CBA Record January 2018

CBA RECORD

EDITOR’S BRIEFCASE BY JUSTICE MICHAEL B. HYMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF A Conversation Never, Never, Never to be Forgotten T oday’s world needs a voice of the stature and caliber of Winston Churchill’s. If only we had someone who would speak against today’s evils and their facilitators without fear, without personal or professional consequences, and without deceit, as did Churchill. Churchill’s words, like those of Lincoln, continue to resonate, here and abroad, as much due to their clarity, insight, and power as to Churchill’s character, self-confidence, storied life, and, in the words of Harvard historian Simon Schama, “unswerving moral decency.” As I was watching Darkest Hour , a dramatic account of Prime Minister Churchill’s challenges at the beginning of the Second World War, I began to wonder what Churchill would say as the world once again moves to the brink of insanity. At that precise moment, a thick haze settled over an empty seat next to me, evoking the scent of cigars and whis- key, and I heard an unmistakable voice—that of Sir Winston, or a ghostly version of it—whispering at my side so as not to disturb those around us. Even though I could not see him, I could make out that majestic and muddy tone that had rallied a nation, as well as the free world, during a period of volcanic upheaval. I quickly turned my cellphone into a recorder. Every word here is really Churchill’s, with a few tiny edits for transition. WC: “My religion prescribed an absolute sacred rite of smoking cigars and drinking alcohol.” MBH: The movie started over an hour ago, why are you late? WC: “I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it.” As my wife said once, “Winston always likes to give the train a sporting chance to get away.’” Sir Winston looked at the screen, “But nothing surpasses 1940. We have had nothing else but wars since democracy took charge.” MBH: I am anxious to know your thoughts on President Trump. WC: “I am afraid I cannot give an explanation of the freaks of fortune in the world.” As I said of U. S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, “He is the only bull I know who carries his own china closet with him.” MBH: What about the president’s propensity to be untruthful? WC: “ A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. The truth is uncontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may destroy it; but there it is.” MBH: I disagree. Truth has become controvertible, suspect, malleable. WC: “It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as folly. ” MBH: There is an attitude of rigidity between the Republicans and Democrats inWash- ington. Your reaction? WC: “Political systems can to some extent be appraised by the test of whether their leading representatives are or are not capable of taking decisions on great matters on their merits, in defiance of their own interests and often of their best friends.” MBH: You lived in dangerous times; we live in dangerous times.

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Justice Michael B. Hyman Illinois Appellate Court Managing Editor Amy Cook Amy Cook Consulting Associate Editor Anne Ellis Proactive Worldwide, Inc. Summary Judgments Editor Daniel A. Cotter Latimer LeVay Fyock LLC YLS Journal Editors-in-Chief Nicholas D. Standiford Schain Banks Kenny & Schwartz Ltd. Natalie Chan Sidley Austin LLP Carolyn Amadon Nina Fain Janet Sugerman Schirn Family Trust Anthony F. Fata Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP Clifford Gately Heyl Royster Angela Harkless The Harkless Law Firm Justin Heather Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Michele M. Jochner Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP Oliver A. Khan American Association of Insurance Services John Levin Bonnie McGrath Law Office of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Law Office of Clare McMahon Pamela S. Menaker Clifford Law Offices Peter V. Mierzwa Law Bulletin Publishing Company Kathleen Dillon Narko Northwestern University School of Law Adam J. Sheppard Sheppard Law Firm, PC Richard Lee Stavins

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THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION David Beam Director of Publications Rebecca Martin Manager of Advertising and Sponsorships

6 JANUARY 2018