“TO RISE ABOVE THE COMMON MOLD”

From Peter D'Errico's blog

Osage / Cherokee Professor Rennard Strickland passed on January 5, 2021. He was a major figure in law and legal history, a law teacher and Dean at several schools, and a major contributor to Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

He wrote this essay fifty years ago, based on a speech before the Tenth Circuit Roundtable of the Law Student Division of the ABA in October 1974.  His essay was published in the same issue as mine on “The Law is Terror Put Into Words”.

Strickland said his law student audience were “preparing to move into the mad world of the twentieth century.” He called on them “to free us from the traditional molds of thinking and to come face to face with the reality of this changing world.”

His description of the problems they faced and his advice to them are as relevant in 2025 as in 1975:

He said:

“It is not enough to hold all of the ‘right views’ and espouse all the ‘right causes’ without asking why are these the ‘right views’ and the ‘right causes’…. Your challenge as young lawyers is to …lead us into an age of ‘reality, reason, and common sense.’"

University of Oklahoma College of Law Photo

And I will add that we lawyers as public policy leaders in executive and legislative posts have not let down this tradition of “credulity, superstition, and fanaticism.” Your challenge as young lawyers is to break out of this mold, free us from the limitations of your age, and lead us into an age of “reality, reason, and common sense.”

 

KEEP READING:  https://peterderrico.substack.com/p/in-memory-rennard-strickland-to-rise