GRIT - Stories of Resilience

From marching to graduation to the sounds of the orchestra playing Pomp and Circumstance to the "yawning uncertainty" of the of their lives, the new graduates and all the rest of us must deal with the uncertainty of where we are as a country, how we came to be so divided with each other, losing our way and figuring out how to get better. It is not too late but time is short. We need to e...

The recent death of a good friend and lawyer Norman Kellum of New Bern, North Carolina, has pushed me to reflect on living each day to it greatest potential and to take care of myself. Since I was a young person at the age of ten, I have tended to fall or trip and break arms and legs. Casts, crutches and boots have been part of my life. Most recently a fall on the beach where nothing was hurt but...

From the back of the house cooking quesadillas at the Border Cafe (back of the house) to hosting and then working as a waiter at the 42nd Street Oyster Bar (front of the house), I joined the ranks of probably millions of people all over the world, working for tips. For me, it was not my first job, nor to make money for school, but to simply work and make money. I didn't know i would work at th...

On June 23, 1989, Freddy Kassab, the stepfather of Colette MacDonald and grandparent of Kimberley and Kristen, and I met in Tampa, Florida to talk about their deaths 19 years before, in 1970, and the years that followed. Freddy wanted to make a statement to the United States Parole Commission in case his former son-in-law, Jeff MacDonald requested parole. Freddy and his wife Mildred were not in th...

Punch, the Monkey, abandoned at birth by his mother, is now seven months old. For the longest time, while living at a zoo just outside Tokyo, Japan, Punch was on his own, bullied and shunned completely by the other monkeys there. Punch was given a plush toy from IKEA, an orangutan, that became his only friend. Punch stayed with him, dragged him everywhere and slept with him. He would not let him g...

It has now been over 56 years ago this month that Colette, Kimberly and Kristen MacDonald were murdered in their home. Nine years later, on July 16, 1979, the murder trial of Jeffrey MacDonald began in Raleigh, North Carolina and ended on August 29, 1979 with convictions on all counts. Joe McGinniss wrote his best selling book Fatal Vision in the spring of 1983, followed by the NBC miniseries by t...

" Success is not final. Failure is not fatal." These words are often attributed to Winston Churchill, but not for sure. Perhaps the author is unknown. Still, they seem to me to be a perfect setting for grit and resilience. So, it is with sitting in the defendant's chair, a place no one wants to be. This podcast was recorded last week on this very topic as the final hour of a Continui...

PCB toxic chemicals illegally spilled on the roadways of North Carolina brought a federal trial that ended with the persons responsible being given active sentences in prison - the first time ever in the United States for violation of the relevant environmental law statute. But for me, it was a master class in learning lessons of professionalism from my opposing counsel. Years later, it happened a...

There are three main chairs in a criminal courtroom - one for the Prosecutor, one for the Defense Attorney and one for the Defendant. I have sat in all three. This is Part 1 of the Prosecutor's chair in the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case. From my 1989 interview with Freddy Kassab, who pursued MacDonald all his life, after the murders in 1970, through the trial in 1979, I tell you why I believe...

This Christmas season, it is easy to be distracted and somewhat depressed with all the news in our country and indeed, in many parts of the world. But there have been other times as the famous song, "The White Cliffs of Dover" remind us of the times of World War II. The song, " A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" as the memorable line, the whole darn world seemed upside down...

Forrest Gump said his mother told him that "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get." That pretty much sums up my latest trip to Chetola for a seminar for lawyers and paralegals this past weekend. Hearing stories of surviving three bouts of cancer and no one thinking one lawyer would even be here to dealing with hosting and paying for a wedding to take...

Built in 1915 to support a railroad line from Abington, Virgina, to the North Carolina mountains, the hotel thrived for over a half century as the hub of West Jefferson, located in Ashe County in the northwest part of the state. In 1977, due to the closing of the railroad and bus lines, the hotel was forced to close its doors for about 50 years. Bought in 2019, Mark Beck and his family began a 5-y...

