Wendy Seltzer: The Chiling Effect

I am excited about a couple of things (other than my son). I came across a link to "thechillingeffect" which is a site and organization that helps people with free speech issues online. I wrote to the founder and she wrote back. I'm not publishing what she wrote, because I DO keep some things private, but she was very helpful, taking the time to respond immediately, and to give me a couple of suggestions that really are good ideas. I was looking up the link and then found her own webpage, where she lists this site and all her other ventures. THIS is what law school is for. I so rarely meet lawyers using their talents for good, who are top of their class and yet work for public interest, and they are few and far between. But when I catch a small glimpse of them, I feel encouraged. Just encouraged about society in general. Anyone interested in free speech matters, pro or con, should check her out. I hope she is rewarded well for her work: http://wendy.seltzer.org/. I haven't looked closely at the rest of her work, but the Chilling Effect project is genius. It lists and archives all cease-and-desist letters to authors of blogs or websites.

The only other lawyer I've read about or met so far in life who has been inspiring in any way is Randy Shaw. I need to look him up and his link. He wrote a book called something like "The Activist's Handbook" and he's a lawyer who is public interest, very smart, and founded a non-profit that helps renters in landowner-renter disputes. He's from California, or, based in California. I read his book and called him and left a message thanking him for his book and saying how I appreciated it and he called me back!!! I got so bogged down with personal crap that I never returned his call, but I always meant to and kept his message on my answering machine for months, as a reminder to call him. Never did. But, another very rare lawyer using talents for good.