Nemus's Journal: So sue me...wait, no, it's only an expression.....crap

Good morning world. Welcome to Saturday; a deity mandated day of rest. Oh, look, there's a call from my parents, saying we need to talk about something. Oh joy, it's another lawsuit.

In the past year, I have been sued on (now) three separate occasions. First I was sued by a collections agency over a dental bill. Then I was sued by my apartment complex. Wow, I must be a horrible deadbeat, right? Well the judge didn't seem to think so; both cases were thrown out, with no charges to me save my own court costs (which were still about $400). Now I'm being sued by my old bank for $241, which even they admit is the result of a bank error. Why don't they just erase it then? Well the -first- time this happened, they apologized and then removed the charges (~$300). The -second- time it happened, they apologized and removed the charges (~300). So what happened between the second and third times? Oh, a little thing called the goddamn recession which has been raping my life for the past year. Now, because it was removed as a "one time courtesy" the -second- time, they refusing to remove the charges this time, despite the fact that it was, once again, a bank error. So I'm looking forward to another pointless trip to court, where I will be absolved of the charges, and have to pay even more in court costs.

What truly makes this a circle of hell, however, isn't just the shitstorm I've been handed over the past week ($142 for allegedly running a stop sign, $35 dollars to keep my driver's license from getting suspended, yay GA's policy towards out of state motorsists, and the topics of earlier entries). No, what really makes this terrible is that I'm not alone in this.

This Wednesday, I sat in the Gray, GA traffic court, and watched as around a dozen people were led into the court in prison oranges, with restraints around their wrists and ankles. They ranged in age from a 19 year old to a woman who had to be in her fifties. Their crime? Unpaid traffic fees. Yes, the state of GA is now revoking the license and jailing people who have as little as $150 dollars in unpaid traffic tickets. For up to a month at a time. People who are unemployed now, because they've spent a month in jail. People who can't get a job, because now they don't have a driver's license. So how can they pay? Simple: they can't. And so, back to jail you go. Or rather, in the state of GA and many others, back to the highways and interstates you go, mowing, weed-eating, and picking up litter.

Who would have ever thought we'd miss the days of wage-slavery?