As I've been reviewing the prospect of the loss of the House of Representatives to Mr Boehner I have found myself slipping into that same sense of doom and gloom I felt when Mr. Bush was president and the Republicans controlled Congress.
However, I was reminded recently that a lot of things still work very well in this country and I need to be grateful for what we have instead of what we might lose.
Being called for jury duty was a wakeup call.
My response to my jury summons from the King County Superior Court in downtown Seattle was "Oh Rats! - what a chore. As a retiree I really had no excuse not to show up even though the pay is only $10 a day plus bus fare or mileage. I hadn't been on a bus in 20 years but with a little reseach I found an express bus from a nearby park and ride and was impressed how easy it was to get where I was going. I met a delightful young woman on the bus who explained the best way to get back home (something I neglected to do)and we an enlightening conversation into town about various mystery writers.
The summons was for a commitment of only two days if not selected for a jury or the length of a trial if chosen. I was called to a courtroom on the second day along with 49 other people. I was juror number 7 so I sat in the jury box. The judge, the prosecuting attorney and two defense attornes were all women. The defendant was a young man. It was a criminal case involving domestic abuse and other matters. It was supposed to last a week.
It took a day and a half to pick a jury. The judge asked for a show of hands from those for whom serving would be a hardship. About 15 people raised their hands. She granted a hardship discharge for about half of them.
For the good part of a day the attorneys on both sides asked questions to try and determine who could not offer a fair and unbiased verdict in the case. Because of the nature of the case, some of the jurors volunteered very intimate and often painful details from their own experience or the experience of close friends or family members. Because we were called upon by our numbers, we were anonymous to one another and I think that is what made this possible as was the professional conduct of the judge and all the attorneys. With all the questioning I learned a lot about how people think about our government and its judicial system. (I also learned that most people watch some version of Law and Order.) Both sides did an excellent job of explaining legal concepts related to criminal law in general.
The last juror selected for the panel was number 49 so it took 49 people to get 12 jurors and 2 alternates.
What was most impressive was the fact that the people who didn't belong on the jury were removed - those that wanted out but had not been excused by the judge, those that obviously didn't have a clue what was going on,
those that obviously had a bias to one side or the other (and others who were pre-empted for reasons I cannot know.
The final result was a jury of half men and half women. While we didn't spend much time together I was impressed with the group overall as taking their responsibility very seriously. No one in particular dominated the group.
We heard opening arguments late that day. The following morning was taken up primarily with the testimony of one police officer. We went to lunch - several of us together - and had to wait a while before we were to start again. Then the bailiff came in and notified up that the case had been resolved and we could go home. But, the prosecuting attorney and defense attorneys would discuss the plea bargain with us if we wanted to stay a little while longer - which we did and they did.
The whole experience was a positive one. I think the defendant had a fair jury of 14 people who had never met before who were conscious of their duty to participate in our system of government and do the right thing.