On a blistering evening in Phoenix recently, a group of prominent civic leaders met to talk about America. It didn’t take long for the conversation to get around to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. That’s what happens when smart Americans get to talking about politics these days. Topic A is the growing sense that our best days as a nation are behind us, that our kids won’t live as well as we did, that China is in the driver’s seat. The group had been assembled for my benefit by Fred DuVal, vice chair of the Arizona Board of Regents. Fred’s a Democrat, but most people in the room were Republicans, and the conversation was bracing from the start — though not in the knee-jerk, contentious way we’re used to seeing on television. People told personal stories and made complicated arguments that didn’t fit neatly into their assigned political categories. Early on, a former Arizona attorney general named Grant Woods said he’d recently visited Turkey. He described “a prevailing sense of melancholy,” which, he was told, was caused by the fact that Turkey “once had been a great empire but no longer was, and probably wouldn’t ever be again … In my lifetime, growing up in America, we were raised to believe that we were the best, No. 1, and always would be — and what I see happening now is that people are afraid our day may be passing and that the current Administration is putting that process into fast-forward.”(See more entries from Joe Klein’s road trip.)

Woods is a Republican, and his was a conservative lament: Barack Obama was leading the country away from private enterprise toward a more “European” style of Big Government. This is a popular, perhaps even dominant, theme in the U.S. this season — but it doesn’t begin to describe the anguish that dominated every conversation about politics I witnessed during a four-week trip across the country. With a month to go before a crucial election and campaign ads cluttering the TV, people were in a heightened state of political awareness. I’ve covered more than a few midterm campaigns, but this one seems particularly fraught. That was made clear by the next speaker, a Republican public-relations consultant named Kurt Davis, who agreed with much of what Woods had said about “the far left undermining American values.” But, he added, “when the middle class looks to the right and sees how free trade has sold them down the river, exporting millions of jobs … they feel whipsawed, pissed off at both sides. I can’t tell my kids that they’ll be able to get a good job with a good company, work there for 30 years and retire with a good pension. I’d be lying. People know that doesn’t exist anymore, and they’re angry about it. That was the anger that elected Obama. He was the anti-Establishment candidate — and John McCain was anti-Establishment too. And so was Bill Clinton. But none of them did anything to change the reality that’s making people angry.”

Attorney Magazine – Pay The Lawyer Last – Grant Woods

The phenomenon of the slow pay is truly epidemic. Maybe we should try it. You know that car dealer who is two months behind on his bill? Why don’t we walk onto his lot and pick out a nice new convertible and just drive it off? Shouldn’t be a problem—-we promise we will pay as soon as that tax refund comes in or that deal comes through or that guy pays me that money he owes me. We will just enjoy the car until we get around to paying. Don’t worry about it. You know we’re good for it.

And if a client finally just refuses to pay at all, despite that nice retainer he has long run through and despite all of his promises and excuses, then you just withdraw from the case and move on, right? Well, not necessarily. If it is a criminal case or if you are getting close to a trial date in a civil case, the judge might just happily inform you that you get to continue representing this liar, presumably for free. And you get to represent him for free not because he is poor or oppressed or because you think it is the right thing to do, but because he managed to maneuver and procrastinate and generally sucker you into hanging in there with him until it was too late.

Those must be some trials. I’ve never had it happen to me, but I’m sure that everyone is very professional and continues to represent this louse to the best of their abilities. But if juries do really pick up on most everything going on in the courtroom, it is hard to imagine they will miss this tsunami of bad vibes emanating from over at the defense table. We really should get a medal— especially since we aren’t getting any money—for wholeheartedly arguing the case of a person who is, as we speak, becoming one of the biggest debtors we will ever have.

In the book (and movie) North Dallas on a team modeled on the Dallas Cowboys is exasperated by the dealings of the team ownership. They tell him to relax, it’s only a game. But as the character observes, “Every time I say it’s a game, you tell me it’s a business. Every time I say it’s a business, you tell me it’s a game.”

Sometimes our “profession” is the same. I tend to think of us as very highpaid plumbers. People get themselves into the nastiest situations with all of their pipes backed up or burst and they call upon us. We get paid well, but we still have to go in and fix the toilets.

You would think, then, that we could get paid and get paid on time. The plumber does. But, then, he’s not in a “profession.” He’s just doing a job. So I guess that’s the difference. So we can be forced to do pro bono work for former millionaires rather than for the poor. But it still seems to me that something other than the pipes is getting Roto-Rootered.

Grant Woods is a trial lawyer in Phoenix emphasizing complex litigation, plaintiff’s personal injury, and government relations. He was Arizona Attorney General from 1991 to 1999. For more by the author, go to www.GrantWoods.com

Grant Woods Acceptance Speech for Award at Chicanos Por La Causa Dinner on 5/5/11

Thank you to Chicanos Por La Causa for this award; it is especially meaningful coming from such an important and wonderful organization. It is also great to be here on Cinco de Mayo, or as it’s known in the Legislature, May 5th.

Arizona is no longer at a crossroads, we are on a downslide, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the State’s actions on immigration. What many do not realize is that we are a State born of diversity.

To be an Arizonan is to be part of the Native American culture. To be an Arizonan is to be part of the Mexican culture. And so it has always been. So to deny basic respect and compassion to any of us is to deny it to all of us. When our so-called leaders denigrate any segment of this community by calling them names, rather than by their names, they denigrate all of us. As Cesar Chavez said: “Our language is the reflection of ourselves.” A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.

We can do better. The immigration issue is complex and it is difficult. But it is a challenge that can be met if we have the courage to do it right. It is a challenge that can be met without trampling on the constitutional rights of American citizens and the basic human rights of all people.

A couple of years ago, I accepted the job of prosecuting a border patrol agent accused of killing a young Mexican man who had crossed illegally and was in the act of surrender. The first thing I told that federal jury was this: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These rights are given by God, not government, to all people, regardless of citizenship. When we fight for human dignity in this immigration debate, we are not the radicals – - – we are fighting for basic American values embodied in our most sacred beliefs.

And if we are to be called radicals, then we are joining with radicals of the past such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, and Dr. Martin Luther King. There is a reason we are in good company – - – it is a righteous fight.

But it is still a fight, and one worth fighting by those of us who still have that dream . . . who still dream that one day our children and our neighbors will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character . . . who still dream that one day our State and our country, in speech and in action, will reflect humanity and compassion for our fellow man, regardless of race or ethnicity, and always show the respect for human rights that all of God’s children deserve.

Thank you all again for this honor.