5/27/16 I Understand Why Lawyers Have No Soul?

    I was talking to my lawyer brother last night (Thursday), it was rare for us to be back home during the week, but Wife has an interview and since my tool at work was down for the week, we were encouraged to take time off.  We did not get to my parent's home until almost 11:00pm.  Wife was going to get out early, but was held up by work until after 5:00pm, then as usual traffic was shitty.  Throw in that Chubs wanted to eat in Buda, next to Cabela's at Zaxby's.  They have delicious chicken tenders, and even the fries kick ass.  My folks were already in bed, but my brothers both showed up to say hi.  I had brought some sweetbread (pan dulce), and we sat with some coffee and talked for awhile.
    I love the stories my brother shares from work.  I can't give specifics, but there will be a loss of empathy when you are worn down like a rock in a flowing river by family members of the accused.  Wives and mothers come in daily, and it is always the same thing "when will my son/husband/boyfriend be out?  He didn't do anything that bad, why are you keeping him locked up?"  My brother says after years you just get used to not believing anything people say.  The job requires a young lawyer to develop a hard candy coating, to protect the human within.  He says that as great as the money is, there is no way he would want either his son or his daughter doing the kind of work he does.  All he can do is deal with the aftermath of a great idea gone bad.  The husband who thought it was a great idea to transport some heroin or the nephew high on meth who decides to rape a young family member.  These things have consequences, judges set up times of punishment to fit the crimes, the defending lawyer can only work within the rules and try to reduce the length of time served by gathering evidence and presenting the criminal in the best light.
    Because he works in Laredo, most of his clients are drug related.  There is an honor to this, he says.  Men, sometimes women get caught, you will do a certain amount of time, based on the drug and the amount.  Most of the time, there is a connection to a gang, and their code is to do the time and keep your mouth shut.  This is understood, makes everything clean and tidy.  He absolutely hates when the client does something abnormal like rape or do harm to children.  These people are usually not well in the head to begin with, and when they are, they know how badly it will be for them locked up.  These things happen and he says he has to see pictures of the crime scenes.  He's showed me horrendous pictures of things done to humans, things you cannot un-see.  When you just do this day in and day out, of course you are going to learn to deal with it if you are going to last.  He is successful and he has obviously found a way to deal with the seedy aspect of his job while maintaining a mostly positive persona.  He has not let the stress of the job turn him into an alcoholic or worse.  He comes home every day to his wife and two spoiled kids, very much like I do.  I have a feeling that it helps that he commutes almost an hour and a half each way.  This must help give him time to process and put away the horrors and misery that he deals with daily.