"THIS BOY IS IGNORANCE, THIS GIRL IS WANT, BEWARE THEM BOTH . . . BUT MOST OF ALL BEWARE THIS BOY, FOR ON HIS BROW I SEE THAT WRITTEN WHICH IS 'DOOM' "



It happens every year at this time. LOST (over) indulges in all things Christmas. Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas junk food, Christmas shopping. Christmas stories. You name it. "A Christmas Carol" is one of the best Christmas stories ever written. It may be the Second Best all time.

The title line above comes from the original "A Christmas Carol," as written by Dickens, and LOST thought of it as he read the letters section of the local paper here in Red-Ville. In reading the local letters to the editor section, I was taken aback by two letters in Friday's section, both of which criticized - nay, demonized, another "predatory lawyer" filing "abusive lawsuits" against "small businesses" which threatened to "destroy a whole town." This dual display of hyperbole prompted a search for the original article, which happened to be about a San Diego lawyer well known for this kind of suit. All the article mentioned was that this man "uses a wheelchair," and it quoted him extensively. And two people in this little Redville corner wrote in, decrying the greed, the shamefulness of another greedy lawyer "conveniently representing himself" in these "Extortion" based lawsuits which "the attorney general" should investigate. Ignorance of Dickensian proportions.

The lawyer who brings these lawsuits, Theodore Pinnock, is a remarkable man. Yes, he uses a wheelchair. He is African American, not a fact covered in the local paper. Nor was it mentioned that he suffers from cerebral palsy, and needs assistance to get to and from court. He speaks laboriously, but beneath his ravaged exterior is a working brain and a good heart. What is wrong about a man who, with those strikes against him, going to and getting through law school, passing the 3 day long drudge that is the State Bar exam, and then finding a way to use that hard-earned education and licensure to benefit others who are similarly disadvantaged and keep the lights on while doing so? Not a damn thing.

More importantly, the law that Mr. Pinnock grounds these lawsuits upon is not State law - which might have been affected by the passage of Prop 64 last year, but it is Federal law, specifically the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA. ADA was signed into law by Bush 41, in 1990. It has been the law of the land since 1992. That means 13 years that the good business owners of Julian have had to retrofit and/or make their establishments accessible. Is it expensive? No doubt it is for many. Is it the law? Without question it is. Why is it somehow virtuous then, for small business owners to claim poverty as an excuse for flouting Federal law, when, in courtrooms all over this country, defendants who resort to other types of crime for the same claim of impoverishment are rebuked and convicted?

It is difficult to reconcile this. It is a tough problem, to balance the costs of providing access - and their imposition upon business and property owners, against the deprivation and indignity suffered by the disabled, who for no fault of their own would otherwise be denied access to enjoyments we "healthy" people take for granted? Why then, do so many here in Redville simply decide to label the lawyer "greedy" and identify with the lawbreaking small business owner? Is it bigotry, the time honored, anecdotal hatred of lawyers? Is it the similarly time honored affinity for the entrepreneur, the mythical self-made business person bucking the odds to make a living despite the crushing weight of Government regulation? Is it convenient memory lapses - the type that enable people to forget that ADA was signed by a Republican President, or that - as we all learned in Civics and History classes, that Federal law takes precedence over ("pre-empts") State law in many instances? Yes, yes and yes. But its also part and parcel of the very ignorance that Charles Dickens warned us about over 160 years ago. It is a willingness to supplant critical thinking and evaluation with labeling and stereotyping and moving forward in impulse, rather than a depth of critical, analytical thought. The costs of this failure are readily seen in the black and white of the local paper. First by a reporter who failed to grasp the depth of a story, then by two local letter writers who allowed their stereotypical view of society guide their processing of the same story. Let us not be doomed by ignorance.