The recent passing of two well-known and respected Marin lawyers—long-time Marin Superior Court Judge Faye D’Opal and local attorney/mediator and 2024 MCBA President Scott Buell—has perhaps contributed to my feeling greater melancholy than I normally feel during my chronic periods of Trump presidency distress and anxiety. However, despite everything happening around us, I feel that our entire community, myself included, needs to keep moving ahead, one step at a time.

In May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down segregation in public schools. In the wee hours after that great victory, to this day the greatest civil rights decision in our nation’s history, Thurgood Marshall, spoke to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund staff and cautioned, “I don’t know about you fools, but I’m getting back to work.”

Justice Marshall, an African-American born at the dawn of Jim Crow, who lived through segregation and saw the worst of its oppression, including lynchings and gross inequities in housing, education, employment, and public accommodations, understood that our victories in defense of civil rights and civil liberties are only temporary. That inevitably, due to the human condition, there is backsliding and backlash. Indeed, just a year later, in 1955, the Supreme Court’s Brown 2 decision was a huge setback to Marshall and this struggle.

But it was Marshall who understood better than anybody the cautionary words of his hero, Frederick Douglass, our nation’s greatest civil rights prophet, that “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Douglass’s words speak to us even today, when he reminds us that “those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.” And, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

We are at a time and a place, in 2026 in Marin County, California, where we all must stand to account to ourselves and to continue together this struggle for human rights and dignity. Yes, this struggle is exhausting and seemingly endless. But we’ve been here before, fighting against racism and hate at several different moments in our history.

By mentioning this history, I don’t intend to diminish the awfulness of the moment we’re in. But our history reminds us that without this ongoing struggle, there can be no victory. And for there to be victory, each of us needs to join in this struggle.

There are countless other ways to contribute as well. For some, volunteering with Marin County Superior Court, either as a pro tem small claims judge or discovery referee, or coaching high school moot court teams, is a great way to give back. There are countless other ways to contribute to help those less fortunate in our community, including with the organizations listed on the Resources page at marinbar.org, including Legal Aid of Marin. Taking on pro bono legal services on behalf of the most vulnerable is a wonderful opportunity to stand up for righteousness.

For others, it’s supporting those who share your values, or it might be to run for office yourself, at whatever level, and advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion for our fellow man. Others may choose to organize online or to take to the streets, or to stiffen the spines of our leaders, to stand up for the rights of our constituency—the immigrants, the poor, and communities of color. For us lawyers, it may be as easy as engaging in daily acts of kindness, such as treating your colleagues and opposing counsel with respect and honor. What better way to stand up against hatred, racism, and division than by exhibiting love, compassion, and respect?

I realize that some of these actions may not sound like much in isolation, especially when compared to the measure of the task in front of us. But as another of our civil rights prophets, Robert Kennedy, reminds us still today, that each time someone “stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,” which “build[s] a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Tom McInerney