Jury Duty

I went to the Superior Courthouse today in downtown Los Angeles to report for Jury Duty. I was going to be asked to serve on a case that would take no more than seven days to complete. That could have been a single day, it could have been seven. Requesting a postponement of your jury service is much easier than than you think. In fact, it's civilized. They say, "You may have something important going on at work. You may have a sick child at home. If you think these things are important, so do we." The only requirement was to complete my service within three months. I merely filled out a piece of paper, picked a very good week for me to go, signed the paper and walked out. Really, I do appreciate that.

When I returned to the office later that morning, my coworker said, "that's the nice thing about being a foreigner, no jury duty."

I said, merely throwing him the straight line, "Service on a jury is an honor and a privilege."

Says the coworker, "I meant, it's a bad thing."