It may sound corny, but it’s so easy to forget what a great country we live in. Every day life is an ongoing struggle for many of us, and the current economy and political state may cause us to despair about the state of our country, but today a series of events made me realize just how fortunate we are to live in the good ol’ US of A.
It started off with a summons to jury duty. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been called; I guess I’ve been summoned about six times. I’ve only served twice, once in federal court for a case involving stolen checks, and today, in county court in a case involving a minor traffic accident. The federal case involved hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the county case covered less than $1,000. The federal case lasted four days; the county case took 3 hours.
Although the cases were completely dissimilar, and I disliked receiving the summons, I didn’t mind being chosen. Aside from the fact that I would get a glimpse of how our judicial system really works—and it is not exactly like you see on TV—I was glad to have a chance to participate. Two things set us apart from many countries—the right to vote and the right to have a trial judged by a jury of our peers. It’s one thing to know that, but to actually exercise these rights… well, I’d be lying if I denied finding it a bit thrilling.
So participating in the jury was the first event. The second was the fact that the plaintiff and defendant were immigrants, one from India and one from China. When you consider all the violence and strife that occurs in so many countries simply because someone is of a different race and religion, how wonderful it is that people can come here from other countries and be so integrated in our society that their dispute is over something as relatively minor as a fender bender. On top of that, the matter is not resolved by violence, but by a civil trial.
The final event occurred as we were handling administrative matters before the trial started. There were about 50 people in the room and the bailiff asked all the veterans in the room to stand up. About 6 people stood and the rest of us broke into genuine, spontaneous applause. There was a tangible sense of pride and gratitude among us that all of these people had devoted part of their lives to serving our country. I was impressed how many there were — more than 10% — and the diversity of jobs the people held. The jobs included military policeman, air traffic controller, engineer, finance clerk, airplane mechanic and artilleryman. These were from the Korean War all the way to the current Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts. Turns out the one of my fellow jurors was the mother of an Army Ranger who had just returned from one tour of duty and is scheduled to go back again soon.
So though I missed a day of work, it doesn’t seem to matter at this moment. It’s a very small price to pay for the privelige of living here and being able to exercise the rights that many others envy but will never enjoy.
