It’s been my experience in life that people tend to do what they’re trained to do. When confronted with a medical problem we wouldn’t be surprised if a surgeon looked for a surgical solution or an internist looked for a non-surgical solution. Why should we be surprised if lawyers view an investigation from the viewpoint of advocacy or prosecution?
When I was a kid I spent quite a bit of time around lawyers. I was amazed at how collegial they were. The same attorneys who had been–figuratively–batting each others brains out in the courtroom would be having lunch together, laughing and joking, ten minutes later. My dad used to tell me that his most important role was as an officer of the court. The practice of law has changed a lot since then.
I researched the backgrounds of the National Commission on 9/11 commissioners as best as I could. Of course, they’re all politicians in one way or another whether they’ve held elective office or not. Lee Hamilton, Richard Ben-Veniste, Fred F. Fielding, Jamie Gorelick, Slade Gorton, and James R. Thompson–six of ten–are lawyers. Bob Kerrey is a pharmacist and businessman. John F. Lehman is an investment banker. To the best of my ability to determine Thomas Kean is an educator and Timothy J. Roemer is a political scientist.
There’s nothing wrong with being a lawyer or with having them on the 9/11 commission. But if the mission statement of the commission is fact-finding and fixing, shouldn’t we have a lot more fact-finders and fixers rather than advocates and prosecutors on the commission? And, especially, we don’t need expert gamers-of-the-system. We don’t need to game the system–we need to change it.
During World War II there were several commissions investigating the attack on Pearl Harbor. Maybe the next 9/11 commission will have some engineers, medical doctors, systems analysts, or business process experts on it. Then maybe we’ll have a chance of finding out what went wrong and fixing it.
As it is it looks like we’re going to have a lot of building a case at law and prosecution.
RE: “Maybe the next 9/11 commission will have some engineers, medical doctors, systems analysts, or business process experts on it. Then maybe we’ll have a chance of finding out what went wrong and fixing it.”
How about adding teachers to the list? Emphasis would be on learning all sides and educating the public on the findings.
I couldn’t agree more.
Interesting observation. It would serve the whole country much better if the Commission were less partisan and more fact-finding, so we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
Here is a link to the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission.) Follow the links on the right hand column under Commission Members to brief biographical information about each member.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/
Bob Kerrey falls in the realm of scientist (degree in pharmacy)and in the realm of educator(college president). Ironically (since this is a blog post) he is also aware of the internet as a forum for community education (congressional report entitled “The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice.”)
Ann J
Good thinking — picked up your post at ObWi.
Just by surfing around in net I definitely found a very informal place with a lot of good stuff for everybody. I will certainly visit your site again sometime. Really good work.