Life Lessons Learned Along the Way: Immortal Inspiration
We continue our series of personal, impactful stories that have shaped how we practice law.
Any faithful reader of my articles knows that I am a movie fan. Outside of my home and my office, I may have spent more hours in movie theaters than just about anywhere else. Like most movie fans, I have cultivated a list of favorite actors and directors whose movies I would see regardless of genre. Over the past months, many of those actors have very unfortunately passed away. Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, and Rob Reiner passed in rapid succession from September through December, 2025. Then came Catherine O’Hara and Robert Duvall on January 30 and February 16 of this year, respectively. The movie industry hasn’t lost that many tremendous artists in many years.
And yet, it was the death of another man, a non-actor, that hit me the hardest. For on February 17, 2026, one day after the passing of Robert Duvall, the world lost the Reverend Jesse Jackson. I never really knew Reverend Jackson, but I did meet him once, and the effect he had on my life in that one meeting will never die.
It was Monday, September 23, 1996. I didn’t particularly want to meet Reverend Jackson that day. I would have rather been in a movie theater. But I had an assignment to complete for my collegiate Journalism class. I was to attend an Eastern Michigan University campus event and write an article about it. I scanned a bulletin board looking for anything that I believed would be well-attended. And there it was: a poster advertising that the Reverend Jesse Jackson would be at EMU’s Pease Auditorium that very afternoon as part of his “Campus Tour ’96 – Get Down with the Vote” campaign. Perfect. With the crowd that Reverend Jackson was sure to draw, I figured that I could slip into the back of the auditorium, take notes, and slip back out again without anyone noticing me.
The slipping in part was easy. Despite the large audience, several rows at the back of the auditorium were empty. Slipping back out again, however, turned out to be impossible. Nobody stopped me, mind you. Nobody guarded the doors. I was free to leave at any point. Even better, everyone was so captivated by Reverend Jackson’s boundless charisma that nobody would have seen me leave. But I couldn’t leave, for I, too, was captivated. From the moment he started speaking—even from the moment he came out on stage—Reverend Jackson had my full attention. Throughout his speech, he wove in call-and-response patterns better than any preacher I’d ever seen. I soon found myself abandoning any attempt to take notes, and then further found myself enthusiastically “responding” to every one of Reverend Jackson’s “calls.”
Going into Pease Auditorium, I already knew what the core message of his speech would be: “If you haven’t registered to vote, then register to vote. And then vote!” At 20 years old, I’d never been much of a political person. I hadn’t registered to vote. I’d considered registering before that year’s Presidential election, but before September 23, 1996, I just couldn’t find any motivation to go do it. But then, hearing Reverend Jackson—and feeling Reverend Jackson even more than hearing him—was the inspiration I’d been waiting for. At the end of his speech, he asked for all the people in the audience who had not yet registered to vote to raise their hands. Along with dozens of others, I raised my hand. Reverend Jackson then excitedly invited those with hands raised to join him on stage. I did that, too. We all lined up, and Reverend Jackson greeted us each in turn, emanating respect and love as he shook each of our hands. He then invited us to join him in bussing over to the nearest voter registration site. I joined. I bussed. I registered. And I did so proudly, feeling like a true member of society for one of the first times in my life.
I never did finish that Journalism assignment. A few days later, realizing that journalistic writing was not my style, I dropped the class. But I have voted in every election since. So, it’s no wonder that although I dearly miss Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, et al, the one I miss the most, the one who inspired me more than any of the others, is the Reverend Jesse Jackson. And his inspiration is immortal.
In our second article this month, Avraham Weiss discusses Michigan’s Notice of Nonparty at Fault Rule.