T. GAMBLE: Now the ‘others’ are gaining admittance to law school

Years ago, I graduated from Mercer University School of Law. I’m not sure what the criteria for attending Mercer was at that time, but I’m pretty sure it has been made more difficult to gain entry since I was allowed to go. How I was ever qualified for acceptance to begin with is beyond me, but bribery and blackmail come to mind as aids to gaining admittance.

I receive an alumni publication from time to time from my law school, so I guess they still claim me. The latest edition included statistics concerning the incoming 2024-2025 class. There will be 137 students admitted. My class started with 179, of which about 20 failed out the first year. The publication indicated the class is 49% female and 49% male, with 2% categorized as “other.” This 2% figure disturbs me. First of all, 2% of 137 equals 2.74 people. I guess I understand we have two folks who are neither man nor woman, but then I guess we have .74 of a person; basically, three-quarters of a person, that also is neither man nor woman.

Perhaps this .74 is three-quarters certain they are a man and one-quarter certain they are a woman. It is really hard for me to tell. What is not hard for me to tell is that we have people entering the law school now who are either men, or women. I understand we may have a biological male that identifies as a female. I still call that a male. But for argument’s sake, we can let the law school call this person a female. It could be the other way around; a female that calls herself a male. So be it. But how in the world are we neither?

I have not explored the possibility that the school now is allowing maybe, let’s say, German Shepards to attend. I mean “others” could be any number of things. Perhaps aliens really do exist and we have now decided to let them attend law school. Perhaps artificial intelligence (AI)-produced beings are in the 2%. I often see Facebook sites that claim politically they are the other 98%. Maybe these “other” characters are the remaining 2%.

I do recall when I applied to law school I had to fill in a detailed application. It also required a recent photograph be placed in the top right-hand corner. I’m not sure why they needed to see your photograph, but that was the deal. I wasn’t applying to be a model, but regardless I complied and they still let me in after seeing my picture.

My law school contracts professor was a really cool guy, and great teacher, named Michael Sabbath. He was on the board that reviewed applications. He said once a guy sent in his application and, as required, included a recent picture. The picture, however, included the guy’s dog in it. The guy drew an arrow pointing to himself saying “this is me,” to distinguish himself from the dog, I suppose. It may be that this has now occurred again and the school has accepted the dog instead of the person. It is possible this new applicant did not have the foresight to draw an arrow so that no confusion could occur. See, this new generation has no sensibility like my generation did.

I may go in three years to this class’ graduation. I want to see the “others.” I may bring my German Shepard with me.