William David, thank you for bringing up the distinction between law and morality. I think your point about inadequate education making people resistant to change is well-supported by our experience here at CLS. In law school, we're indoctrinated to not think about morality at all when talking about the law. For example, in crim law, our professor briefly spoke about the absence of credible evidence supporting the justifications for capital punishment. Yet our discussion focused on how to apply capital punishment statutes (Is capital punishment, in this particular case, legal?), rather than whether we should have capital punishment at all. Our professor said something like, "Capital punishment is here and it's queer," and there was no opportunity to discuss/challenge the concept of capital punishment. I understand that there's a lot of law to get through in class, but taking government-sanctioned law as default gives off the message that as lawyers, we shouldn't challenge the law, because it is what it is. That doesn't train us to be courageous.

Responding to William David's comment that "There is definitely still slavery in America, but is so subtle that it's hard for many to see," I think that the American obsession with political correctness definitely perpetuates it. The fear of being labeled as a "racist" makes it so that we don't talk about race frequently enough or frankly enough.

-- MichelleLuo - 08 Mar 2012