Dean's Address

The Hero

Broadus A. Spivey

Lawyers need the “right stuff” to succeed.  We must have role models to cross the threshold from good to great.  Reflect for a moment about the people who have inspired you. Lawyers need heroes too. Heroes, regardless of age, sex, race, size, or life circumstance, have similar characteristics: exceptional bravery, outstanding achievement, noble characteristics, power, wisdom, unusually high moral standards, distinguished intellect, superhuman courage, strength, character, or just innate ability.

We salute our 1999 International Lawyer of the Year – Feng Xiumei.  We honor Ms. Feng, our youngest hero, and we are honored by her presence.

  Everyone in this audience is aware that our ­­­distinguished new fellow, Mr. Dikgang Moseneke, is a hero of monumental proportions. Mr. Moseneke was imprisoned at the age of fourteen because he wrote some disparaging remarks about the South African government in a personal letter to a friend. As a mere child, Mr. Moseneke was placed on Robben Island – the infamous island just offshore from Capetown where the Apartheid government at that time in South Africa impounded political dissenters with the worst criminals. He was thrown into a cell with that society’s most scurrilous offenders. The violent inmates were described by Nelson Mandela, one of the most universally recognized heroes of all time and a fellow “convict” of Mr. Moseneke, as being “… hardened criminals, convicted of murder, rape and armed robbery … brawny and surly ...” With superhuman strength, endurance, and faith, Mr. Moseneke survived this horrible ordeal.

Mr. Moseneke’s wife is also with us today, and she has heard the praise and accolades we have heaped upon him. I suspect that though she, too, adores him, she does not keep him on a high pedestal. No man is a hero in his own home, for his spouse tends to be well aware of his flaws as well as strengths. I know from experience around my homestead that my “heroism” is not a quality with which Ruth Ann is absorbed.

A fellow traveler with the hero is the anti-hero. The classic anti-hero is the devil, who stood in opposition to many Biblical figures. The Old Testament was not my only introduction to Lucifer; I learned about the devil was when I was about seven. I grew up in the Panhandle of West Texas where in the fall and winter the wind blows from the west so hard that the sun is lost behind the sandstorms. As a child, I did not have many books to read, so I often read the Bible. After reading about the devil, I made the mistake of asking my mother if he really existed. She was incensed by my doubt and lectured me until I was ashamed that I had asked.  According to her, the devil existed not only in the Bible, but also within many humans, some in the neighborhood.  She made it clear that I obviously had a little more devil in me than was good for me.

We need not dwell too long on anti-heroes, because we know all too well who they are. Among humans, Adolph Hitler is a blueprint of the anti-hero.  Scores of documentaries, literature, and movies detail the horrors of his reign of terror.  Yet, he made heroes of Eisenhower, MacArthur, Montgomery, and a host of other Allied military leaders.

I would like to touch upon a few select heroes who have inspired us to achieve excellence in our work.  We do not have enough time to cover our innumerable heroes, including all those gathered in the audience today, but let’s talk about some of the classic superhuman figures that have gained hero status throughout the ages.  We will also look at some local heroes who have brightened our daily lives.

Legendary Heroes

God is the ultimate hero, whether it be the God of Genesis who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh, the Gods of the ancient Egyptians, the God of Islam, Buddha, or the higher power of Bill W. A hero is not a God, but must earn God-like qualities.

One mythical hero who became embedded in my early memory is Beowulf. This Old English myth was first recorded more than 1,000 years ago. Beowulf was a strong, young Scandinavian warrior who fought an evil and savage monster, Grendel, in a fierce battle and defeated the monster when he pulled off its arm. When Grendel’s mother sought revenge on Beowulf, he fought with and killed her too. Beowulf became King of the Geats, and he reigned for 50 years. He then fought his last battle with an angry dragon. He killed the dragon but was mortally wounded in the process and died as a result of the dragon fight.

Odysseus, or Ulysses, is a supreme hero, part myth and part reality, and Homer recorded this ancient story. Odysseus’s heroism lay not only in his strength but also in his head. He knew his own weaknesses as he traveled, and he fashioned ways to overcome these frailties. While sailing through the straits, he knew of the sirens on the shore who lured sailors onto the rocks. Odysseus finessed them by being lashed to the mast before approaching the sirens so that they could not entrap him.

In high school, I read the story of “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” in which author Stephen Vincent Benet based the story’s hero on a real luminary, Daniel Webster. A farmer with a poor crop prospect cut a deal with the devil to deliver a fine crop in exchange for his soul, then the devil came to collect his debt. That cunning farmer retained the great advocate, Daniel Webster, as his champion. Webster out-argued the devil, and the farmer retained his soul.

The storybook hero Daniel Webster meant a lot to me as a child. I was a farm boy who knew the significance of crop failure. I learned to cuss by hearing my Dad when it hailed. Those hailstorms destroyed our crop and the entire year’s income would melt away with the hailstones. He would stand on the porch and cry out the bluest words you could ever hear. The cussing was so bad that my mother would jump onto the bed and put a pillow over her head. I did not understand why he yelled so loud, so long, and so much, but I imagined my father was himself arguing with the devil.

Forrest Gump is a hero of Hollywood lore. When watching the movie, you realize that Hollywood has created a new and unique hero. From the very beginning of the movie when he runs with his leg braces falling off until the “life is like a box of chocolates ­– you never know what you’re gonna get” comment, he exudes the heroic qualities of nobility, bravery, generosity, and wisdom in his own simple way. The movie illustrates that heroes come in all forms.

Numerous heroes, such as Moses, are found in religious texts. (Ruth Ann disagrees that Moses is a hero, because she believes that like most men, he wandered around for 40 years because he would not ask for directions.) One of my favorite Biblical heroes is David, for two reasons: first, David provides motivation for all trial lawyers who attempt to “slay” corporate opponents of giant proportions. Second, the story of David reminds us that accomplishing the impossible really is possible, as illustrated by one of my trials in Judge Lucius Bunton’s court in Texas. Any lawyer who has not tried a case in Lucius Bunton’s court has never had a “speedy” trial. In this trial, the Attorney General had announced it would take three weeks, and Judge Bunton allocated only three days. We tried the case in three days, working each night until midnight. The last night the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff at 2:00 A.M. In the Order on my Motion for Judgment to include attorneys’ fees, Judge Bunton wrote, “When David went forth to battle against Goliath, the smart money was not on David.”

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