Conclusion

• Author: Rebecca Ann Taylor
• Profession: Writer and attorney
• Pages: 281-283

281

Don’t just stick with your usual routine for seeking relief. Use all possible

avenues for remedies that will not circumvent each other and will hopefully

complement each other. For example, if advertising your client’s cause to

the media (with the client’s permission, of course) will not interfere with

your simultaneous civil action, then do it. Seek other veins of relief if they

will work cohesively and not detract from your other claims and actions,

veins such as administrative relief, FOIA requests, seeking review of illegal

police actions as high up the ladder as needed, petitions (both physical and

online), lobbying for new statutes, seeking citizen-generated constitutional

amendments, and so on. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said,

It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it

frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions

who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to

satisfy their needs are within easy reach.

We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even

unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if nec-

essary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer.

We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making

your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you

will nd before you.1

The present day is similar to President Roosevelt’s era, not just in the sense

that our economy today faces problems comparable to the Great Depres-

sion, but also in that the disparity in civil rights between the 1 percent and

99 percent requires the same persistence, creativity of tactics, and courage

of the young of which FDR spoke. Predominantly, we have the young to

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt, portion of address at Oglethorpe University, May 22, 1932,

available at http:// newdeal .feri .org /speeches /1932d .htm.

Conclusion

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