Liberty Bell, NALS scholarship awards announced-- JCBA, NALS, and Comerica sponsor Law Day breakfast

By Frank Weir Legal News The Jackson County Bar Association, and NALS of Jackson, along with Comerica Bank, celebrated Law Day last Wednesday with a breakfast program at Country Club of Jackson. Michigan Court of Appeals Judge William Whitbeck was guest speaker at the event. The JCBA awarded its Liberty Bell Award to Michael Jones, an executive with Consumers Energy who is very active in the Jackson community. He is vice president of the Legislative Committee for the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce chairing the Candidates Forum and Party Politics subcommittees. He started a one-day program called "Participating in Politics," which educates others about the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and how one can participate in politics. In addition, he is a deacon at Arbor Grove Congregational Church and has been a Big Brother in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. He serves on the South Central Michigan Works! Board and is president of the Jackson Trailblazers Community Toastmasters Club. He teaches a work/life skills course for the Academy of Manufacturing Careers and in 2007, he received the Ralph Loeschner Outstanding Service Award from the State Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Also at the breakfast, the attendees recognized the recipient of the 2010 Carole Wrozek Scholarship from NALS of Jackson County. Bruce Crews currently is enrolled at Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is participating in an accelerated program and will graduate this fall. He plans to pursue a career as a prosecuting attorney. He is married to Rebecca and they have one daughter who is eight years old. Judge Whitbeck, in his remarks, discussed how Prohibition and its aftermath exerted profound effects on future generations and their approach to government. "Prohibition was the most important domestic event of this century," Whitbeck began. He stated his belief that Prohibition contributed to the rise of organized crime and that, since it was flouted by many in society, it led to an attitude that laws should be obeyed only selectively or not at all." Whitbeck used the creation and operation of the state prison in Jackson as a case in point. His remarks were based on a column he wrote that appeared recently in the Jackson County Legal News. That column is reprinted at the bottom of page one today. "The greatest generation concluded that the law itself was a puny thing, to be disobeyed with only minimal consequences. This was a second legacy from Prohibition: If you don't agree with a law, you don't have to follow it. "A third legacy, when mixed with public corruption which was rampant at the time, was that it led to persistent skepticism of government having a positive affect on human behavior. That skepticism has been passed from generation to generation since. "In addition, skepticism of government is rooted in culture. After all, the colonists distrusted the English government and the governmental system devised under the Confederacy during the Civil War was deliberately vague. They didn't want a strong government. "And the Whiskey Rebellion represented a disgust with centralized government. "That distrust has been with us from the beginning and it's fair to say that it was accelerated by the bumbling investigation of public corruption and the rise of organized crime. "Bad policy can decimate the social fabric and that's what Prohibition did. Its legacy is with us still and endures without us being award of it. "Tea party rallies are straight populism and represent yet again a distrust of centralized government. It remains as one of our greatest challenges in the 21st Century." Published: Mon, May 17, 2010

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