If you read the title to this post, you're no doubt asking, "Who's Walter Hickman?" Let me explain. It goes to my earlier point about the unpopularity of Family Court among those who have actually been there.

In my younger days, I spent several years editing newspapers. I started out in a small county in east Tennessee. The Sheriff in that county was a huge, bear of a man named Walter Hickman. Now understand this. East Tennessee is pretty rough. Walter had a tough job. Maintaining law and order wasn't easy there, and he sometimes had stiff opposition in enforcing the law. Yet Walter managed to get himself re-elected term after term. I asked him once how he managed it, considering the number of arrests he made and the high rate of lawlessness in the county. His answer was enlightening.

"It's real simple, son," he said. "People understand that my job is to enforce the law. But they also understand that I'm going to be fair with them when I do it. And as long as I'm fair, they don't hold a grudge. They figure I'm just doing my job. So they keep right on voting for me."

As I stood in front of Family Court Wednesday morning, Walter came to mind. I was continuing to hear complaints about the court, and I was still surprised about the depths of the animosity among people who had been there. I understand that courts are, by their nature, adversarial. Someone is going to be unhappy with the result. But I believe the hostility toward Family Court is because people don't leave feeling they've been treated fairly.

I thought of my own experience there. I've been there three different times to testify concerning my grandchildren. Not once have I been inside. The courtroom has been locked every time, and no witnesses have been called. Is that fundamentally fair? I mull over the question of why a judge would choose to make decisions affecting the lives and safety of small children without hearing every bit of relevant evidence. But for Family Court here, this is the norm. Concerned family is locked out, and never given an oportunity to have their say or tell what they know. No wonder people perceive the system as being unfair. And people who feel they've been treated unfairly are hostile. It's really as simple as that. I concluded that Family Court could learn a lot from Walter Hickman. He may have looked like a bear, but he was a pretty shrewd one.

Wednesday was an uneventful day. I passed out my flyers and met some very nice people. Again, people were overwhelmingly pleasant. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm doing something wrong.