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Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Climate Change.

I think this blog post is supposed to be aimed at the need for environmental controls to stop the climate change we're experiencing with global warming and such. But that's not what I'm writing about. (What could I say on that subject that other's wouldn't say better?)

I'm writing about the need for "climate change" in the small local world of the CNMI as it relates to debt, debtors, and our courts. We are not following the laws that balance creditor and debtors rights. Worse, we have debtor's prison in the CNMI, and none of our esteemed judges and justices recognize it for what it is.

In the CNMI, what is supposed to happen according to our laws, is that once a person owes a debt and the court renders a judgment in the creditor's favor, then the creditor can execute on the judgment either by getting a writ of attachment of particular, identifiable, non-exempt property, or the court can enter an order in aid of judgment based on ability to pay.

If the debtor has non-exempt property to satisfy the debt, there are no problems. The real issues come up when the debtor doesn't have property or income to pay off the debt.

The court is supposed to fashion an order to pay based on a debtor's ability to pay, which, under our statutes, recognizes that people need to be able to keep whatever income is needed to support themselves and their family.

And in fact, there are debtors who do not have the ability to pay--either because they are unemployed, have jobs paying low wages, have large families to support, or face a combination of these factors.

What our Courts assume is that every person who works has the ability to pay, regardless of income and regardless of size of family and responsibilities of support. This directly undermines the Legislative balance of creditor and debtor rights and creates onerous orders for poor people to pay.

A legitimate debt does not cancel the law that protects a debtor's income for the purpose of supporting himself and his family. But it does in the eyes of the Courts.

And we need a climate change in the courts to recognize that debtors' rights exist, and some do not have the ability to pay.

Another issue, even more serious, is the repeated efforts by the court to order unemployed debtors to get work; and to make these orders under threat of jail. If an unemployed debtor doesn't go look for work to the court's satisfaction--usually 10 applications every reporting period, which could be a month or 2 or 3 (even if he's looked for work for years!), he will be put in jail for contempt.

You can read some good posts on MLSC's recent work trying to stop this practice at our DAY IN COURT blog.

It's all about climate change. It's about a change in attitude and mindset that recognizes the fundamental beauty of the U.S. Constitution's protections of liberty and freedom from involuntary servitude.

Should people be working? Yes. Should they look for jobs? Yes. But should the power of the state be used to enforce private interests and lock people up because they don't work? No.

Small encroachments lead to bigger encroachments. There is no good reason to be ordered to work to pay off creditors: this is debt bondage and it needs to be stopped.

We also need a better climate for employment that provides jobs, provides incentives to work, and balances human dignity and rights with economic gain and activity. Ordering people under threat of jail to go get jobs because they owe money won't take us in the right direction.

It's all about climate change.

SHOW NOTES:

Blog Action Day aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. On October 15, 2008, thousands of people are posting on the topic of POVERTY.

The Book of Life is participating with this podcast episode, in which authors Davis and Kimmel explore themes of generosity and the tradition of tzedakah (charity). We also get an overview about Blog Action Day itself. The line-up includes:

> Cyan Ta'eed, cofounder (with husband Collis) of Blog Action Day, FreelanceSwitch blogger and director of Envato

> Aubrey Davis, author of Bagels from Benny (interviewed by our Canadian Correspondent Anne Dublin!)

> Eric Kimmel, author of The Mysterious Guests: A Sukkot Story


AUDIO:

Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now:

Or click MP3 File to start your computer's media player.


CREDITS:

Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Additional background music in this episode is courtesy of The Klezmer Company Orchestra. Listen to our upcoming November 2008 podcast for an interview with Aaron Kula, Klezmer Company Orchestra leader, about their CD Beyond the Tribes.

Books mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel. Browse our online catalog to reserve books, post a review, or just to look around!

Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to [email protected]!

October 15, 2008 is Blog Action day, committed to the discussion of poverty.

Where to begin? Causes? Resultant problem? Solutions?

These are just my random thoughts.

I've been a poverty lawyer for more than 30 years. I help low income (and no income) clients get access to justice by having me, a free lawyer, represent them in court. I only handle civil cases, and I work for a private non-profit agency that is one of hundreds of such organizations funded in part by the U.S. government's Legal Services Corporation.

Lawyers are not the first line of defense for poor people. They need food, shelter, clothing, medical care. The children also need free, public, appropriate education. These are critical needs.

But lawyers can help poor people use what little they have to get their basic needs met; can advocate for them to get benefits from programs that may help; and can try to protect them from being cheated out of the basic fairness of being heard when they are involved (or need to be involved) in some litigation.

As with all goods and services needed by the poor, there aren't enough poverty lawyers to do the job. And so we get put into the horrible position of deciding what is a "priority" and whose case isn't important enough for our limited resources.


Some have no sympathy for the poor. They view poverty as a result of laziness or stupidity or personal fault (criminal conduct, bad health habits). There is no doubt that there are lazy and stupid, the criminal and those who don't take care of themselves, among the poor. But these same attributes can be found among the middle class and the rich. These individual traits do explain poverty.

The successful do not want to believe that the system that has allowed them to progress is somehow unfair. There is a resentment by people of means toward the indigent because, if the system is wrong, then their success isn't as meaningful; and a change in the system could also change their own personal fates.

Poverty exists throughout the world, and has existed throughout the centuries. In hindsight, we can easily see that the feudal system kept the masses in poverty and illiteracy --as a system. But we are blinded to the faults of our current economic system.

Our current capitalist system is definitely an improvement over feudalism. We have a larger middle class and some protections for the poor. But there is a staggering discrepancy between those at the top of the economic ladder and those at the bottom, and there is no real way to eliminate the bottom rungs. If those at the bottom manage to move up, someone in the middle will be moving down.

I don't have answers. I don't know what are solutions. (I'm not embracing socialism here because I'm not all that knowledgeable about the ins and outs of such an option.)

I only know that we must keep trying. We must recognize that poverty is with us, not because individuals are weak or bad, but because our system needs improving.

SHOW NOTES:

Meet The Book of Life's new Canadian Correspondent, author & librarian Anne Dublin! Anne will be recording material for us in the enviably literary city of Toronto. She is the former librarian of Holy Blossom Temple, and the author of a number of children's books, including the Sydney Taylor Honor Book Bobbie Rosenfeld, the Olympian Who Could Do Everything (Second Story Press, 2004). She was interviewed about this title for The Book of Life's third-ever episode back in February of 2006. Check out Anne's website at annedublin.ca.

In this episode, Anne introduces us to her Toronto writers' group as they discuss the Jewish elements of their work. The group includes:

Anne Dublin

Rona Arato

Frieda Wishinsky

Lynn Westerhout

Sydell Waxman

Once again this year, The Book of Life will participate in Blog Action Day. On October 15, 2008, we'll join the worldwide discussion on the topic of poverty. We'll interview the creators of Blog Action Day, as well as some Jewish authors whose books deal with themes of poverty and tzedakah (charity).

If you have a blog, you can participate in Blog Action Day too! Sign up at blogactionday.org.