Jury duty as a microcosm of politics.

[SoCalDem]

yesterday was MY day to play citizen-juror. I ended up doing little more than sitting around talking to people I never would have met.

WE found ourselves among hundreds of reluctant citizens, glumly answering the call..

Our little woe-begotten crew sat nearest the door, eschewing the offering of Fox TV blaring away in the 'lounge'..

One of our group was texting & phoning the mercedes dealership arguing about the non-repair of her car..she did turn out to be a fascinating single Mom, and rather tuned into politics.

Another was a parole officer, who would certainly be excused, but still had to wait until a judge released him as a potential juror, so he was enjoying a "day off".

Another was a young-ish guy with tattooed forearms, who was a motorcycle mechanic. Sans the tattoos, he would have fit in anywhere in society. He was a very well-spoken, clean-cut young guy with a wife and 2 small kids.,

The most interesting in our small group, was a 30-ish young woman who was born in Afghanistan, and brought here as a child. She is the oldest of 10 daughters, and has decided to have NO children. Her Grandmother and Grandfather were killed by the Russians.. Her family lived in another town and heard the bombing, but by the time it was over., and her father went to check on them, it was too late.. they were not killed in the bombing, but were both shot in the head..

That was when the family fled..first to pakistan, , then to India, and finally to the US. her father was a professor.

She and I had a wonderful discussion about the war, and that was when motorcycle guy chimed in about how he supported the Iraq war, loved Bush and how HE had tried to join the marines three times..

the Afghani woman asked him why..

His answer? 'THEY ATTACKED US, AND I NEED TO GO KILL SOME OF THEM".

Needless to say, we both schooled him.. By the time the parole officer, the mercedes woman, and I & the Afghani woman were finished with him, he admitted that he didn't really know much about the war, and he apparently did not know about Bush's "wartime bravery" in Alabama, or about Cheney's connection.. We corrected that!!

We were finally released (without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom) at 4:30, and hopefully , Riverside county has one less Bush-bot :)

[Liberal In Texas]

1. Each one, teach one. Or something like that.

Good job.

[soleft]

2. Hopefully he will infect others with this virus

Good job!

[SoCalDem]

3. I was shocked to hear him say he liked GW and had voted for him TWICE

He seemed to be the LEAST likely to be attracted to an idiot like george.. The parole officer lit into him when he said that and asked him why on earth he thought george would be a good president?

Motorcyle guy regurgitated almost every Fox talkingpoint.. One by one we all picked them apart for him :)

[soleft]

4. A Bush supporter was ranting that I didn't have an open mind

When she asked me for one good thing Bush had done and I couldn't come up with a single thing. She said I didn't have an open mind. I told her it was better to be well informed.

[peace13]

5. Thanks for this.

Great job with Fonzie. Hope he can retain the info. I find with my mother that she rushes back to FOX to reset her switches. Peace and love, Kim

[madokie]

6. 59 and counting and no felonys, a 15 month VN Vet

no serious misbehaving by me ever and I have never been called up for jury duty, why is that I wonder

[SoCalDem]

7. I get called EVERY year, and have YET to actually ever get to a courtroom

I just spend a day sitting around..wasting time..:shrug:

[Liberal In Texas]

8. I know it seems like a waste of time to you when you don't get called into a courtroom,

but they need extra people there to draw from in case a lot of other people are dismissed for whatever reason.

If they're short just one person, they can't proceed, slowing down the system even more.