February 2006

President's Corner

Tales From the Taxicab

by S. Brooke Taylor, WSBA President

I spend a lot of time in taxicabs these days. It started with the commencement of my year as president-elect in September of 2004, and then increased dramatically with the commencement of my year as president in September of 2005. I live in Port Angeles, the county seat of Clallam County, on the North Olympic Peninsula. Seattle is the venue for the WSBA office, as well as most meetings, receptions, banquets, and other law-related events. The logistical challenges which this presents provided the motivation for the airplane on the cover of the October issue of Bar News, since even by then I had become a frequent flyer on Kenmore Air Express.

Kenmore provides seven daily roundtrips from Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles to Boeing Field in south Seattle. The flight takes 35 minutes, is reasonably priced, and is usually on time. To make the trip by car involves 75 miles of difficult driving, sandwiched around a 30-minute ferry ride across Puget Sound, which takes two hours each way on a perfect day, and two-and-a-half hours or more on a normal day, not to mention the joys of driving and parking in downtown Seattle. If you consider the price of gasoline and ferry fares, the wear and tear on me and my automobile, and the perhaps questionable assumption that my time is worth something, flying is really a no-brainer.

The only problem arises from the lack of public transportation from Boeing Field to downtown Seattle, making a private cab the only option. Typically, after a full flight, eight passengers climb into the Kenmore van and speed off to Sea-Tac to catch connecting flights, while I catch a cab into downtown, which normally takes about 15 minutes. At the end of a day of WSBA activities, or the following day if I am staying over, I will reverse the process, taking another cab ride from my hotel back out to Boeing Field. This presents its own challenges, since most drivers have never heard of Boeing Field (or King County Airport either) and need directions.

I have made it a point to talk to my cab drivers, and have gotten quite an education. Out of dozens of rides, I have had only one driver who was born in North America. The vast majority are recent immigrants from the poverty-ridden and strife-torn countries of Somalia and Ethiopia, with a few from Algeria, Morrocco, and India, and a few from eastern European countries. Most of them have come to this country within the last decade and have wives and children here, as well as other younger members of their extended family. Elders usually elect to stay in their home country, where the language and culture are familiar. Many of the drivers own their own cabs, and many own their own homes. One driver from Somalia told me proudly about the 4,000-square-foot home he and other family members were building in Shoreline, next to the existing home that he and his wife own. I asked him if he anticipated any problems selling his existing home, and he seemed perplexed by the question: He didn’t need to sell his existing home to finance a new home, and he was going to keep them both. These are industrious, frugal people.

The cab drivers have a great deal in common, particularly those from North African countries. Most of them left their homeland at a young age to escape poverty and oppression. One has been on his own since age seven, was forced at age 14 into civil war in Ethiopia as a “soldier,” and armed with an AK-47, had been wounded twice in combat. He fled the country by walking 500 miles in 17 days to Nairobi, Kenya, a country where many North African immigrants have launched their trips to America. When asked why they left their homeland and came to this country, the answer is a quick and almost universal single word: freedom. Freedom means more to them than protected rights. Freedom also means opportunity, and all have embraced wholeheartedly the opportunities available to them in this country. One driver from Morocco, after telling me that freedom was his reason for coming to America, went on to explain: “In this country, you can be anything you want to be” — and after a thoughtful pause — “if you are willing to work.”

Many of the drivers have gone to college while driving a cab, or have helped siblings go to college. I rode with one driver from Ethiopia whose three brothers had all graduated from the University of Washington with his financial assistance. He was proud of them, but equally proud of the fact that he himself had never taken a dime from anyone. Another proudly told me that he sent money to his parents in Somalia every month, to keep them out of poverty, and when I asked him if he felt obligated to do that, he said: “Is not obligation. Is privilege. I can do this because I live in America. God bless America!”

I have not had much opportunity to discuss my theme of restoring public trust and faith in the judiciary with these cab drivers. The language barrier makes it awkward. I am not always sure they understand me, and I am not always sure that I understand them. English is a very challenging language to learn, and I am always amazed at how well these men do after only a few years in this country, without any formal training. And I do not want them to feel like they are being interrogated. It is difficult to put a Muslim cab driver from Somalia at ease as a total stranger sitting in the back of his cab with a black suit, tie, and briefcase, asking him what he thinks about our government. So I usually try to limit my questions to simple topics like their country of origin, their family, traffic conditions, whether their wives work (most do), whether their kids are doing well in school (most are), and similarly benign subjects.

I did have one fascinating conversation with an eastern European immigrant who literally escaped from communist Bulgaria during the days of the Iron Curtain. He has been in this country for more than two decades, speaks fluent English, and is a news junkie. I climbed into his cab on the morning that John Roberts had been announced as the president’s appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he was absorbed in the coverage on public radio. This opened the door for a discussion of our system of government, particularly the judicial branch. He pointed out that judges in this country are very strong and very independent, and I asked him if he thought that was a good idea. His response was immediate. “Is good. In America, if necessary, judge can put president of United States in jail. Is very important thing.” I asked him if the same were not true in his home country and he just laughed. I asked him what was so funny, and he replied: “In my country, if judge have big decision, judge make phone call!”

What would be anathema to our judicial system is commonplace around the world. For us who are spoiled by our system of justice, the “crown jewel of our democracy,” it is difficult to even imagine such a system, where the big cases of the day are decided by a phone call to political bosses.

I have come to admire and respect these men who work tirelessly at this most dangerous occupation, save money, build houses, support families here and abroad, value education, and above all, truly appreciate what they have in the Land of the Free. They represent yet another wave of immigrants who, like those before them, bring energy, diversity, productivity, and richness to our culture, and never take freedom and opportunity for granted. We can learn a lot from them. 

Brooke Taylor may be reached at 360-457-3327 or sbtaylor@plattirwintaylor.com. If you would like to write a letter to the editor on this topic, please e-mail it to letterstotheeditor@wsba.org or mail it to WSBA Bar News, Attn: Letters to the Editor, 2101 Fourth Ave., Ste. 400, Seattle, WA 98121-2330.