My first time being called for Jury Duty today. And after some deep denial that it was happening, I moved around my work calendar and showed up at 8:30 am to the Door County Justice Center. I ultimately didn’t get selected for the jury, but I did have to spend over two hours going through the process until the final thirteen jurors were selected. So, a few thoughts.
- No one cares about Covid-19. Even though the judge mentioned Covid-19 circumstances asked us to let us know if anyone was uncomfortable, it didn’t matter. Because masks were not required, the majority of people were not wearing a mask when I came in, and apparently one of the attorney requested that none of the jurors wear masks so they could see our face. As in, we could not wear masks. We had the option to wear a face shield instead. I was the only one took one. The. only. one. There were at least forty people in the room. The other masks wearers just took off their masks. And honestly I took off my face shield a little ways in because it was giving me a headache and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t doing anything anyway.
- I am pretty sure the reason I ultimately get on the jury was because of that. Wearing some kind of Covid-19 protection is very liberal-coded. What a world.
- If they are going to tease that much about the trial in the selection process, they should just let us watch it. I did not really want to be selected for a two day trial, but after hearing so much about the case to check our biases I definitely wanted to see how it played out. And honestly to make sure there was a reasonable voice on the jury. Who are these other people?
- There is a very pretty speech at the beginning where the judge talks about jury duty as the key to our democracy and America being the freest country in the world and this is why, etc. Look, it was nine a.m. I hadn’t even had my full Diet Coke. I did not need some American exceptionalism propganda shoved down my throat.
- Maybe I do have too many opinions to be an impartial juror. But again, who are the rest of these people? I think we should unpack this system. Mental note to ask my lawyer friend her opinions.
- I was home by lunch and used my cleared afternoon to be very productive with heads down work. I’ll take the win.
With Love,
Natalie