Anyone of a certain age could probably note the slow erosion of our rights . In my case, I began to notice this in the early ‘90’s when license agreements on software “purchases” became the norm. Since then we’ve seen the advent of widespread introduction of the use of “interns”. Never really understanding what an “intern” was, I began hearing the term used more and more frequently. Last Friday, my local paper covered the hiring of a new probation officer for the county juvenile court. The article mentioned that the chosen candidate for the position had actually been working there at the court as an “unpaid intern” for the past year and now he was “a natural fit” according to the juvenile court judge. I asked my self, “How is this not indentured servitude”?
To further compound my ever increasing awareness of my continual loss of self determination in society, I had yet another encounter with the Karma. I travelled to a distant car dealership to complete a transaction on a purchase. At the dealership, I was approaching the final steps of the purchase and was already thinking of the trip home. Then, as I reviewed the purchase agreement, I was quite disturbed to see one item in the legalese. The line following the paragraph immediately below the blank spaces in the screenshot above. It reads, “JURY WAIVER: The purchaser and dealer waive and renounce the right under federal and state law to a trial by jury.”
To me, this provokes a number of thoughts including:
1) This is a constitutional right. Can I under any circumstances simply sign it away? I don’t think it’s possible. I mean I don’t see these rights as assignable. Selling them or giving them away is not enumerated in the Constitution.
2) Why would you ask me to give away my rights? Are you planning to break the law or come so close to doing so you fear a jury might side with the purchaser? People who want changes in laws frequently are those who wish to violate them.
3) The dealership doesn’t say anything about trials by judges. Are they convinced they can sway a judge and not a jury? Maybe they’re convinced of the corporate bent of judges generally? There is certainly enough documented cases that judges are much more likely to pander to corporate power than to living, private citizens, after all, they are the “job creators”.
As these thoughts raced through my head, I immediately told the finance person, “I’m just going to make a statement here” as I pulled the document close. “What is it… what are you writing?” asked the young man nervously. I said, “Just adding a line, not scratching anything out” I replied.
“I don’t give away my Constitution rights” I wrote, and initialled it. To my relief, the young finance man did not reply or protest in any way. I breathed a sigh of relief. Until we’re all able to stand up and refuse this wholesale abdication of our rights, we will never see our rights upheld let alone restored.