Justice was the prevailing theme in O'Brian Hall on Friday as long-time attorney and perpetual presidential candidate Ralph Nader visited the UB Law School to speak out on a range of issues, including corporate greed, racism and President-elect Barack Obama.
Nader, who graduated from Harvard Law School almost 50 years ago, provided words of wisdom to a lecture hall overflowing with students.
"Don't let your talent be trivialized," Nader said. "You're too important a factor in this country and in this world."
Nader spent the first half of his lecture speaking out against large corporations and the corrupting factor they can have on young lawyers and politicians.
"You want to bring your conscience to work every day," he said. "You're going to be turned into crooks."
Nader stated that young lawyers often join corporations for financial gain and soon learn to justify defending immoral causes by rationalizing that every client deserves passionate representation.
The problem, according to Nader, is that corporations are not people and should not be given the same passionate representation that a human being would receive.
"Why do we allow corporations to have the same constitutional rights as an individual?" Nader asked. "You cannot have equal justice under the law between [a person] and Exxon-Mobil."
According to Nader, this corporate personhood is the result of a court reporter's error during a legal case from 1886, in which a railroad company attempted to redefine itself as an individual using the Fourteenth Amendment. The judge shot the argument down, but it was transcribed incorrectly and later became a part of American corporate law, despite the fact that there was never an official legislative ruling.
"Corporations have an incredible ability to corrupt, regardless of race, creed, color or sexual preference [of a person]," Nader said.
He also spent some time speaking out strongly against President George W. Bush and his administration.
According to Nader, the Bush administration has started a criminal war of aggression in Iraq, permitted systemic torture, and followed an unlawful set of principles.
"The American Bar Association... sent three reports to George W. Bush in 2005 and 2006 declaring him to be in serious violation of our constitution," Nader said.
This was unanticipated, according to Nader, because the American Bar Association is predominantly conservative.
He went on to give some words of advice for Obama, who will take office on Jan. 20.
"You are going to inherit whole streams of illegalities from Bush," Nader said. "If you fail to correct them, within months you too will be a war criminal."
Nader appeared to criticize Obama at one point during the lecture, openly pondering if his recent win was just an "unprecedented upward career move."
"Why did Barack Obama turn his back on 100 million poor people in this country?" Nader said. "He's taken more money from corporate entities... than any Democratic candidate."
Nader appeared to be more hopeful about the president-elect later on in the lecture.
"We have a leader now who can transform this country," Nader said. "Do I hold Barack Obama to a high standard? You bet I do. We have got to hold his feet to the fire."
Nader's few comments on former presidential hopeful John McCain were far less generous.
"He's a candidate of perpetual war," Nader said.
Nader also criticized newspapers and the media for failing to perform their duties as reporters of truth.
"They don't even mention it when the laws are being violated," Nader said.
One of the most heated moments of the lecture came when an audience member asked Nader to explain a statement that he said during a Fox News interview that the media has perceived as racist.
According to a Fox News transcript, Nader asked if Obama was going to be "Uncle Sam for the people" or "Uncle Tom for the giant corporations," in reference to the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which Uncle Tom is a black man who does whatever rich Caucasians ask him to do.
Nader, observably annoyed with the comment, stated that he did not say Obama was an Uncle Tom, rather he asked if he would someday become Uncle Tom.
"Here's how you get a rise out of your generation-ethnic slur, gender slur, racial slur," Nader said.
However, the prevailing theme of the lecture was justice. Nader mentioned several times that he had high hopes in the current generation of students, and hopes they all fight for liberty.
"If you don't have fire in your belly, it won't work," Nader said. "Rosa Parks had fire in her belly. That's what we've got to have."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
