Value of life
From the California State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct:
Last night, along with around 18,000 other people, I attended the midnight funeral of a slain American-Israeli soldier who came from the breezy sand bar of South Padre Island, Texas, to fight againt Hamas and its cruel, grotesque sacrifice of its own people, deep within the booby-trapped urban labyrinth of north Gaza, around a mile from my own home. The parents flew from Texas to bury their son. At the graveside, a high-ranking officer gave the official military eulogy, and then after those many sad but brave words of Hebrew, I heard a few softly drawled words of English: "We love you more than words can say."
I weep as I write this. Among the silent crowd in the dark, overshadowed by tall trees nourished over the years by the bones of our fallen boys, there were those who could weep and those who have come to a place of no longer weeping. We stood together to honor this young one.
All of us alive today have a duty to our children to build and create a world where they can live with one another into the future, in safety and in peace. Certainly those who have been fortunate enough to be educated as officers of the world's highest courts must perform their duties not only to their clients, but to the public, to preserve life. It has overriding value.
