This is intended to cover something that was missed in previous entries…
I was lucky in meeting Mr Pugh, a retired lawyer and ex-professor at LSU for whom Jenna has been working, as it was not arranged by me at all. He had apparently expressed some interest in meeting me after she explained that I was visiting, working, and would be studying Law at Cambridge this year. And I, of course, jumped at the chance of a relaxed afternoon of intelligent conversation.

Although he seemed to want me to do most of the talking, Mr Pugh was certainly full of questions for me about my views on the States and its current situation, along with differences from Britain. I answered his questions as best I could, and was pleased to find he was rather liberal which made it much easier to justify certain statements I made. I suppose with age and experience one either sees the flaws of the country or becomes blinded to them. Perhaps because of his line of work, he seemed very aware of the shortcomings, but was interested to hear that many were also evident in the U.K. too.

You can always tell a conversation is going well when you are offered tea, and you can always tell your company is really being enjoyed when they crack open the wine! It was going to be a long afternoon of discussion, which was fine with me. I think Jenna was really content to just listen intently as we discussed everything from politics and religion to education and lifestyles. I savoured the almost interview-intensity of it, having to careful support my opinions with evidence while politely arguing certain points. Accompanied by a serious lightning storm around us (we were sat in a covered outdoor porch) the mood was certainly electric. A little too much, in fact, so after watching Jen jump at some particularly loud thunderclaps, we retreated inside before eventually taking our leave. A most memorable afternoon, and Mr Pugh also mentioned he knows another retired Law tutor who lives in Cambridge and suggested I visit him. And that will, no doubt, be an entry of its own…

Unfortunately we only discovered the scooter hire place once most of the others had left, but nonetheless it was great fun taking them for a spin. Debbie and Steve had done this before, but I was something of a virgin at this biker lark. It was fairly easy to pick up once you got the hang of starting the damn things, and they were pretty zippy too, although I didn’t really care to push them to their limits. We were driving them around inside the hotel grounds so that later on I was chatting to some kids who asked whether I was “the guy with the bikes”. Not a bad rep to gain on my first day as a biker!

Having sorted details out with my parents, I have now managed to extend my trip for a further two weeks. The airline are charging me nearly $200 for the privilege, so this may well be the most expensive two weeks of my life given that’s the charge for simply existing here! Nonetheless, it will be great to spend more time with Jen, and I’ll be living with her, Jeff and Karleigh for a while, as well as probably taking another trip up to Monroe before I leave.

Stephen has nearly finished Fast Food Nation, a pretty a scathing book on the practices and secrets of the fast food corporations, as well as the health effects of this diet on the population. He has been reading this for much of the time we were out here, and has been quoting the more damning (sickening?) passages to us on a regular basis. The thing is, sickening as it may be to hear about, it’s often just cheaper and more convenient to eat fast food, so I don’t think it’s going to stop us at all…

I still maintain that Britain has no beaches, just a coastline, and this place reinforces that belief. Now, I’m no fan of the beach. I tend to stay out of the sun for the most part, don’t really like the water, and don’t even get me started on the incredibly flawed design of sand; it just gets everywhere and you’ll still be washing it out of your hair for days afterwards…even if your head never touched the sand!

However, so far this holiday within a holiday has been incredibly relaxing and laid-back. Jeff shares my general distaste for the beach so we keep each other company reasonably well (although he left early). Karleigh is still a little young to enjoy the beach properly, but she loves the shallow toddler pool and has a very cool inflatable boat in which she can sit and paddle; Jen and I have taken her a couple of times now. The hotel grounds are beautiful as you can see, and the seaside sunset skies are incredible. Everything is comfortable (even when sleeping on the floor for the first few nights) and now that a few of the others have left, I’m just sharing the condo with Jenna and Alexis who are great fun as roommates.

It’s easy to start chatting with anyone out here (arguably aided by my British accent which is an immediate talking point) and everyone’s pretty friendly. The Gulf Shores are the cleanest and generally nicest beaches near here, so they attract people from all the neighbouring States (I’m currently in Alabama). Holidays like this also tend to bring out everyone’s eccentricities, like Stephen’s discovery of the shuffleboard (at which I’m happy to say I rule!) on the grounds; the game is sort of a cross between curling and boules. And of course, Manel came equipped with bottles and bottles of factor 50 sunblock. It’s an impressive arsenal when you see it piled together. I’ve never quite trusted that stuff: can it really be healthy to coat your skin with that gunk!? I’ll just stick to the shadows and stay sunblock free thankyouverymuch.

