After becoming disabled in a machete attack on a visit to his native Haiti, Jean-Claude Joseph needed help persuading his landlord to move him from a fifth-floor apartment to one on the ground floor. Isaac Benjamin became ensnared in a bureaucratic snafu that took away his Social Security disability payments for more than two years. The story of Martha, a woman from Sierra Leone, was more compelling. Beaten, raped and tortured in her politically repressive homeland, she knowingly used someone else's passport to escape to America, but was caught by immigration authorities upon her arrival. She desperately sought political asylum. Not the kind of cases that lead to ground-breaking upheavals in the law, but the kind of cases that are handled day in and day out by lawyers for the legally disenfranchised who have no where else to turn. The work of attorneys from Legal Services of New Jersey will be highlighted in a onehour documentary, "Quest for Justice," to be aired 9 p.m. today on New Jersey Network. Produced by NYD2, a communications firm based in Somerset, the documentary features case histories of clients whose needs ranged from housing to fighting off deportation. Joseph, a 54-year-old naturalized citizen, turned to Legal Services when the landlord of his federally subsidized apartment complex in Elizabeth turned a deaf ear to his request for a ground-floor apartment. Having lost the use of his left arm in warding off the machete attack during a robbery attempt, Joseph said he found it increasingly difficult to negotiate the five flights of stairs lugging groceries or laundry on the frequent occasions when the building's elevator was out of order. "With this, it became impossible for me to stay upstairs," he said, pointing to the scars on his forearm. "If I cannot carry my groceries or my laundry, how can I live?" "It was a compelling case," said Legal Services attorney Stephen St. Hilaire. "The key for us -- and we have to make tough decisions all the time on whether to take a case -- was visualizing what he had to do to get to the fifth floor, struggling with a bag of groceries," he said. Benjamin, 53, of Jersey City had been collecting Social Security disability after undergoing double bypass surgery when the checks stopped coming. He said the agency claimed he had failed to return a form updating the condition of his health. "But what got me was they didn't let me know they didn't get it, they just cut me off," he said, adding he found it impossible to negotiate the Social Security bureaucracy himself.

Who was struggling to stay upstairs and why?

He continued to lie in place, still breathing heavily. I tried to keep myself calm. Then, with a sigh, he said, "I have need of a certain stone that I once possessed. It would allow me to leave this bed, despite my current illness. My problem is that it was not made in this realm, but by a human, and only a human may handle it. The herb vendor will tell you where you can find it. If you would fetch me this stone, I would tell you what I can." "Of course we will fetch you the stone," Nepthys assured him. "You have our thanks." Outside, the thing at the herb cart nodded when we mentioned the stone. He told Nepthys the name of a woman who lived on a certain street, and we set off. When we reached the street, I expected some sort of temple, or a row of antiquaries, or at least a sleazy, black-market relics merchant. Instead, it looked like we were in the red-light district: women who probably wanted more than our money eyed us from the alleys. Nepthys didn't need to warn me not to speak to them. He took us to the door of a building like a short pagoda that had a sign hanging over it showing a face with hands uplifted, like a saint under G d's light, and handcuffed. Inside, the entrance room was hung with bright silks and scattered with velvet cushions. Sails of obscene orange and a green that insulted springtime hung draped across reds that might have been sensual elsewhere but here were only offensive. A large woman, similarly decorated, quickly drifted up to us. "Good evening, gentlemen," she said. "May I invite you to have a cup of tea?" "No, thank you," said Nepthys, "we regret that we cannot take up your kind offer. Are you the proprietor of this shop?" "Yes," answered the woman. "I am Madame Entera, at your service.

What can only a human handle?

Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America: Their Friendship and Their Travels edited by Oliver Zunz, translated by Arthur Goldhammer (University of Virginia Press; 2011) 698 pages; Includes previously unpublished letters, essays, and other writings Du systeme penitentaire aux Etats-Unis et de son application en France (1833) - On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application to France, with Gustave de Beaumont. De la democratie en Amerique (1835/1840) - Democracy in America. It was published in two volumes, the first in 1835, the second in 1840. English language versions: Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. and eds., Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, University of Chicago Press, 2000; Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Arthur Goldhammer, trans.; Olivier Zunz, ed.) (The Library of America, 2004) ISBN 978-1-931082-54-9. L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution (1856) - The Old Regime and the Revolution. It is Tocqueville's second most famous work. Recollections (1893) - This work was a private journal of the Revolution of 1848. He never intended to publish this during his lifetime; it was published by his wife and his friend Gustave de Beaumont after his death. Journey to America (1831-1832) - Alexis de Tocqueville's travel diary of his visit to America; translated into English by George Lawrence, edited by J-P Mayer, Yale University Press, 1960; based on vol. V, 1 of the OEuvres Completes of Tocqueville. L'Etat social et politique de la France avant et depuis 1789 - Alexis de Tocqueville Memoir On Pauperism: Does public charity produce an idle and dependant class of society? (1835) originally published by Ivan R. Dee. Inspired by a trip to England. One of Tocqueville's more obscure works. Journeys to England and Ireland 1835
Was L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution (1856) - The Old Regime and the Revolution inspired by a trip to England?