No More Budget Cuts for US!!!

Nationwide we are in a budget crisis. From Vermont to Alaska and down to Texas, everyone is feeling the crunch. What's wholly unfair, is that we, who exist only as a necessary evil, are feeling it far worse than ANY other agency.
Not to mention what that has done for our office morale. No longer do you hear many volunteers piping up to cover someone else's work at our Monday meeting. Everyone is too busy worrying about how they're going to keep up with their own caseload. More experienced attorneys sitting with the less experienced for their first few trials is happening less and less often. God forbid; that would just be wasteful. What's wrong with that picture?

What's wrong is that nobody likes us. We only exist because the Supreme Court says we have to. We exist for no other reason. Once you are labeled as a "defendant", "suspect", or "criminal", nobody likes you anymore. They don't care if your rights are protected. The ends justify the means. Just like the Salem Witch Trials: if they float, they must be a witch, so they must be killed. Nevermind there is no real evidence of practicing witchcraft... And nobody wants to funnel more money into a broken system. It's broken because we have overqualified, underpaid attorneys working their a@@es off to try to preserve some sense of dignity and justice for defendants charged in criminal court. We are always doing more with less, more with less. To top that off; the new attorneys coming in, are often making more than the experienced attorneys that have dedicated years of their lives for this job. Yea!! NO LIE!! And there is no system for raises. We sit around and hope we get a cost of living increase, and maybe by some miracle a raise. But when Bob Smith (the brand new guy) gets a raise guess what? He still makes more than me. People who have dedicated their lives to working here are being increasingly forced to move on to greener pastures, where they work the same and make more money. Not just here, everywhere. When will someone step up and propose funding for Public Interest Law? Or at least Student loan repayment.

Am I pissed off? Yes. I am pissed off because while we are trying to work miracles with nothing, the University of Kansas is paying BIll Self and Mark Mangino millions of dollars to get fat and eat doughnuts. K-State is paying Schneider millions to come back from the dead... I mean retirement, to coach again. He was spotted just this week flying in the UNIVERSITY JET!! Not to mention the buyout of Ron Prince, millions. Down the tube. AND WE'RE THE WASTEFUL AGENCY?? We print on both sides of paper; we turn off the lights. We freeze in the winter and burn up in the summer to keep out lease terms agreeable. We get hand me down furniture, and many buy their own office supplies. While the governor throws parties at the mansion. WHERE DOES IT END? When does someone become accountable? How many qualified and experienced attorneys do we have to lose before someone gives us some credit?

That's all I'm saying.

NOTE: This is an edited post. After some discussion with some very smart and insightful attorneys, I decided it would be best to remove some parts of the post and just vent about the political system and budget in general. Thanks guys for your input!!