Quite a Day

As much as yesterday was just a day, today was much more active. I actually got to teach a class – on the Constitution of the United States! I was so excited, because that was my favorite class in law school outside of Professor Hanna’s Estates and Trusts and Estate Taxation. I was also excited because I was doing something that I love to do and feel comfortable doing. And what a deal to teach a class of ten students in a language that they didn’t understand!

Afghanistan also has a constitution. I have read it; it is not as eloquent as ours, but then, I was reading a translated version, which could have made a great deal of difference in the poetry of the language. Some of this country’s constitution is similar to ours. I think the difference is that theirs is weakened by the homage the constitution says they must pay to the dictates of their religion. In other words, the law requires one thing, but the state religion requires another, and so the law is diluted, religion wins, and the people lose.

So I explained that our Constitutions do somewhat similar things, such as ours setting out requirements for who can be elected President, Vice President, Senators, and Representatives, and theirs setting out the same thing for their ministers, but that our Constitution has a Bill of Rights that protects our natural rights as human beings. And then I talked about each one of those Amendments.

Here is my confession: I had to look up the Bill of Rights to make sure that I had them all right – and I did not! This was a wonderful lesson for me – to go back and read the Bill of Rights, and think about the cases that have been decided regarding each one of them. Do you know the rights protected by each? If not, you should read them again. I did!

Then I got to explain that in the past 200+ years, our Constitution has been amended only 17 more times, and two don’t count – Prohibition and its repeal. I got to explain that women didn’t always have the right to vote, and that although an amendment was ratified giving former slaves (men) the right to vote, another amendment had to be ratified that prohibited poll taxes, which many southern states used to prevent former slaves from voting. Then I explained about our lowering the voting age to 18 during the Vietnam War, and why we did that.

They didn’t understand the concept of juries, and wanted to know more about them. They didn’t understand how the law worked in marriage and divorce if the religious law did not control, and they wondered if the United States had religious law. But what was really funny was that, when I opened up the floor for questions, they wanted to know about my husband, whether I had any children, whether I was still a judge and if so, how did it come to pass that I was in Afghanistan instead of on the bench, and most flattering, did I get to teach any more classes. I was pretty much dancing on air as I left that group of 10 men. It made me remember why I am here – because we are all just people, and maybe seeing each other as human beings can help bridge a gap.

Then I went back to my office to decipher a case synopsis written by an Afghan employee who had met with and mentored a prosecutor through a murder case. The story line was as good as anything ever shown on Murder, She Wrote or Law and Order. Editing that report tested all my writing skills, as the report was first written in Dari, then translated by an Afghan from Dari to his halting English, and then put into correct grammatical and story form by me. My mother would be proud.

Late in the day, I worked with two other Afghan employees in deciding where to donate extra law books. It was interesting listening to the two of them decide who needed what books; they are both very knowledgeable about both the law and the resources available, as well as which resource needed which kinds of books. I was merely a scribe.

But today, I remembered that I am in a war zone. First, when I was walking to my class, I passed military-type vehicles that patrol the roads, looking for IEDs and land mines. Then, we sat through a siren test (although it wasn’t nearly as loud or frightening as the first time the tornado siren went off at 3 in the morning RIGHT NEXT TO OUR BEDROOM – Sylvia hadn’t been quite clear when she told us that it was “on the property”), and I heard overhead the chop-chop of helicopters and the roar of jet fighters. I also read a report and saw how many bombs had exploded in this country in the past 48 hours.

So as I sat at my desk, making sense of a sensational story of wife-a-cide, donating law books to needy legal organizations, and preparing to teach a class on the United States Constitution, people are killing each other, not caring about what my husband does, or how many children I have, or whether I will be teaching any more classes. I prefer the people I worked with today, who accepted me as a person, laughed at my jokes (told through a translator), helped me understand a story, and showed me wisdom in distributing free resources. It’s going to be an interesting year.

NOTES: I forgot to mention a couple of things that I simply cannot leave out. First, as I was waxing loquacious about the beautiful fruits and vegetables that were displayed in the “strip shopping centers,” I neglected to mention that one of those shops was a butcher shop, and hanging in what would have been a window, but was just open air, attracting dust and flies, were five butchered goats. It was kind of like seeing the ducks and chickens hanging in Chinatown in San Francisco, but BIGGER and more open.

And as we were leaving the city, we saw a group of little girls who were just finishing their school day. It was hilarious: the little girls were dressed in school uniforms – black robes and white head coverings, making them look just like miniature nuns. Can you imagine? I’m sure they had no idea about the irony of their dress.

Until tomorrow – who knows what it will bring?