Jury Duty! The Great American Experience

Well, it took almost 39 years, but I have finally been summoned for jury duty. Many people might find this to be as much fun as watching paint dry. I'm one of those who has been looking forward to this for a long time.

Jury duty is one of the few places that the average citizen gets a real say in the working of the machine. Since I think in terms of Church, I would say that serving on a jury is analogous to being asked to read the scripture passage during worship. It affects the whole body, even if only in a small way.

When I received the summons in the mail, my wife wanted me to see if I could get excused. Hey, it is a hassle to serve; no doubt! She'll be changing jobs during my service. We may even buy a new house and move during the interim. But if all the reasonably qualified people bail out on the responsibility of serving in the judicial process, then we have to stop complaining about some of the whacked out verdicts that we see on the news.

I know I'm going to learn a lot about the judicial process even if I don't get selected to serve on a single jury. I'm ready for the lesson.