Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 29, 2010
Under Analysis
The law of irony
Charles S. Kramer
It is the unfortunate truth that one of the truly immutable laws that envelop our society is the law of irony. The practice of law, the judiciary, and the legislative process are far from immune. In truth, you can see the handiwork of irony virtually everywhere you choose to look. In 2006, for example, Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a Syracuse oncologist and U.S. citizen, was convicted of breaking the Iraqi sanctions, imposed because of Iraq’s unhumanitarian policies, by sending aid to starving children. He is serving a 22-year sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. A Durham prosecuting attorney obsessed with the career boost he would enjoy from prosecuting the Duke University Lacrosse team for rape, ultimately was sentenced to spend a day in the very same jail to which he sought to send the collegiate athletes after his widespread prosecutorial abuses came to light. In 2007 a St Petersburg Florida judge hearing a disability discrimination case was cited for parking his car in a handicap parking space, using a permit belonging to someone else. More recently, New London, Conn, the setting for the Kelo v. New London property-rights case that lead to the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirming that government’s right to seize property for economic redevelopment did not require that property to be in disrepair or “blighted’ in the layman’s sense, felt the sting of irony as well. The development that lead to the Court ruling failed when the company the government’s seizure helped lure to town announced it was leaving, taking its 1,400 jobs with it. Perhaps the most astounding example of the twisted sense of humor that radiates from the cosmos however, recently occurred in our nation’s capital, and in the state of Massachusetts.
For years Senator Ted Kennedy had been the champion for the concept of nationally legislated health care. His vision for guaranteed health care for the masses propelled him and was always at the forefront of his agenda. With the election of Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress, it looked like the Senator’s vision was going to come to fruition just as his own health was failing. Then, however, the Senator died, and his death leads to a vacancy within Congress. When, to the shock of many, that seat was recently claimed by an anti-health care reform Republican, the Obama plan lost a key Congressional vote and was doomed. Thus, Senator Kennedy’s death has lead to the defeat of the health care he championed.
Irony.
©2010 under analysis llc. under analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Charles Kramer is a principal of the St Louis, Missouri law firm Riezman Berger, PC. Comments, criticisms or questions about this column may be sent to the Levison Group c/o this paper or direct via email to comments@levisongroup.com
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