When you open your mail to find jury summons, what’s your reaction? Antonio Inserni gives us reason to see it as an opportunity.
The first time I was called for jury duty, it didn’t work out so well. I knew I could do better. So the second time I was called, I was excited to participate.
I wasn’t the only one. After preliminary arguments we were released for the day, and a fellow jurist and I went to lunch. As a new immigrant to this country, he talked incessantly about how great this system was, and how, in his old country, nothing like this would have been possible.
Imagine my disappointment; imagine his disappointment, when the court called to say that the case was settled out of court. Over the course of the phone call, the officer told me I must be relieved to not have to do this. She expounded on how, now that it was settled out of court, I wouldn’t have to think of some excuse to get out of it. Now, I wouldn’t have to miss any pay, that I could get on with my plans, that there would be no interruptions to my life.
The overwhelming impression I got from her was of a person who had been harassed. Someone constantly cajoled; someone battered by excuses and exceptions. I felt I was listening to someone who had started all this work with the highest of ideals, with the greatest of intentions, but now was so beaten down that she’d had enough. She was throwing in the towel.