The Civic Duty Thing

Warning: this gets sanctimonious and ranty.

I did my first stint today as a citizen judge in New Haven Superior Court. Having been called to jury duty twice before in Illinois and once served on a criminal trial, I was a little surprised to see so much grumbling so close to the birthplace of American Democracy.

After we were all signed in, we watched about an hour's worth of videos on the expectations of us as jurors, the Constitutional basis for the jury system, and the Connecticut judiciary. I learned that judges in Connecticut are appointed, as opposed to direct elections by the people, and the complicated appointment system that attempts to weed out partisanship (finally I understand how Cook County, Illinois ended up with all of those Hon. Michael Kellys and Jim Ryans). So far, I was impressed. The videos were well produced, informative, and featured diverse Connecticut judges from throughout the state.

Example #1 of Ugly American Apathy: Throughout the videos and the instructions of the marshall, the woman in front of me in a giant pink T-shirt read the comics. OK, fine. Some people pay attention best while doing other things and facing away from the presenter of information. At the first break, she shot like a rocket out of the building (I happened to follow her out, on my way to a coffee shop). She was muttering audibly to no one about how personally affronted she was to be there. I caught "weather like this ... I'm going home ... can kiss my black ass." And she did not appear for the rest of the day. A great way to guarantee you'll be called frequently for jury duty is to welch out when you do manage to show up.

I was in the first group of jurors questioned, for a jury on a rape trial. The 27-year-old guy sitting in the courtroom was accused of raping a girl who was 11 years old two years ago when the crime was alleged to have occurred. My stomach turned a little at the prospect of hearing the details of the case.

Example #2 of Ugly American Apathy: After the cumbersome speech about how we're to apply the law not our own feelings of sympathy or what the law ought to be, and the endless list of names of everyone down to the assistant DA's personal trainer with whom our acquaintance would tarnish the fairness of the case, I, along with 13 of the other 14 of us total, was dismissed. Shortly after 11 a.m. After slightly less than a whopping three hours of total service, one of the women on the elevator with me on the way down thanked her lucky stars that this was over with and she didn't have to do it again for three years (wrong! You only get to claim that exemption if you actually serve on a jury, twit). "I just don't like to be bothered," she explained to the whole elevator.

Don't like to be bothered? If you were an 11-year-old girl who was raped in her neighborhood, wouldn't you want the members of your community to care a little bit about bringing the guy who did it to justice? Don't you care that yours is a community where these kinds of things happen to children? And if you were accused of raping a child and had nothing to do with it, wouldn't you want a jury of your peers to pay close attention and really consider whether the state has evidence beyond a reasonable doubt?

I just hope that when the time comes that I need a jury to hear my case (and let's face it, it's only a matter of time before my mouth gets me into real trouble), the folks asked to hear me out are more conscientious about their only other civic responsibility aside from voting (and, I guess, serving in public office). As a brilliant legal scholar once pointed out, the American jury "offers U.S. citizens both a vehicle to shape our government as jurors, and protection to us as the accused." Take it seriously, dammit! And when I tell you I have jury duty tomorrow, please spare me the groans and cliched jokes.

OK, So It Snowed

At last! We awoke Friday morning to that crazy quiet that only occurs when you have a significant snowfall. By midafternoon, it was raining and half melted, but I did not come here to complain. So Saturday afternoon we headed northwest, to where the heavier snow was reported to have fallen, and had a great hike through an all-white landscape in the environs of Redding, Connecticut. (The drive there, by the way, was half the fun: it followed a river that was sparsely lined with 18th- and 19th-century barns, churches, and New England saltbox homes.)

I took lots of photos with my wee, fun new Polaroid t830 digital camera, nervously acquired two weeks ago from woot.com. Alas, it was our first outing together and I hadn't been warned that if you don't remove the date and time stamp, it comes out a distracting garish yellow that kind of ruins the pictures. Better luck next time, I hope. But the video was not afflicted so, so please enjoy.

Sibling Appreciation Week

So last night I was reading Flapjam's sweet little tribute to her brother, and while there, I noticed her spiffy traffic tracker, and was a shameless copycat. I added it right to my site.

This morning I open up my browser and quickly scroll down to my own shiny new traffic tracker, expecting only to see evidence of my own presence. Lo and behold, someone has visited from Shanghai, China! And this can only be my sweet sister and brother-in-law, who are there right now I don't even know why. Except that their insatiable wanderlust seems only to grow the more they feed it. What bunnies, to check on what I'm up to when they're having fun on the other side of the world.

So I'll go along with Flapjam and bask in the warm glow of having a great sibling.

Here is a photo from when we were all together in New York three weeks ago, with (from left) Noam, his mother Yehudit, Rachel, and moi:

So go hug your sibling right now.