PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By: Cheryl G. Rice
Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C.
IT’S ALOHA TIME! You may see the title of this article and wonder if I’m about to take off on a Hawaiian vacation. Unfortunately for me, the answer to that question is a resounding “No.” So, why this title? Well, at this moment it is very present in my mind (but is likely less so in yours), that this is my final DICTA column as KBA President. As you may know, the word Aloha is a Hawaiian word which carries several meanings. Typically, as travelers learn, aloha is a form of greeting, to say “hello,” and it is also a form of farewell, or to say “goodbye”. While it’s time for me to say goodbye to you as your President and pass the proverbial gavel to the ever-capable Jason Long, it feels in some ways as if I just said hello. Like many of the roles we take on in life, the KBA Presidency is one of those where I feel that just when I’m starting to “get the hang of it,” it’s ending. It seems like it was only yesterday that the KBA was celebrating its very first virtual annual meeting in December 2020. In reality, we are not far from the KBA’s very first “hybrid” annual meeting in December 2021. I’m so looking forward to returning to an in-person gathering of this group and the many more that will lie ahead for us in the near future. Reflecting on the 2021 bar year, I am very proud of what the KBA and its members have accomplished. Our committees and sections have rolled with their plans through COVID-19 and more. Our courts have remained open. Our legal community has continued to provide client services through a variety of challenges. We’ve all been flexible and willing to adjust our plans, professional and otherwise, sometimes on a dime, as and when needed. Presently, I’m excited to welcome Jason Long as President of the KBA, and to continue to support this organization in other ways in 2022 and beyond. In that regard, I again say to you “Aloha”. To take the import of the key term in this article’s title a bit further, aloha is not a word with a simple translation. It’s a unique and complex word that doesn’t mean just one thing. Wikipedia tells us that the word aloha is found in all Polynesian languages, and always with the same basic meaning. A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language describes aloha as a word expressing a range of different feelings and mindsets in addition to the modern common understanding of hello and goodbye. Various other sources describe aloha as a positive attitude or an act of kindness or compassion. But, in the end, aloha is more than its literal and colloquial meanings; it is a spirit of approaching life. So much so, that in Hawaii, the aloha spirit is etched in the statute books. HRS § 5-7.5 sets forth the statutory interpretation of aloha, which includes kindness, unity, agreeableness, humility, and patience and is defined as “the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence.” Hawaiians see this aloha spirit as so important that the rule of law in Hawaii directs all judicial and December 2021
governmental officers to contemplate and consider the aloha spirit in carrying their duties and responsibilities. Sound familiar at all? I think in many ways our members, who have that well-known and somewhat unique reputation for collegiality and strive to follow the KBA Guidelines for Professional Courtesy and Conduct, exhibit the aloha spirit. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: this organization is full of good lawyers, good people who routinely exhibit care for one another, care for their clients and community, and care for the rule of law. It is a group that I am proud to be a part of. Several times over the past year I have asked myself, in the immortal words of Admiral James Stockdale, Ross Perot’s 1992 running mate, “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” I never had serving as President of the KBA on my list of goals. For that matter, I never planned to live and practice law in Knoxville, Tennessee. But life is a journey and mine led me to Knoxville and, fortunately, into relationships with many different lawyers who encouraged my involvement in our bar. All that culminated in me saying “yes” to an invitation to serve as KBA Secretary several years back. The rest, as they say, is history. I feel really lucky that I answered “Yes” when I was asked. Following past KBA leaders including Wayne Kramer, Amanda Busby, Keith Burroughs, Wynne Caffey-Knight, and Hanson Tipton smoothed the path before me. From Zoom meetings to masked gatherings, and from our first pickleball and tennis event to the recent KBA fall hike at Frozen Head State Park, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity over this past year to work with so many of you and to get to know lawyers that I do not encounter in my daily practice, and the chance to consider broader issues of importance to our legal system, and to carry on the work of building our bar. With Jason Long as your next President, Marsha Watson and her team at the ready, and the excellent Board of Governors that will serve you during the coming year, I know the KBA will continue its tradition of being the best local bar organization for the best bar around. It is my hope, and my full expectation, that what we have here in the KBA will continue to be the envy of bar associations around this state and across the country. Thank you to each of you for your membership in and contributions to the Knoxville Bar Association and our profession. I’m proud of the sustained efforts within our bar to make Knoxville a legal community where the aloha spirit (or our East Tennessee version of it) is alive and kicking. With gratitude, honor, and humility, I thank you for allowing me the honor of serving as KBA President this year. Aloha!
DICTA
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