TYLA Project

We Can Do Better
By:  Jay Forester, Lee & Braziel, LLP

We gather each July Fourth to celebrate the decision made years ago by a select few colonists that, as independent Americans, they could do better.  I spent our nation’s 240th Independence Day like many of you – with a few too many hot dogs, just enough fireworks, and not enough hours with my 12-year-old nephew.

Just days after this increasingly rare and collective moment of national unity, shots rang down on Dallas – my hometown.  This time, five officers were killed through an act that has become so typical many have questioned whether this is actually our new normal – is it?

This time, the pain hit home.  I stopped when I got the first text.  I trusted my dad, a Dallas County constable, was OK, but this time, I couldn’t be certain.  I trusted that none of my mom’s students at North Dallas High School were harmed, but this time, I didn’t know.

If I’m honest, mass shootings have become so common that I don’t even know whether I always stop.  I don’t always know why the flag is at half-staff.  At times, I’ve been merely sympathetic.  This time, however, many of us had to empathize.  Like many of you, I was afraid and hurt.  I read scores of young lawyers’ Facebook posts sharing this pain, decrying the injustice, and noticed that whether you had been sharing Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter content before – whatever ideology you possess took a necessary backseat to humanity, as real lives had been lost and after Dallas had become the newest member of a growing list of mass shooting cities, schools, theaters, intersections…   For most of us, this just isn’t how we grew up.

I was 14 when Columbine happened and I first questioned whether I was safe in my own school.  My nephew has not had this freedom.

With each passing day, the pain or fear should dissipate, but this time, it has to be different.  It has to be now.  And, it has to be us.  Our generation knows this freedom from fear; we are uniquely equipped to help recapture this sense of safety. We have to try, at least.  This cannot be the new normal. 

We are those Americans who justified not just a Declaration of Independence, but multiple world wars to preserve this independence. And we can do better.  This is a generational moment, and it’s our turn to act.  If not for my nephew’s future, for yours.

This past year, TYLA launched its nationally recognized Strength in Unity initiative in an effort to prevent events just like this recent, but no longer the most recent, shooting in Dallas.  It alone was not enough.  Thus, TYLA is working on continued efforts to expand this initiative.  They too, alone, are unlikely to break this cycle.

Whether it’s through giving, serving, or leading TYLA, your local bar affiliate, a separate group, or taking your own individual action, the time to act is now. It’s going to take all of us.  We can do better.

Jay Forester serves Dallas as an attorney at Lee & Braziel and as one of its representatives on the Texas Young Lawyers Association Board of Directors. You can find Jay at www.overtimelawyer.com, forester@l-b-law.com or @jforesterlaw.