Chicago, Illinois, United States
The transdisciplinary intersection of health and elder law with medicine complemented by interludes devoted to the arts and literature employed as a pit stop; an opportunity to recalibrate and refocus.
The Supreme Court of the United States is one of America’s most important institutions, and one of its least understood. The most powerful court in the world is also the branch of our government most shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding, and myth. Isolated in a marble temple, supposedly insulated from the pressures of politics, nine unelected, black-robed Justices are charged with protecting our most cherished rights and shaping our fundamental laws. They are assisted by roughly 36 law clerks, the best and brightest of our nation’s lawyers, who routinely go on to fill the highest ranks of our government, courts, law schools, and law firms. Most Americans expect that in these closed chambers their highest hopes and most divisive debates will receive a hearing in which political allegiances are suspended and reason prevails. This LinkedIn feed seeks to sift through individual experiences, research, and reportage to weave together glimpses of the Court's inner sanctum, reveal hidden routines, and share a general view of life at the Court. It will also share recent opinions with commentary. Bar admission is essential for those practicing before the Court. But it’s unlikely all Supreme Court Bar members have business before the high court. So why do so many join the bar? Preferred admission and seating (just beyond the bronze railing directly behind arguing attorneys) at key Court arguments as well as access to the Court’s library. Beyond that, of course, many enjoy having the impressive framed document on their office wall.
Every life matters. Every life is precious, no matter their age. We cannot allow the narrative that some lives are worth saving and others are not. The longstanding neglect of the health and human rights of older persons was thrown into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing the inequitable health harms and human rights violations faced by older persons, raising a need to support healthy ageing policy as a human rights imperative. Tragically, international human rights law has long neglected the health-related human rights of older persons. While the pandemic has threatened the lives of older persons, it also has exposed the extent to which ageist discrimination permeates health policy decision-making. Chronological age has been employed in the pandemic response to allocate scarce resources, including ventilators and intensive care units, limiting the accessibility of healthcare and underlying determinants of health. Amid rising threats to dignity and rights, lockdowns and restrictions exacerbated loneliness for older persons, with social isolation increasingly understood to pose a risk of premature death from all causes – with additional risks to mental health from dementia, depression, and anxiety. Importantly, on Oct. 7, 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted Resolution 48/3, "Human Rights of Older Persons." The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is preparing a report for presentation at the 49th session of the HRC in Mar. 2022. The report will focus on the human rights’ standards and gaps as they relate to the human rights of older persons.
Working as a supernumerary for assorted opera and ballet companies in the U.S. and abroad, my debut season with The Lyric Opera of Chicago included Mussorgsky’s "Boris Godunov" about a Russian czar who rises to power with blood on his hands. Another favorite, Giordano's vivid potboiler "Fedora" featuring tenor Plácido Domingo as Count Loris Ipanov singing opposite soprano Mirella Freni in the title role. The word supernumerary comes from the Latin word supernumerarius. Supernumerary actors are amateur character actors in ballet, opera and theatre performances who train under professional direction. It is the equivalent of "extra" in the motion picture industry. Most established opera companies will have a supernumerary core of artists to enhance the opera experience. For example, The Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York City and the Washington National Opera (WNO) are known for their high profile and seasoned supernumeraries. The WNO has had major supernumerary personalities on stage such as U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg (died Sept. 18, 2020) and Anthony McLeod Kennedy (retired July 31, 2018) who made appearances in the opening of Strauss comedic opera "Die Fledermaus."
A great sentence makes you want to chew it over slowly in your mouth the first time you read it. A great sentence compels you to rehearse it again in your mind’s ear, and then again later on. A sentence must have a certain distinction of style – words that arrive in an order that couldn’t have been assembled by any other writer. Over a lifetime of reading, people form their own individual canon of great sentences. The first sentence of any piece works as an invitation into a new world. Sometimes that invitation is so powerful that the sentence itself takes on a life of its own. One example: the opening sentence of Orwell’s 1984: 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.' The sentence is initially unassuming, simply descriptive, but in the startling final detail Orwell achieves estrangement, establishing the alternate nature of the novel’s historical reality with economy and force. If we think of a library as a city and a book as an individual house in that city, each sentence becomes one tiny component of that house. Some are mostly functional – the load-bearing wall, the grout between the bathroom tiles – while others are the details we remember and take away, perhaps recalling their texture and color when we assemble our own verbal dwelling-place. Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company (L&J) produces and markets products and publications for use by members of the legal, insurance, accounting, economics, and accident reconstruction fields. Hopefully my medico-legal contributions enhance the L&J library offering in the long-term care litigation category.