Tis the season to examine your perspective,

We are taught that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and hailed as the Messiah, the king, the great hope. Five days later he was executed. The public perception of him changed dramatically during that short period of time. How he was viewed depended on the perspective of the viewer.  The mental impressions of the viewer are a product of location, position, and current events.

There was a period in time during the last 60 years or so that I experienced life from a perspective different than I do now. There was a period of time when I saw things through eyes about 6 feet off the ground and I listened with ears positioned at about this same height. I experienced a portion of my life while on the move. It didn’t take very long to get from here to there and I was able to make the decision and move at the drop of a hat. Opinions were formed, positions were developed and impressions were obtained on those bases.

Experience has shown that things change, even in ways that you never would have expected. Life turns on a dime. My friend and brother Mike Wells writes about things that he learned on the way to the courthouse in North Carolina. I have learned many things along a similar path and along treks to the city building, to my office, to my home and to various stadia about the country.

Experience has also taught me that a change in perspective can be a blessing as well as a curse. How you see something, how you look at something, the impression you gain from the experience depends in large part on your point of view, your perspective. This note will discuss the change in my perspective on things that affect my everyday life. I hope that it will provide some insight on how the reader sees things in his/her own situation.

In the mid-1980s and out of the blue I developed some sort of neurological condition that caused some scarring in a small portion of my brain. I’ve seen it on at least 2 MRI scans. One doctor called multiple sclerosis. Another doctor called it aspartame poisoning. Each saw the situation from a different perspective and I fault neither but believe the latter. The end result was a disruption in the movement of the right side of my body in the front from the rib cage down to the toes. The condition that caused the scarring disappeared and the brain scarring is the same as it was in the late 80s. Nonetheless, as I aged the ability to use the affected parts worsened for a number of reasons which I will not go into here. About 10 years ago my mother purchased an electric scooter for me to use in trying to get on with the activities of my daily life including, but not limited to, moving from one courthouse to another, one conference room to another, one office to another, one meeting to another and, importantly, going and coming from athletic venues. At this point, some 26 years after the original diagnosis, I use a power chair to get around inside my home and office, and the scooter to get around outside. My perspective definitely changed!

 

A few years before I started using the scooter I had a difficult time getting into and out of, and using several public facilities because my mobility was limited. When I began using the scooter, some places became impossible. For instance, I could not get into the courtroom in Gallatin County because it was on the second floor with a set of narrow steps and no elevator. I had to enter the Campbell County Courthouse through the basement, navigate a maze, and find the elevator. The beautiful Boone County courthouse was also inaccessible and there was no elevator. That was especially distressing because I had tried many cases in that classic, old courtroom and loved going to the monthly motion dockets and seeing old friends. When the Kenton Courts were in the Kenton County building, I was able to get around okay. Kenton eventually moved into the new Judicial Center. Despite an actual warning and alert from me befoe the facility was built, the contractors and architects put a set of 7 or 8 steps to get into the front door, failed to install a ramp, and instead put in a wheelchair lift that my scooter barely fit into. That situation was so impossible that shortly after the facility was opened somebody had to spend almost $1 million to put in an elevator to lift me and others similarly challenged a mere 6 feet. That is ridiculous, but it is what I dealt with.

 

The next set of examples illustrate how perspective can affect outcome. I defended a young man on a misdemeanor charge in Gallatin County but since the courtroom was inaccessible, the judge and prosecutor were kind enough to accommodate me by grabbing the tape recorder and coming downstairs into an unfinished, dirty, cobweb filled room near the front door and we tried the case while they sat on window sills. I was trying a breach of contract case in the Grant County courthouse when the elevator went out of order the night before day 2 of trial and the judge and staff packed up and moved the jury and all the necessary apparatus to the Grant County library a couple of miles away to finish the case. I represented a man in a collection case in Boone County and the trial judge moved the trial to the adjacent County Administration building because we could not use the courtroom. I represented a lady in a child support mediation in Campbell County. We were directed to the mediator’s office a few blocks away from the courthouse and upon arrival realized that the only way in had three steps. It was 95° outside but I called the mediator inside and asked him to come out to my van with both parties to mediate the case in my vehicle (with the air conditioner running!) All of the people involved in these situations were helpful, understanding, and at times a bit embarrassed with their facility. I can’t help but wonder, however, if the accommodation made for me had some impact, however small, on the outcome of the matter. You never know what small things will affect a juror, a judge, or witness. The reason courtrooms are the way they are is to instill a sense of decorum and competence to the process.

