Thomas John Mulcare

My son Jace Thomas is named for his two grandfathers. My father being Tom.

My father was a big man, literally and figuratively.  He passed down to me many important lessons that helped shape my, and my sisters, lives.

His philosophies included:

• When you have extra be generous.
• If someone else can do something, then you can too.
• Keep learning new things, knowledge is power
• Use what you have to the fullest
• Rules are more of guidelines than barriers
• Take chances and really live!

Following his own advise landed him in trouble as often as not though, and he served some time in jail while in the military. Some might call him opportunistic but most would say ‘creative’. He had a great spirit and vitality about him. I so miss my father.

One of his favorite movies was  ‘And Justice For All”. Al Pacino received an Emmy nomination for his role in this film about corruption in our judicial system. If you get a chance to watch it please do. I plan on renting it tonight.

In the scene above he says “THIS WHOLE COURTROOM IS OUT OF ORDER!” Very powerful speech about how power and money are used against the innocent.

“Arthur Kirkland, an idealistic defense attorney in Baltimore, cares about his clients and visits his aging grandfather, who put him through law school, every week. Things aren’t going well for Arthur: two of his clients are increasingly desperate, neither should be in prison, his partner is behaving bizarrely, he’s begun an affair with an attorney who’s on the bar’s disciplinary committee, his favorite judge may have a death wish, and then, the judge he dislikes most, a by-the-book martinet, demands that Arthur defend him when he’s accused of a brutal assault on a young woman. Is there any way to expose real corruption and find justice for all?”

My father, were he alive today, would be saying “I told you so! This kind of corruption happens all the time, we just aren’t watching!” I now know he was right. My eyes were closed. He would not doubt for a second that Jace is only in jail to grease the palms of police, officials, and politicians, after looking at the uneven playing field of these ‘proactive police stings’.

He would also have either bought Jace freedom by now, through any means necessary, or be sitting in the jail cell next to him. That’s the kind of man he was, and the kind of person he raised me to be.

MARCH OR DIE!