By JERRY WOLFFE
“Jerry Wolffe,” I heard someone calling me repeatedly as I
was on a field at what was to become the Miracle Field in Southfield where
children with disabilities would be able to play baseball on an accessible
field.
It was Richard Bernstein.
He came over to my wheelchair. “It’s so
nice to meet you, Jerry,” he said. “You do such good work for those with
disabilities with your column “Voices of Disabilities.”
I shook his hand and as I did this I noticed the dark clouds
in the sky separated and the bright afternoon sun shone down on the both of us,
kind of like a magic moment that we -- the journalist and the attorney, both with disabilities -- were going to do great things.
Well, the great thing happened on Nov. 4 when Bernstein was
elected to an eight-year term as a Michigan Supreme Court Justice, becoming the
first blind jurist to the Michigan high court.
Bernstein, who graduated with high honors from Northwestern,
began a pro bono career the weeks after we met, suing for civil rights for
people with disabilities, cases ranging from everything to make Detroit buses
be equipped with proper wheelchair lifts to fighting for a visually impaired
law student to get extra time under the Americans with Disabilities Act during
the bar exam. That Southfield attorney, Jason Turkish, just won a case against
Detroit Metropolitan Airport that reverses a decision that would have made it
nearly impossible for those with disabilities to get some 900 feet from a
dropoff spot to the entry of the McNamara Terminal.
Bernstein will fight for everyone, those with disabilities,
seniors and the underdog in our society because he knows what it is like to
have faced discrimination and beat it head on.
His slogan, “Justice is Blind,” is true and this Justice
will bring the light of reason and fairness to Michigan’s highest court.
