Pioneers in Peacemaking: Clearing the Way for the New Lawyer

There are some people who see the jungle and know that there should be a road there. They go to work clearing the road, often alone. When they get far enough into the jungle, others join them. By then, to some it is clear that a road ought to be built there. Others begin to argue that the road should be somewhere else. The pioneer continues to clear the road. Eventually, the people who travel the road will take the road for granted. Wasn't it always there? Isn't this how we always cleared roads?

It isn't always easy to be different. Many people spend their whole lives trying to fit in. When you stick out your neck, swim against the current, dance to a different drummer, rock the boat, or whatever metaphor you want to use, you can upset people. Your parents wonder why you can't be like the other children. Your neighbors and colleagues may keep their distance, afraid they, too, might be considered weird or strange if they hang out with you.

But some people are different anyway. Some are willing to stand up for their values in the face of resistance. Some have never fit in and decide that they might as well do it their own way. Some courageously take on leadership roles.

This section is about some of the courageous pioneers who have cleared that road. In reading some of these articles, you may not think that what they've done is so dramatic.It is a measure of the work these pioneers have accomplished. Recall that it is no longer dramatic for a black woman to sit at the front of the bus. When Rosa Parks sat in that bus, everything changed.