Krug:
Debts and debtors, take heed
Sadly, we’re probably going to hear more about more people in situations similar to Mathew Bunda’s in the days ahead.
As you probably know, Bunda spent eight days in the McHenry County Jail because he couldn’t post the $10,000 bail for failing to appear in court on two separate dates.
OK, that’s a big-time no-no. Judges would rather that you show up in a burlap bag and flip-flops than not show up at all.
The reason Bunda didn’t go to court? He already owed about $18,000 in fees to his former lawyer and said that he didn’t want to incur any more charges that he wouldn’t be able to pay.
His was an interesting dilemma.
Before you think that this is headed toward some rant on the court system, or off to a rally behind Billy Shakespeare’s invocation to “kill all the lawyers” or out on some tangential Dickensian romp, just hang in there with me. It’ll probably be a little bit of all three, but we’ll work through it together.
No, actually this is all about frustration – shared frustration.
People have debts they can’t pay, face circumstances that they can’t change, and, ultimately, our already flooded court system is on its way to being further deluged by more circumstances in which money – in particular, the lack of it – is in question. It’s not going to be pretty.
I shudder to think that we somehow are headed for a rendezvous with 19th-century Britain and a world that includes debtors’ prisons. Please, people, let’s not allow it to devolve to that point. But it could. I didn’t want to read “Great Expectations” when it was assigned reading in ninth grade. Don’t make me read it again to gauge whether I should pay my DirecTV bill on time.
It’s important to keep in mind that Bunda isn’t a criminal. He’s a working-class guy, 30 years old, who makes about $13 an hour. He incurred his legal fees as he was going through a divorce and has a child to support. His situation isn’t unique.
Rhonda Rosenthal, Bunda’s former lawyer, wanted to be paid what she was owed. What she was owed was not an insignificant amount of money. People should be paid for the services they provide.
Judge G. Martin Zopp took a procedural approach to meting out justice. He’s taken heat for his decision, and I wish to add no more fuel to that fire. Well, OK, maybe another log, but it’s a skinny one: There is nothing wrong with creative problem-solving on the bench. We even use it out in the real world every so often.
Bunda, who after he was released from jail said he didn’t realize at the time that he needed to appear in court on those two occasions in question, was sent to jail as a means to ensure that he wouldn’t run away from his debt and obligations.
But unless they are a character on “The Wire” or have perfected Bernard Madoff’s techniques, people in jail typically don’t make as much money in the joint as they do at the workplace. And almost nobody is rooting for more people to be incarcerated.
I’ve seen Kurt Russell in the 1981 epic “Escape from New York,” and I know how it ends. We don’t want to go there.
So we’re going to have to be a tad more logical about this. We can’t leverage the courts to make people pay their debts. And it’s not OK to skip court because you can’t afford to be there.
So let’s follow a simple line of logic: Know whom you owe, how much you owe, and how you are going to pay it back, show up in court. And wear sunblock.
Well, we can at least give it a shot.
• • •
Choose your own Blago adventure: Disgraced ex-Gov. “Hot” Rod Blagojevich has lined up a spot on the cast of a new castaway-styled reality show called “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!” that would be shot in Costa Rica later this year if he can get a judge to lift his travel restrictions.
Punch line, please: And at $80,000 an episode, Blago ______________________ .
I look forward to your help in filling that blank.
• • •
Bare the walls: There are three holidays that warm my hackles. And they are Christmas, Easter and Community Cleanup Week in Cary.
The gifts that were so urgent two Christmases ago and last Easter somehow seem to make their way to each Cleanup Week. And in addition to allowing you to walk normally, rather than shuffle side-to-side, through your basement, garage or storage room, Cleanup Week typically improves your mental well-being and outlook on life.
Works like this: You haul all that stuff that you thought was really important when you bought it out to the curb the day before your trash day. People in pickup trucks roam through your neighborhood and pick through your stuff, which you are glad to give them. The next day, the trash hauler comes and makes all that clutter go bye-bye.
If your community doesn’t have a community cleanup day, consider getting a new community. Or, better yet, tell the people at village hall that they need to hook you up. Pronto.
• • •
Mark your calendar: The Gavers Community Cancer Foundation’s 10th annual Barndance is scheduled for Saturday, July 18, at Emricson Park in Woodstock.
So you know what that means: If your wedding is scheduled for that day, break it off.
You’ll have a better time at the Barndance, the best Saturday night of the summer in McHenry County.
If you want to buy your tickets in advance, donate an auction prize or volunteer for the event, pick up the phone and call Andy Hartlieb at 815-338-2300.
• • •
Bowl ’em over: If you are looking for some fun that will benefit a worthwhile cause, don’t forget about the Adult & Child Rehab Center’s Benefit Bowl, which is set for Saturday at Raymond’s Bowl in Johnsburg.
For a donation of $35, you can bowl from noon to 3 p.m. The sign-up fee covers bowling, shoes, pizza and fountain drinks.
The registration deadline is Monday, so call ACRC at 815-338-1707 to reserve your space.
• • •
The Will to wear denim: We’ve run George Will’s columns in the Northwest Herald for a long time – longer than anyone around here could remember Friday when I conducted a random sampling of the longtimers. Provided he isn’t rhapsodizing on baseball, as he is wont to do, Will adds a conservative straw to the opinion page tonic and certainly plays a part in perpetuating the discussion. All of that is good.
But the column he contributed to Thursday’s edition, in which he wrote about the decline of America as it is reflected in our affinity for wearing jeans, was short a few rivets and a spool of thread.
“Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy’s catechism of leveling – thou shalt not dress better than society’s most slovenly,” Will wrote.
He also noted that, “Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances.”
I just thought the tuxedo was a tad much for Sam’s Club the last time I was carefully calculating my wardrobe to pick up a 216-ounce bottle of laundry detergent, a new toaster oven, and the various and sundry things that I will contribute to the Community Cleanup Week in 2011 and 2012.
Foolish me.
Georgie boy should lighten up a bit.
• • •
And finally … : Actually we all need to lighten up a little bit.
Heck, they haven’t even broken ground on the new debtors’ prison yet.
• Chris Krug is executive editor of the Northwest Herald. Contact him by calling 815-459-4122 or via e-mail at ckrug@nwherald.com. Catch Chris’ rants, raves and insights via Twitter.com by following him at ChrisKrug (no space).
