Change! You Rested Lawyer.
Once, upon a winter dreary, while I pondered yet so weary
Over many a quaint and curious page of forgotten legal lore;
While I nodded, nearly napping, slightly there came a rapping;
As if someone slightly tapping, tapping at my home state’s door.
“T’is some visitor” I muttered “tapping at my home state’s door”;
Only this, and nothing more.
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the spring far from September;
And each separate windy member held down Forbes’ ore;
Eagerly I read the numbers; vainly I sought the members;
From the pages on riches listed, for no Nebraska merchants score;
For the rare and radiant person whom the angels named Walton; oh
Nameless from these pages, Ever Before.
T’was no moment for my memory to read the name
it seemed so simple; sounded so Midwestern posed no threat and held no bluster;
That name – Walton – and his silly stores,
Seemed no threat to my homeland, me, or what’s more;
To the law I sought to practice, the jurors in their businesses about their store;
Walton. T’is a name and nothing more.
Presently the tap grew stronger; Not hesitating – lasting longer;
“Sir,” I said, “or Madam, truly your intentions I implore?”
But the fact, is I was napping, as was my state, and my lawyer friends galore.
T’was some visitor entreating entrance at my statehood’s door;
Building box stores, simple box stores with cheap goods
and Nothing More.
Yet the Tapping, it grew stronger and redoubled lasting longer;
It multiplied – not just Walton. ADM, ConAgra, Tyson and more;
So that soon cattle feeding in huge numbers left people fleeting;
Departing home towns, leaving ranches, watching the farms collapse by floor;
Then a hardware, bank, a grocery, and a school shrunk some more;
“This is it, it will stop. It’s Nothing sore.”
Deep into statehood peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing.
Doubting, nightmarish dreams no mortal seems to’ve dream before;
But the Ripping was unbroken, and allowed no stillness as a token;
The only words spoken there were… Concentration;
Concentration. Business Concentration
Whispered words no more.
Tearing, Raging, Statehood’s fabric Ripping.
Ripping at my State’s home door.
Not relenting, yet inventing new efficient
Ways to score.
“Concentration” This was whispered. An echo murmured back
Concentrationnnn…. Nothing more.
Back into my office turning, my soul within me churning;
Did I see a danger lurking, was this Ripping louder than before;
“Surely,” said I, “surely that ripping at my window lattice;
Let me see then what threat is it to explore;
Still my heart. Car wrecks. Crashes. Products cases galore.
This Ripping can be nothing anymore.”
Yet the Ripping! Louder Ripping.
Concentration Ripping at my statehood’s door.
Ripping schools. Ripping counties. Leading people far from afore.
Waking in their meager wages. Clinging to their ancient pages.
Holding to their homes … no more.
The Ripping stripped them Evermore.
Where’s the help to stop the Ripping? Where’s the law come running, tripping?
And the lawyers? Will they stop it? Or, Will it rip them Evermore?
Fewer banks and fewer grocers. Fewer ranches and fewer dealers.
Fewer families. Lower wages. Methamphetamine’s what’s in store?
No estates and no planning? No new factories. No new and loving sturdy lore.
Bigger, bigger, but better? No not better. Never more.
And the law so all unchanging.
Old tools useless in a machine so Ripping, raging.
Ingenuity! Needed now, and from the Lawyers Ever more.
Not car wrecks or crashes. Not torts in simple sashes.
But ingenious rules. Brand new tools.
Stop the Ripping. End its munching in my State’s core.
Concentration. It’s a raven. Beguiling all its victims into smiling.
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat. Before the bird at courthouse seat.
Then upon the velvet sinking I betook myself to thinking;
Fancy unto fancy thinking, what’s this concentration bird of yore?;
What’s this grim ungamely, ghastly gaunt and ominous bird of yore?
Meant in croaking “Eeee Forevermore?”
Thus I sat engaged in guessing, But no syllable expressing;
To the vile whose fiery eyes now burned into my home state’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head a cock deciding on the
Cushion’s velvet lining, that the Judge presided o’er.
What should I do with wrecks and crashes, torts and clashes?
Remain and stay? Ah, Nevermore.
Then I thought the air grew denser. Perfumed from a fraught a sensor.
Slung by legal theme whose foot falls tinkled on my detufted courthouse floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “you’re plan is evil. You’ve come here to my statehood
Raging, Ripping, Stealing.
Taking opportunity from this land and stripping all its lore.
I’ll do my best to stop you Evermore.
Thing of evil! I will rally all lawyers round me, devil.
Whether tempter sent or tempest tossed, We’ll stop you at Nebraska’s door.
Desolate, yet all undaunted in this desert land so level.
On this home by statehood’s door The lawyers I will implore.
It’s here, it’s here, your help I need. Help me I implore.
Stop the concentration Evermore!
Help the people. Represent them! They are clients
Evermore. Protect the weak and fight the big.
Give no quarter to the Raging. Stop the Ripping.
The sand is for an ostrich’s head;
But in that posture, Nebraska’s dead.
Now. Let it be No more!
Be a lawyer…real lawyer. Find new places for old tools;
Dust the laws and regulations. Learn new battles,
Pick fights for lawyers, Not for fools;
Nothing done by the lawyers? Then
Nebraska’s gone; its Concentration’s chattel.
And then, It’s dead….lo, Evermore.
We must do it, Not some other. Legislation is no answer;
Government is weak as lather; muscle makes it gather
But Compromise is a disaster
Giving way to a Ripping, raging sore with Nebraska
Hurt or Gone,
Hurt, then Gone. For Evermore.
So, it’s up to you and me. Shrinking clients.
Weakened means. All this screams for Plaintiff’s lawyers.
Let it go or stop it, Nebraska’s in the balance don’t you see.
She needs us now and knows it not. She needs us, you and me.
Heart filled lawyers, caring lawyers. Committed lawyers.
Home State Needs us Now, and Evermore.
“Lawyers,” said I, “lawyers, see this thing of evil.”
See it strip you of your clients and your business and your store.
See its thumbed nose at laws, and oaths, and courts, and on until,
You See it Dare You to challenge it. Juggernaut that I deplore.
Deplore it, it is evil. Defeat it, it is devil. Devil, Evermore.
Clasp a rare and radiant law you Nebraska lawyer.
Help this home State democracy’s angel set ashore.
Use the law, Old and New, against a concentrated player
Fight its size and save our families. We are born to own, employ;
And not to grovel for small wages at concentrated business’s door,
Yeah. Not to grovel, Nevermore.
Be that our word of sign we lawyers for Nebraska’s store.
Let our sign of parting dangle, yeah before us dangle Even as we start to wrangle.
Yeah to wrangle! Evermore.
Leave no black plume of ancient labor.
Wrecks and crashes, torts and clashes.
Turn a new leaf. Old tools, new battle. Fight concentration’s gore.
Win the Battle. Beat the Evil. Beat it, Evermore!
The time has come. It’s now. The place is here. It’s here.
The need is now. Our sign, Our signal. Our challenge and our duty.
Balance big and little. Level weak and strong.
Compel, honor. Nebraska can live on!
Take up arms you rested lawyer.
Stop the greed… For Evermore!
….. David A Domina. October 2005.