Oregon Legal Research Blog
Be prepared to be mesmerized: there are lessons aplenty for us all in the tale of Jon Alexander (Californian and Oregonian) as told by Justice Bedsworth:
The February 2011 Orange County Lawyer brings us:
Getting Up, by Justice William W. Bedsworth
Excerpt: “The middleweight champion of the world from 1907–1910 was a fella named Stanley Ketchel. They called him the Michigan Assassin, and a few years ago Ring Magazine named him the fourth best middleweight of all time.
That information is not going to get you MCLE credits. And if, like most Americans, you watch boxing once every decade or two, it’s probably not even interesting to you….
….
After law school he went into criminal defense. Worked with Gary Pohlson for awhile, and if you can’t learn from watching Pohlson, you can’t learn. Then he opened his own shop. He was born for jury trials and was doing well until he got hooked on meth.
Yeah, you read that right. It said, “got hooked on meth.” He was a meth addict. It chewed him up and spit him out….
….
It’s too soon to predict the end of this rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story. But I’ve seen this guy take all the punishment life can dish out and refuse to stay down. As they once said about Stanley Ketchel, “The sonofabitch just keeps getting up.” My money’s on Jon.
I wish you all a wonderful 2011. But if it goes south on you, if you get knocked down this year, if your life turns into an adversary who knows more about boxing than you do . . . I wish you the resilience and fortitude of Jon Alexander. May you just keep getting up.” (Link to full article.)