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31 U.S.F. L. Rev. 779 (1996-1997)
Were You There - Witnessing Welfare Retreat

handle is hein.journals/usflr31 and id is 791 raw text is: Were You There? Witnessing Welfare Retreat By MARI J. MATSUDA* THIS IS an essay for Trina Grillo, in 1997, the year of Welfare Retreat. I use Welfare Retreat, not Reform, because Reform suggests that someone studied a problem and came up with a smarter way to deal with it. Retreat, in contrast, connotes turning back without gain. The title of this essay, Were You There?, is an allusion to an old spiritual, Were You There When They Nailed Him to the Cross? Trina was a great fan of music of all kinds. She believed in the power of African American religious song. This particular spiritual is disconcerting to me because I do not share the Christian faith, and this song makes it clear that the faith is at its core. There is no way to change it into a secular metaphor, to say, It's really about freedom and I can hum over the Jesus part. None- theless, when I closed my eyes and called for a song to serve as the title for this essay in honor of Trina,Were You There When They Nailed Him to the Cross? is what I heard. The meaning of this song is mysterious, because, of course, none of us were there in any kind of actuality. I borrow from the faith of Trina's peo- ple this song of obscure meaning, and draw from Trina's life to help under- stand it. Trina, more than most of us, was There. When she was in a room, that is where she was. She could stop a conversation in its tracks by looking a friend in the eye and asking a pointed question. She could bring a posturing law professors' meeting to a standstill by saying, as I heard her say once, I would like to point out that none of the women in this room are speaking and I would like us to talk about why that is happening. She didn't back down from what she saw, either personally or politi- cally. She inspires me to 'Write about what I see happening to the poor peo- ple in my country. * © Mari J. Matsuda (1997), Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, with thanks to Ms. Karen Summerhill, Les Chun, and Peter Edelman.

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