The Magistrate [View all]

[lapucelle]

It is through The Magistrate that I know James, for The Magistrate is his persona, the narrator of this particular story told through DU about the moral and ethical state that we, as a nation, have found ourselves in for the past twenty years.

So what exactly is a magistrate? A magistrate is an official who hears cases, delivers rulings, and issues warnings. Because the office is established to serve the best interest of the community at large, it is one of great responsibility.

When the job is done well, a magistrate earns respect and establishes trust, not so much through detached objectivity, but through his understanding of our common and connected humanity, informed by a considered perspective and an upright moral compass grounded in decency and compassion.

James’s Magistrate is the best kind of magistrate, an exemplar of the better angels, a magistrate who speaks deep truth in a deliberate and measured voice with the certainty of the righteous.

I am always inwardly proud and somewhat relieved when I find myself on the same side of an issue as The Magistrate, such is the esteem and respect that I hold for the ethics of his perspective. I have always been “m’am” and never the rare dreaded and devastating “dear”, a single word that cut so deep and clean that the recipient was left to wonder, “Why am I bleeding?”

I had my one and only personal contact with James the man only last week when I thought I might have offended him with a response that was made to him, simply because it was the safest place to put it. The topic involved a problematic four-word phrase in a long speech. It was a close reader’s concern, so I knew he would understand.

James’s response was gentle and friendly. He pointed me in the direction of a Mark Twain essay that he said was the best and funniest writing advice that he had ever read. He thanked me for my kind words and exhorted me to be well and stay healthy.

I will not speak of The Magistrate in the past tense. That narrator, the persona of the author himself, will live on in the same way that characters live on in literature. And as for James, decent, kind, funny, and brilliantly gifted, I choose to leave the verb unspoken.

It has been an honor.