In each of these instances, I was doing my professional best to complete the assigned tasks competently, without raising a stink, and in what I perceived to be the best interests of my client and the Court of Justice. I refused to let situational impediments affect my performance. My task was to get the job done, no matter what obstacles were in the way and that single-minded purpose affected how I saw the situation. (That is my built in offensive lineman mentality – get the job done any way you can within the rules and keep quiet.) Similarly, each of these instances was fraught with the possibility that some bias or prejudice could come into play in affecting me, my client and the outcome. For instance, the opponent in each instance may have believed that I was getting some kind of special treatment that I didn’t deserve; a juror could have believed that I had no business disrupting the normal course of proceedings that the juror had become used to during his term of jury service; a judge may have been put out by the fact that something was being done outside of the judge’s comfort zone. It depends on the perspective with which each participant viewed the situation.

Other examples of perspective arise from my passion for watching live athletic events. Having been a player, coach, and an official at various levels I can be classified as a former jock. My condition prohibits me from participating these days so I am now a spectator. Modern venues, built after the ADA was enacted, by and large have great seats for those in wheelchairs, on scooters, and with mobility issues. The older facilities, however, leave a lot to be desired and what average Joe thinks about the situation depends upon his perspective.

One of my alma maters is the University of Kentucky. I was in law school at UK when Rupp Arena opened and have spent many hours watching the Wildcats, the Sweet 16 and other events in that venue. When the mobility left, so did my ability to attend most events there. There are handicapped viewing areas at the top of the lower section in each end zone and one small section at the top of the lower arena behind the home team bench. These viewing areas were retro-fitted into the arena. When I called to get tickets to UK games the ticket manager told me none were available because with the baby boomers aging, there were about 5000 people on a waiting list for a handful of tickets. Average Joe can get tickets to most any game either from the box office or from scalpers. I can’t. My home state university has essentially excluded me from attending basketball games.

I called the ticket office at the University of Cincinnati a few years ago after the school’s President fired the very popular and successful basketball coach because no one was going to the games and I thought I might get in. When I asked for tickets to the best games on the schedule, they were sold to me without hesitation. Then, I dropped the big question. I have to use a scooter. There are no handicap seats in 5/3 Arena the as I have been there before the mobility issue developed. Where do I sit? The nice lady said ‘don’t worry, we’ll take care of you,’ and gave me instructions. I buy the cheapest ticket and am permitted to sit on the floor about 6 feet behind the basket and watch Big East basketball up close and personal. I enjoy watching the game down there and seeing all the people I have read about, the columnists and other media types, the broadcasters, etc. I have developed some very good friends over the years I’ve been attending. Several people have conditions similar to mine and we have become compatriots.

Seats on the floor at the end of the court might seem exceptional but, again, it depends on your perspective. If you want to actually watch the game, there are large portions of the court that you cannot see. Cheerleaders get in the way. The big screen on the scoreboard helps but if I want to watch the game on TV I will stay home. I have to get there no later than an hour before game time in order to get a spot on the floor where I can actually see most of the court. That turns a 2 ½ hour event into a four hour event. The people at UC could not be nicer and I enjoy my time there. I better enjoy the experience as I can see less than half of the game. Like I said, it depends on your perspective.

My previously robust social life has dried up for several reasons. One of these reasons is that I typically cannot go into anybody’s house for any reason without preparation and accommodation. Nothing can be spontaneous. Unless the house was constructed with a handicapped person in mind, the house is typically completely inaccessible to someone in a wheelchair or on a scooter. There are steps everywhere. First floor, guest bathrooms are teeny. Doors are narrow. This basic inaccessibility limits my socialization to public facilities (and not all public facilities!) and my house. New restaurants are usually fine. Neat restaurants in restored buildings are usually nonstarters for me. I have attempted patronizing well-known establishments in Covington, Cincinnati, Lexington, Louisville and a few other cities but was unable to get in the door. That is extremely frustrating. From my perspective if the establishment does not want my business enough to make the facility acceptable, I will take my business elsewhere. In this economy, I cannot imagine a business turning away paying customers, but several do. From their perspective, the handicapped must be a pain they are not willing to address. If the facility fits into exceptions in the accessibility laws, the businesses do not have to make their facilities accessible. Many fit into the exceptions. Therefore, many people are excluded from some of the trendier, exciting new establishments.

I have changed my mind many times after examining my opinion and the perspective from which it was developed. Imagine Holy Week from Jesus’ perspective. Imagine it, again, from Peter’s. Compare their perceptions to ours. It makes a difference.