Round One

My first round of law school applications have just been transmitted electronically.

Those wankers at Yale only gave me 250 words to do a personal statement. That's alright, though. I said what I needed to say in about 230. That little nugget became the foundation for the more elaborate statement I sent to UC-Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and Washington & Lee.

This is why I want to be a lawyer:

The United States of America have been grounded in dual commitments to freedom and to justice, and while the breadth and applicability of those concepts has changed, they have been expanded in important and valuable ways because people have had the courage to stand up and speak truth to power. The US judicial system continues to be one of the most important venues in which such conversations take place, and attorneys and other legal scholars occupy dominant positions in those conversations. My compelling desire to participate fully and intelligently in those conversations, particularly conversations regarding definitions of family and the continued disestablishment of religion, motivates my interest in the study of jurisprudence. I look specifically to Yale and its long history of intellectual rigor to help me to continue to hone the analytical skills I have developed so that I can dissect an argument to its basic assumptions and then interrogate those assumptions and their compatibility with the rule of law. I will bring to my studies an articulate, passionate voice for the positions I choose, a discerning mind open to the respectful, well-reasoned arguments of my peers, a critical intellect that has been schooled in cultural theory and criticism, the belief that constitutional law represents the basic assumptions upon which the rule of law is predicated, and the conviction that the rule of law is the fundamental expression of a civil society. I look forward to continuing this conversation in person when classes begin.

I'll let you know later if it worked.