My Brush With the Law Part 1

I did my civic duty this week, living those 2 words that strike joy into the heart of every registered voter, jury duty. Actually, I was intrigued more than anything. I love to see how things work and I am a people watcher so I was perversely looking forward to it. (Getting paid for not working always adds to the appeal too.) After 1 day of service I had 3 things reinforced:

1) People do not listen. The 2 women running the potential juror pool do it every day-they had their shit down. Unless you had some highly personal situation there really should have been no need to even ask questions. If you listened they would all be answered for you, usually more than once. But people don't listen.

2) People don't know how to dress anymore. I'm not saying you should wear a suit and tie or your church hat but flip flops and your Sammy Hagar t-shirt? Or in one scary case a tube top and hot pants? (Hootchie jurors sign in here!) Even if you have reservations about our legal system pull yourself together and show a little class I say.

3) People are never satisfied. When we were told that there was only 1 trial going on that day and that they had settled at first people clapped. But when it took a few minutes to get everybody signed out and paid (as it would with 50ish people) they started to grumble. These were the same people who, 15 minutes before, were planning to stay all day (longer if they got seated on a panel). Now, with the possibility of freedom before them, can't wait 10 more minutes without complaint.

I did my duty and I gotta say in my experience the system came off looking better than the people it serves.