Jury Duty Is Good?

May 25

Whenever somebody gets a summons for jury duty, they are very likely going to cry out in disappointment as soon as they see it. Why? Well it is inconvenient and a burden on us to do something that we don’t really like to do. Pretty much the main reason that we do it is so that we don’t get something like a fine or a contempt of court notice.

In any case, yesterday I served my jury duty. This is not the first time that I have had it, and I am pretty sure that it won’t be the last time. But I think that this time made me think more deeply about this thing that we call our civic duty.

For those that don’t know (and I’m not exactly sure how you wouldn’t know), jury duty in America is when you are given a summons to appear at a courthouse at a specified time and asked to possibly serve as a juror in a trial. So basically you go to a room and wait for them to call you.

See the thing is that there are lots (actually a majority) of people that have a strong distaste for jury duty. I must admit that I don’t care for it all too much either. It takes you away from things that you’d rather be doing, and it is possibly inconvenient when it comes to compensation and traveling. But if you think about it, we are all being short-sighted and foolish.

The reason that jury duty is not as bad as it seems is that it ensures us a very important right that we have by living in America. It ensures us a trial by our peers if we are ever in such a situation as would deserve a trial. And that is a great thing. I, for one, am very opposed to the idea of getting judged by a bunch of lawyer-like nit-picking professional jurors. Instead I could be judged by people who, although not exactly like me, seem like they would represent a slice of society that would in some way give me a fair and objective judgment. It is a very important part of the foundation of being the United States of America! People (very many people in fact) have died for the cause of letting us have the rights that we have. And yet we, in our selfish self-centered ways, cannot find it within ourselves to give up a day (or possibly a couple of weeks) to uphold this. Amazing, isn’t it?

I guess when you put it that way, the whole idea of serving jury duty doesn’t seem so horrible after all. Of course, I also didn’t actually get called to a jury or else I might be singing a different tune. Ah well maybe life’s more profound observations come from the sidelines. Nevertheless, think about jury duty (as well as all of the other things that happen in your life), and the ramifications that it has for your world before you immediately complain about them. So the more logical, reasonable, and sane part of me says that maybe jury duty isn’t so bad after all. But that might just last for the next 12 months until my emotional side once again takes control when I see that notice in the mail.