Making Sense of it All – Nick’s Rant

What’s It All For?

My most favorite words ever written were those prepared for a character named Alan Shore on David E Kelley’s smash legal hit Boston Legal, which tonight wrapped up its 5 season run with all the class you can come to expect from a show filled with top-notch actors.

But of all those actors, none have made me feel all at once elated and deflated as the character of Alan Shore, played by James Spader.  No one else’s words have ever had so much power to get me so fired up.

Arguably, the show has been a sounding-board for liberal agendas – but it’s hard to mistake the simple theme that always comes through in the dialog: hope belongs to those who fight for it.

My point in sharing all of this is that I so desperately want to give you that same feeling of hope.  My words will probably never be so eloquent, but the passion – the passion is there.  We live in a world where fear is right around the corner.  In the distance, the boogeyman has replaced the American Dream.

As long as there are good people out there, willing to work hard at good means and stick it through to the good ends, there will be hope.

To succeed, you have to have passion.  To have passion, you have to have something to believe in.  Find that belief.  Find that passion.  Bring it to every minute of every day and fight for what you believe in – in your career and in your life.  If you don’t, who will?  But most importantly of all, you have to believe in yourself!

Here are the key lines to my favorite Alan Shore speech.  I’d watch the video version courtesy of Boston-Legal.org, if you can.  The transcript is below.

“When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn’t.

Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.

Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.

And now, it’s been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidently, we haven’t.

In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we’re okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial – or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.

There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there’s no clear indication that young people seem to notice.”

For the rest of the speech, please visit Boston-Legal.org.  Anyway, my point in utilizing this particular speech… look, our generation was startlingly silent these last few years.  I don’t care what your politics are, but… man.  Just compare us to the kids of the 60’s, 70’s… even the 80’s, a decade where the CLOTHES were louder than we are today….

I don’t believe one bit in this stodgy corporate culture the old folks have created for us – one in which it’s “not PC” to express an opinion.  Because God forbid anyone be offended or WORSE, disagree with you!

We simply can’t allow ourselves to be cornered like that anymore.  The economy sucks, the job market sucks, the resume advice and cover letter sites out there – with the exception of one – suck!  And guess who screwed all that up?  Old people.  I know, I know, it’s ageist.  Well, screw you old-people!

Your generation has had it’s run, and you screwed the pooch.  Instead of our best and brightest going into med school to cure diseases, they went into BioMed to turn a profit for the drug companies and pump out erection pills.  Instead of your kids going to Harvard Law to make the world a more ethical place, they litigate for Big Something and make the American people bend over and take it.  Instead of building a better society where anyone can learn a skill and follow the American dream, your greedy-bastard kids ran straight from their Ivy league educations and right into Wall Street, where they learned how to screw the little guys into thinking they could buy stuff they couldn’t afford.

Well guess what, Golden Girls.  We’re the future professionals… and we don’t share your stupid dusty values.  We know history.  We know what happens when there’s no accountability.  We’re coming for you – and we’re gonna be holding everyone accountable – you, them, and even ourselves.

And I’m sick of the way you drive, too!