In the late spring of 1956, Wake Forest College moved from the town of Wake Forest to Winston - Salem and a new campus. Most of my friends were children of faculty members as was I, as my dad was the Chaplain of the school. Many of my friends stayed behind, and I lost contact with them. But in a twist, this past week I had lunch with one of them again, a person whom I had known since the first gra...

This past week was a tough one for this country. Political assassination, shouts of revenge, we seem to have lost, or at least misplaced, our way. It is a time to remember the words of Nelson Mandella that "hope is the greatest weapon in the world when all else seems lost". Not that long ago, really, on April 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy spoke in Indianapolis to a group of black people in a p...

When former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice and legendary lawyer Phil Carlton asked me to speak to the residents of The Cardinal, a well-known senior citizen's establishment in Raleigh, I immediately said yes. So, on Wednesday, August 27, due primarily to the interest in the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, I spoke to an overflow group of about 150 people about the case and then added parts of...

After holding podcasts for over two years, I am hoping to make some changes and updates to my conversations with people and bring you the best podcast I can. So, for two weeks I am taking a summer pause. I look forward to a new podcast on Monday, September 8, and hope to see you then. Until then, have a great rest of the summer. Jim

In a few weeks, freshmen, the Class of '29 will run together across a football field to the end zone and into their seats inside the stadium and cheer for their team at the first football game of the year and their time in school. It is a time of new beginnings for them, of endless possibilities. They have a clean slate to write on whatever they choose. Regardless of age, we are all potential...

An article in the Washington Post tells us are becoming a nation of homebodies. So, when I went to Winston-Salem last week to hold a seminar, it was my intention this would be my last time there in person. I would do this program remotely online in the future. The program was lively with lots of participation by everyone. As people fully participated in give and take, I slowly realized I was not r...

In late March of this year, I lost $2,000 one afternoon to an online scam that I should have seen coming from a mile away. But I didn't and allowed my laptop to become infected by bad actors, acting from a place in India. After striking out at getting my computer made safe again at a big box store with so called experts, I turned to my good friend Todd Boufford who is Senior Vice President of...

Rick Thames was 26 years old and a new reporter for the Fayetteville Observer when he moved to Raleigh in the summer of 1979 to cover the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial. Now, after a remarkable career in journalism, including stops as Editor at the Wichita Eagle and the Charlotte Observer, Rick sits down with me to recall those weeks that summer when he had a front row seat for the murder trial of...

The three birthdays I remember most are when I became a teenage, when I turned 16 got my drivers' license and when I became a legal adult at 21. Now, many years later, I find that i am still excited about the future, wanting to know what is next. Yes, there are challenges and much depends on my good health continuing, but that has always been true. None of us are as young as once were, but non...

It is in climbing many of the highest peaks in the world that Clark Wright, a long-time attorney from New Bern, North Carolina, says he "feels closer to God and a real sense of peace and contentment". Fresh from his latest journey in the Andes mountains of Peru, he talks about his love of outdoors and how it has shaped his life and career. He speaks of his family, his law practice of 43...

"How it feels to be a proud new U.S. citizen on the Fourth of July" is the title of a new opinion piece in the Washington Post today, July 4, 2025. It is written by Emil Stern, now a screenwriter in Los Angeles. I read his writing in its entirety... it is that meaningful. Then, some thoughts back to July 4, 1826, the day when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died. Finally, on July 4,...

This is the story of a 17-year-old girl who is in a tragic car accident, while sitting in the back seat and what happens to the rest of her life. Tara Stone suffers from a traumatic and severe brain injury when she is thrown from the car, going over 100 miles per hour. In a coma for months, she finally awakes to a life of no real awareness, an inability to speak or control her own body, but a life...

Friday, June 20 - the first day of summer In Wilmington for a CLE program, the first person I see is my friend Dick Horgan, who had told me about a week ago, the medicine was not working any longer for him. But here he was, a little thinner, but smiling with a bottle of mimosa for everyone. We talked for hours about life, the practice of law and the challenges of young people as some of the people...