Trial
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Trial
Our office received the sad news this week of Christmas that Robin, our longtime client from Portland, Oregon, had passed away after a very short diagnosis with lymphoma. Robin was a wonderful person, who cared deeply about the world, the environment, the poor, justice, truth, and equity. She was a foster parent to a number of children and people in need. Robin contributed to over 30 different charitable causes. She passed the trials of life repeatedly, and I cannot tell you how much she will be missed.
We are all called upon to pass trials in our lives. Trials come in many forms: personal, financial, relational, familial, medical, vocational, educational, legal, and many more. How we handle and address our trials - whether with honesty and strength, or with self-deception and weakness, makes all the difference.
Right now, our nation is facing the prospect of a political trial. Some argue that a political trial is different from other trials. But, at heart, that’s not really true. All trials bear the same basic characteristics. The word “trial” is the noun formed from the Anglo-French verb triet, "to try", and means "the act or process of testing, a putting to proof by examination, experiment, etc.” All trials, therefore, are in their essence meant to prove something using comprehensive and objective measures. In the case of personal trials, proofs are often demonstrations of our personal strengths. In the case of court trials, proofs are almost always of truth, arrived at as best as possible.
Personal life trials often feel unfair. They may put extraordinary burdens on us that we feel we do not deserve. However, court trials are different, because they strive for fairness. Most of us have a very clear understanding of what a fair court trial looks like. It generally involves an accused, an accuser, a judge, a jury, defenders (attorney s), a venue, witnesses, laws, rules, evidence, and spectators. Moreover, these elements are independent and ideally unbiased of each other. Many of us have seen these elements in action when we have been called for jury duty, and many of us have actually served as these elements in one form or another. As a result of our nation’s fidelity to this structure, our American system of jurisprudence is one of the crown jewels of fair justice in the world, even if it is not always applied equitably in our society, as it, unfortunately, often is not.
How strange and illogical it would be for our country to suddenly and abruptly abandon our extraordinary system of fair court trials simply because a particular trial - that of a President - is deemed to be “political” rather than some other type of trial. As a financial advisor, I must make decisions and help my clients make decisions based upon facts, logic, evidence, common sense, and sound theories. The Senate of the United States should base its decisions, especially its momentous decision now at hand, on no less.
Just as we are personally called upon by life to pass our personal trials, so our country is now called upon to pass the highest trial defined by our Constitution. May all citizens, regardless of their other persuasions, be persuaded of this in common and in unison. And may this week’s Christmas holiday bring a day of peace and goodwill to all beings in all places.
It’s what Robin would want for all of us.
Leonard Golub, CFA
Fiduciary Financial Advisor