PROFESSIONALISM CORNER
PROFESSIONALISM CORNER
Preserving History Matters
KARA ROCKENBACH LINK
A group of Palm Beach County Bar Association leaders in collaboration with the Historical Society of Palm Beach County has formed the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit’ s Judicial Moving Picture Project( JMPP) to safeguard the recordings of judicial investitures for future generations. While our initial task is to“ gather and preserve” the VHS recordings of Palm Beach County investitures, our end goal is to digitize and permanently preserve these judicial investitures for searchable access by name, phrase, speaker type, or even word choice. By digitizing these snapshots in time, we will be able to search specific moments across decades of judicial history— from family presentations to clergy invocations to Bar leadership remarks— making this archive not only historical but interactive and meaningful.
Now you may ask, why does it matter? For starters, the person holding the video camera in 1980 thought the event was important enough to“ preserve the moment.” Fast forward to today, an era of potential misinformation through altered technology( aka artificial intelligence), the opportunity to preserve original documents, artifacts, memorable events, and testimonies has never been more vital to our judicial history and accuracy. This article suggests four reasons why preserving history, specifically judicial investitures, matters.
Truth. First, historical preservation safeguards the truth and prevents a skewed recall of events or even a wellmeaning revisionist distortion. Identity. Preserving history shapes our identity as a legal community and gives a sense of continuity. Our historical identity connects us with our predecessors and allows us to recognize that each of us is but a small part of a larger body with shared traditions and core values of truth and justice. Inspiration. Preserving history inspires progress through stories of resilience, prompting future generations to act with courage and steadfast determination and dedication to the judicial process, including seeking public service through judicial office. Democracy. Last but surely not least, preserving history is essential for a healthy democracy. As one independent branch of our government, the courts’ records and historical accounts keep us accountable and support transparency. Importantly, preserving investitures can help teach the public about how our judicial system selects judges, how our legal community reveres our judiciary, and the solemnity of its members’ public service.
With your help, the JMPP will positively use our constantly evolving technology to preserve the truth, unite us through our common identity, inspire our next generation of public servants, and support our democracy because it matters!
A special note of gratitude to Judge Ciklin for his vision prompted by his daughter, Chief Judge Glenn Kelley for his support, President and CEO of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, Jeremy Johnson, for the e-storage and future preservation, Bar leaders, PBCBA President Jean Marie Middleton, members Salesia Smith- Gordon and Kalinthia Dillard, and former PBCBA Executive Director Patience Burns for their commitment to this project and gathering of recordings. A separate note of gratitude is expressed for Debra Oats, Director of Administrative Services for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, for her safeguarding of the VHS recordings.
Please join our JMPP’ s efforts in preserving Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court investiture history and contact Debra Oats at doats @ pbcgov. org to safeguard your or a loved one’ s investiture VHS-recording. We will retrieve it, copy it on a flash drive, and return the original VHS to you with a flash drive copy for you.
Thank you for joining in our efforts to preserve this part of Palm Beach County’ s judicial history.
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PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 21