Doing the Duty

I have been tied to my telephone for the past four days, forced to make calls between "11am and 12noon" and "after 5pm." Every. Single. Day. I know the telephone number by heart. Yes, it's a jury summons making my life miserable.

First I was panicked about having to serve in San Jose. I get totally confused in that neck of the woods. Unless of course it's Valley Faire or Oakridge Mall or some such. But all that conglomeration around Hedding not to mention city government offices, state government offices, county government offices - it's just all "ick" in my book when being forced to drive and and find a spot to park my vehicle that's in the same zip code as my destination. I remember all too well the run-around I endured finding these entities when opening my business in Morgan Hill 13 years ago.

So I dutifully make my "duty call" twice per day although I did luck out in drawing a week with one government-observed holiday in it so I'm only on standby for, technically, four days this week. And yes, I know, this is one of our sacred freedoms in action - the right to a trial where we are judged by our peers. (Which begs the question: what, exactly, is a peer? Most jurors don't have a flamin' thing in common with the defendant, right? I don't care if it's Bernie Madoff or Jack the Ripper. How to you relate to THOSE people?)

The true trauma here is I am in "Group 517" and Groups 501 through 512 have to report at 1pm TODAY. YIKES! That is WAY too close, and I am SO hoping that Groups 501 through 512 are primo, cream-of-the-crop jurors who will all be picked to serve so I can dodge, er...be excused from doing the duty this year. And next year. And...

One good thing about being on jury duty's standby status? I can see a column coming out of this. Yep. That will be my True American contribution to jury duty. A piece in the Morgan Hill times. That's the kind of jury duty I can handle.