Unfortunately Jen and Alexis are heading back early, so I’ll have the condo to myself for a few days. I will miss them, especially as I’ve had some problems back home with trying to extend my stay here by a few weeks (since I’ve been working most of the time, it would be nice to have a little more than just the one week’s holiday). The irritating this is that I’m sure if it were anyone else, they’d be calling back home to ask for money. I’m just asking them to send some of my money so that I can sort out the plane tickets. Things have yet to be resolved.

When I started working out here I was given a fresh yellow legal pad, and also seem to have acquired another since then. At any rate, I have never been without at least one of them when in Court or scurrying about outside. During the quieter moments however, they inevitably led to the odd bit of sketching or doodling, and I thought I’d let you peek at a selection here…

One of the biggest problems we face in regard to the views of those who create legislation is the idea that children should not require lawyers at all, and that our role in defending them is simply to drag out what should be a simple proceeding. The fact is that the process is far from simple and it is plain to anyone who has set foot in a juvenile court that even with a lawyer, children often find it difficult to follow what is happening to them. I was involved in coordinating a group of Steve’s university students at the State Legislature where we were giving testimony in support of a bill that would prevent juveniles from waiving their right to counsel. This is crucial because so many children effectively have this right waived on their behalf through pressure from judges, prosecution attorneys (who unsurprisingly would just love for there to be no opposing lawyer!) and even parents.

Another prejudice we commonly find is that the majority of our clients must be guilty because, well, they’re teenagers. And you know what teenagers are like. The result is that there’s a feeling that we’re just wasting people’s time by even attempting to defend these people. Indeed, when explaining that our standard process involved a “not guilty” plea during a discussion about the lack of funding for the juvenile public defenders office, Steve met with the response, “Ah, well there’s your problem: you’re pleaing not guilty!”

It’s not uncommon to hear this casual remark from the security officers. It seems innocent enough, and maybe even quite astute. But so often from having spoken with the child previously in the office, we’d really like to say, “Well, actually you really don’t have to worry about that, this kid’s getting beaten plenty!” Corporal punishment may be all well and good, but interesting to note that these days the majority of supporters are people who were not even beaten regularly, let alone excessively. And frankly, there’s a number of our kids who’ve been screwed up by the “disciplining” they receive. Younger kids tend either to get traumatised or become more aggressive and violent towards other children, while if this form of punishment continues, eventually the child is big enough to hit back, and it’s hard for a parents to deal with by that point in what is usually a pretty dysfunctional relationship.

“The collective attention span of this country seems to be measured in nanoseconds.”

This insightfully accurate statement was uttered in a lively (if somewhat one-sided) discussion at Coffee Call, a less commercial Starbucks-lite coffee place that has the added advantage of serving Beignets which I’d previously only sampled at New Orleans’ Cafe du Monde. The more surprising thing is that it was not me who said it. In fact it was made by Mike, another friend of Stephen and Debbie, who explained that he loved to discuss politics when possible (not hard to guess from just how vocal he was), but usually cannot as he works for a state department.

Putting a slight damper on the wonderful mile-high-sugar-coated-“donut”-goodness (yes, Americans can spell “dough” correctly but, it would seem, get a little confused when it comes to the dual-syllable “doughnut”) was the fact a pick-up truck managed to reverse into our car in the parking lot before the evening had even begun. Fortunately it was not serious enough to cause injury but Debbie looked so angry as she threw open the car door and marched over that I glanced away to avoid being a witness to the inevitable murder. As it turned out she held herself back and we had the police check things and make a report. From the positions of the vehicles we were clearly not at fault, so one would hope the insurance companies will settle up with a minimum of fuss.

Yesterday I visited the Jetson Correctional Centre for Youth (JCCY or just “Jetson” for short) for the first time in order to meet a client of ours currently incarcerated there. She is a female sex offender who has admitted to her crime but we are having to fight to get her the treatment she requires because all sex offence rehabilitation in designed purely for males. Under equal protection laws she should have access to similar (if not identical) councilling and treatment made available to her while she serves her sentence, if for no other reason than to prevent reoffence. We spent considerable time researching and drafting a memo to show the treatment she deserves, and have a doctor who has performed an evaluation to back this up. Although Jetson only holds juveniles, security was still pretty high, to the point where they checked our car boot before allowing us to leave, just to ensure we did not have any stowaways. I was also pleased to hear my status upgraded to “paralegal”. Going up in the world!