-

body; however, I have come to a more

humanistic and interconnected under-

standing that if my black neighbors and

friends suffer, my whole neighborhood

suffers. From that place, without assign-

ing blame or merit, I  nd it much easier

to consider reparations or other policies

to promote a more just and equitable

society—and in so doing, to help right

the wrongs of the past. Articles like

yours are important to promote these

conversations. I was particularly inter-

ested in the idea of sales tax proceeds

from recreational marijuana as a fund-

ing mechanism for reparations.

Jeremy M. Goodman

Phoenix

Excellent article about

reparations. My great-great-

great-great grandfather

Joseph Rucker was the  rst

millionaire in Georgia. He

obtained this status because

of his numerous plantations

and the hundreds of slaves

he owned. I support repa-

rations because of what he

and other family members

did prior to the Civil War.

I encourage the ABA Journal to keep

writing about this issue. It brings up a

lot of well-buried dirty laundry, but it’s

familial facts that have to be addressed.

K. Denise Rucker Krepp

Washington, D.C.

Combating negative PR

As always, I found the ABA Journal

relevant and informative. Of particu-

lar interest was “Good Press,” Febru-

ary-March, page 18, by Danielle Braff,

regarding the oft-cited and ever-pres-

ent public relations challenge facing

attorneys and the legal profession as a

whole. The premise of the well-present-

ed article identi es a perceived lack of

public trust with our profession and ad-

dresses those concerns with commercial

marketing and social media strategies—

or PR campaigns—to “bolster [the]

credibility and expertise” of attorneys.

I suggest that missing among the

tools available to repair negative public

perception about the legal profession

Letters From Our Readers

is the full-throated recognition and

publicity of the existence of each state’s

Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.

Client protection funds are often

referred to as the best-kept secret of the

legal profession. This characterization

is puzzling, given these lawyer- nanced

programs provide reimbursement to vic-

tims of dishonest lawyers and re ect the

commitment of the overwhelming ma-

jority of honest lawyers to restore the

public’s faith and promote con dence

in the legal profession. In fact, the legal

profession is the only profession that

offers such protections to its clients. In

a very real sense, client protection funds

exist because of good lawyers.

Michael J. Knight Sr.

Albany, New York

Correction/

“True Conviction,” April-May, page

56, should have credited Anna Ream

LLC for the photograph of Debo-

rah Espinosa.

Photographer Zack Smith’s name

was misspelled on page 6 of our

September-October, Winter, Febru-

ary-March and April-May issues.

The Journal regrets the errorT.

Letters to the Editor

You may submit a letter by email

to abajournal@americanbar.org or

via mail: Attn: Letters, ABA Journal,

321 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654.

Letters must concern articles pub-

lished in the Journal. They may be

edited for clarity or space. Be sure

to include your name, city and state,

and email address.

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Photos by Liane Jackson/ABA Journal; courtesy of Jim Mullen’s Instagram; Shutterstock

Danny Glover speaks

on reparations.

ABA JOURNAL | JUNE–JULY 2020

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