You Are Sentenced To......

I have always believed that it is the responsibility of every citizen to serve when called upon. I have waited for a long time to be called for jury duty and I finally got my summons. I was so excited…I had arranged my substitute, decided what I’d wear and wrote it on my calendar. I wrote it down wrong!! So I missed jury duty and I was devastated, then I realized I could be in trouble. First thing Tuesday morning, the day I scheduled myself to serve, I called at 8:00 sharp to give my apologies and what I needed to do. I explained my situation and how devastated I was to have missed and asked if there was ANY way to get called again soon. She put me on hold and returned to tell me that the judge wanted to speak with me after work.

After work I rushed to the courthouse, constantly rehearsing in my head what he may ask and what I would say. I had no idea what I was in for. As soon as I arrived I explained what happened and my philosophy on our responsibility as citizens to a very stoic, hard nose looking judge. After explaining myself I had no idea where this would go, because he started explaining to me the importance of people to serve when called upon. Had he not heard a word I said? He then looked in his big books, looked at a print-out which obviously had my information on it and began to tell me that the law called for punishment of $500, a three day stay in jail or both. As I started to tell him to just put me in jail, he offered another option of 10 hours community service. I jumped on the community service and tried to maintain a straight face while thinking of all of the people who are called and do not act on their responsibility. Most of these probably do not even call, but here I am a full-time working mom of three who was worried about her obligations. A self-proclaimed conservative political advocate being punished with 10 hours community service for writing down a wrong date. It’s almost laughable, but I can say I have no problem with it because if they did others the way they did me then we probably wouldn’t have the problem with people skipping their responsibility.