"A day at the courthouse"

Today I spent part of the afternoon at the Milwaukee County Courthouse (don't worry, nothing related to me), and I made a few interesting observations....

First, most of the people in small claims court are either A, African American, or B, very "untidy looking folks". Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of being racist, I just have to wonder... What would the state of our public courts be like, if these people just tried a little harder? Tried to make something of themselves. There's certainly nothing stopping them. Why do they keep choosing to lead lives far below their own potential? Sometimes I just can't fathom it. To me, trying to learn, grow, improve, and achieve personal goals makes complete sense. Why, if these options are open to everyone, do so many people choose to ignor them?

It just boggles the mind sometimes. It really does.

Second, shoes. Womens' shoes. What idiot invented the spiked heal? They look painful, and I can't imagine the human foot ever being designed to distribute the weight of walking like that. It's like trying to walk while balancing on a long nail. Isn't that dangerous? Yet, nearly all of the professional women that I saw (aka, lawyers) wore these shoes. Is this common fashion among the legal profession? I'd think, lawyers, of all people, would want comfortable shoes, don't you?

Third, lending companies do not give out free money. I knew that long ago, but apparently, most of the people from my first observation above did not. By the door of the courtroom, there were two large sheets of paper listing columns of all of the court cases that would be heard today, and at what times. At least two of those columns consisted of nothing but small-time lending companies, or "payday advance stores" that were suing clients who didn't pay them back. Um, yeah. I repeat, lending companies do not give out free money (even if they make it sound like they do).

I tell you, a lot can be learned by a visit to your local county courthouse, especially in the Big City. It's sad really, especially when you see the flood of bad decisions coming back to bite people where it hurts (or the bad footwear people seem inclined to wear). Life would be so much easier if people just used a little more common sense and far more good judgement.

Well, that was my afternoon. Kind of depressing really. But, now that I'm home again, I think I'm going to move on and take care of some much more optimistic tasks now!

Have a blessed rest of the day all, and until next time,

Your happily blogging friend,
-Jon
posted by Jon at 5:03 PM  I   I  0 comments