A Little Inconvenience

I received that dreaded white envelope in the mail about a month ago. Printed on the outside was “Jury Summons”. My time was up. It had been about four years since I last served on a jury. I was interested in doing my part and seeing our justice system in action. I arrived at the courthouse a half-hour ahead of schedule and went through the airport-type security check. I checked in to the juror’s waiting room and waited. About an hour later, a clerk told us what was going to happen. She told us to make new friends because we were going to be there for awhile.
Groups of people were called by their juror numbers and assigned to specific judges and later brought to their respective courtrooms when the judge was ready. I was in the last group that was called mid-morning. I brought a book to read, but lost interest. A lady struck up a conversation with me and another woman and that passed the time quickly. Then, we were dismissed for lunch and told to return at 1:15 pm.
I expected to be escorted to the courtroom once we returned, but it didn’t happen. We sat, read, talked, and watched an old Steve Martin movie. No word on what was going on. I never sat around for such a long period of time without doing anything constructive. I felt like I was being held hostage, but the only bad conditions were a hard chair and an overly air-conditioned room.
Two hours later, a burly policeman entered the waiting room announcing “All rise”. A petite lady judge followed him and spoke to us. The Judge said she wanted to let us know what was going on. She asked how many of us felt like we had better things to do; that there had to be a better way to do this; and felt a little inconvenienced. Most of us raised our hands. She explained how our constitution mentions the right to a trial three times and how important that is. Judge said that we (the jurors) had to be available should the cases want to go to trial. Fortunately (for us), the parties involved made plea bargains and chose not to go to trial in front of a jury. Then, she said how great our country is with its justice system.
Then, Judge said think about our soldiers who are defending our freedom and our country. They’re missing birthdays and anniversaries and time with their families. Now, that’s an inconvenience.